We did two forms of getting audience feedback, focus groups and a questionnaire, the different types got us different answers. The focus groups were vocal and we knew who said what whereas the questionnaires were anonymous so people are more likely to say how they truly felt. The focus groups were limited to our college class where as the questionnaire reached more people in the college giving us a wider variety of answers and opinions. Having the ability to reach out to more people made our research easier as we had more feedback to make our ident the best it could be as well as making sure it would appeal to our target audience.
With the focus groups we asked a total of 13 questions, all based either around strode college itself or streaming services. We got some very positive answers for example, when asked what the first thing they thought of when they thought of strode, the answers were; Supportive, Education and Diverse they then went on to say they didn’t have a bad thing to say about strode. We also asked them about Strode College TV, they told us they knew what it was but don’t watch it at the moment because there is nothing on there that meets their interests and needs from a video. They then said that ways the college could improve the channel/make it more appealing to more people were; make it funny, entertaining, talk more about courses etc. for new students, creative. Another big thing we found out was that the people we had involved in our focus group watch streaming services, i.e. Netflix and Youtube more than “ordinary” channels.
On our questionnaire we asked 27 questions, the more questions meant we could narrow the questions down and get more specific answers, the more people also meant we got more feedback. We talk more about streaming services as well as idents and brand identity. We asked our contributors, which of the following they watched regularly, BBC1, Channel 4, Youtube, Twitch, Hulu, Netflix, Amazon prime, Disney+, Apple Tv or other. If we had BBC1 and Channel 4 replies together as they are the “proper” tv channels, we only get 21 out of 166. (We had 43 people complete the survey but this was a multi-choice question so they could pick more than one option). Whereas Youtube alone has 41 votes, this shows the power behind the internet. Despite 30 people voting saying they think that the content on BBC is “Educational, Informative, Entertaining” only 11 people watch it which makes me wonder if they just watch it with their parents. The questionnaire shows that 34/43 people watch Youtube daily so the channel being on Youtube is where the college could get the most views, our focus group also backs this mentioning the fact they watch streaming services more than actual tv.
Both sets of answers are useful in different ways, the focus group tells us what the college could add to the channel to make it more appealing to the college students, so that more of us will want to watch it. However the questionnaire tells us that a lot of people use Youtube and online things which makes it easier for the college to promote the channel. Both the focus group and the questionnaire tell us that most people know what strode college tv is but don’t watch it due to the lack of content that meets there enjoyment. On the other hand both sets of answers are rather similar but the questionnaire is just on a wider variety with more feedback, both tell us that our audience is young and still attends college, it tells us that people don’t watch normal channels anymore and they watch more streaming services.
I believe our audience is mostly made up of strode college students between 16-18, (both the questionnaire and the focus group back this theory) the answers from both means of research show us that they’re more Youtube and streaming services than “normal” tv. We are aiming our idents at college students or students coming up to strode, we are showing the students that are living through lockdown, using zoom to do online lessons that we are all in the same boat but that we can get through it and make it fun, we are also showing the new students about the course, the kind of things we do, and that we can make it fun.
Knowing the answers that we do, it makes it easier for us to shape our ident to fit the necessary needs of our target audience and still making sure it fits the brief. With the answers from both the questionnaire and the focus groups we know what we need to include to involve and engage our current class mates, we also know what kind of things new starters may want to see coming into a new college which gives an edge on what kind of things to include for them as well meaning they will want to come to our college instead of another one.
Focus groups can sometimes be easier than questionnaires because if you ask the questions directly you get a quicker response and its normally more wordy so you have more to work with. On the other hand questionnaires can be better than focus groups due to the anonymous aspect it makes it easier for people to be truthful about their answers without worrying about judgement from other people meaning the feedback is more accurate to the person and the cause overall.
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