Rob Eastwood

Audience Feedback
Audience feedback is essential to media producers as it allows them to assess and
understand the ways in which the audience will respond or have responded to their
product.

Focus Groups
Focus groups are useful to gain feedback on a product from a specific and highly targeted
segment of their target audience. A focus group is an important tool for getting feedback in
the world of marketing. The focus groups normally talk about a new product as well as
various topics. Focus groups allow companies wishing to develop, package, name or test
market a new product to discuss, view or even test. The new product before it is available
to the public to use. Focus groups are a good way of getting loads of people together to
discuss things. You could use focus groups to see if people still like the daily express
magazine layout and design.

Audience Panels
Audience panels are made up of members of the public who are invited to comment on
existing products, providing their views and opinions. Their feedback is then sifted and
collated for relevance. Audience panels are mainly done online as it is easier to reach a
greater number of people on it. Audience panels take a lot of effect as it requires further
clarification to find out why people answered what they answered. The greatest benefit is
that a wide number of different people can answer become part of the panel, this gives the
company lots of data which can be used to give a good estimate to how popular the
magazine is going to be.
Rob Eastwood

Questionnaire
The demographics the questionnaire is relevant to can vary widely, some are open to any
demographic, with the questionnaire that I will be creating I will be trying to get answers
from a wide range of an audience which I could not do with a focus group which is why I will
make sure that I look into different aspects of the questions that I could ask an audience.
Questionnaires consist of the same set of questions that are asked in the same order and in
the same way in order that the same information can be gathered.
Questionnaires can be:

Filled in by the participant

Asked in a structured and formal way by an interviewer
Interviewer bias must be considered when done in this way, however, an advantage
of this method over a participant filling in a questionnaire is that the interviewer may
assist if there are any ambiguous questions or if the participant is confused in any
way
Postal questionnaire can be used, whereby a questionnaire is posted to the sample
group and returned to the researcher by a specified time and date
Administration of a questionnaire to a group is an option - i.e. at centre, school or
group. The researcher needs to consider if the group will affect each other's
responses and the concentration levels etc when undertaking this approach
Telephone questionnaire
Email questionnaire
There are strengths to using questionnaires including:

Questionnaires can be used to collect data quite quickly.

All participants can be given the opportunity to provide feedback.
Feedback is generally anonymous, which encourages openness and honesty.
Structured questionnaire data can be processed by software packages such as Excel
and SPSS.
There are limitations as well including:

Questions could be interpreted differently by respondents. It can be difficult to

design questionnaires to minimise this effect.
Data processing and analysis for large samples can be time consuming.
It can be difficult motivating potential respondents to complete questionnaires.
Rob Eastwood

Trialing and Testing

Trialing and testing means making a one-off tester of a product and then putting it on the
market for the public to see. The reaction to the product us then gauged by the producer
and if it was positive the product will continue to be made. If it is negative it will probably be
dropped in favour of something else. Trialing and testing is usually done in a small area and
then measure the success of in this case a magazine by seeing if it has raised awareness or
sales. One of the most tested areas will be places where there is a mix of different
demographics as that will give a true cross section to the population of most places as the
majority of places have a mixed demographic.

Reviews
Reviews are often written by professional reviewers but can also be found on a number of
personal blogs and websites made by the public. These allow producers to gauge reactions
to a particular product and could provide an insight into the popularity of a particular genre.
These social networking sites allow the person looking at the magazine to comment on the
magazine and write there reviews of the magazine. This can reach a global audience which
can allow for far greater information gathering as well as having many different
demographics write their opinion.

Complaints
Complaints are the worst kind of feedback, as they indicate that you are doing something
wrong. Complaints should be taken seriously and addressed carefully and not dismissed as it
can be helpful and help improve it. If a lot of complaints are received the product may need
Rob Eastwood

to be drastically changed. In certain circumstances, complaints may be require an apology or

other form of redress from the producer or may even be referred to a regulating body for
resolution. Complaints do not restrict what you can show as it is mainly the ASA that have to
be happy with the magazine, people have a right to be offended but the magazine has the
right to of freedom of expression. In recent times as the modern world has become more
liberal free speech is becoming more and more impeded which could see magazines
become less controversial.