Research Methods

In order to create a successful music video I need to do some research into what would appeal to my chosen target audience and background research into my genre, branding and directors.
Research is split into two different types; primary and secondary. 

Primary research is research that you do yourself. For example:

• questionnaire
• survey
• interview
• focus group
• phone call
• email
• letter 
• textual analysis

Secondary research is research which you collate from someone else, such as: 

• books
• internet
• search engines
• industry websites
• websites by individuals
• newspapers, magazines
• journals

These can then be split into a further two data groups; quantitative and qualitative. 

Quantitative data is to do with numbers and looking for certain patterns or trends in people's responses. Examples of these are questionnaires or surveys. This type of data tends to use closed questions as it is then easier for the researcher to compare their target audience's answers.

Qualitative data is to do with opinions, words and feelings in people's responses which can be retrieved from methods such as the information you would collect from a focus group. This type of data prefers to use open-ended questions in order to get as much detail as possible within the answers. The researcher can then use the answers in more depth.

Although some of these research methods will be beneficial for me, the rest will be inappropriate for creating a music video. For example, secondary research is going to be the most beneficial for me in terms of finding out about directors and the genre history. Primary research such as questionnaires could be useful in finding out opinions on my video but would not help me in finding out the key information I need to know about my genre. Therefore, secondary research will be the research type I use most frequently.