Primary Audience Research: Focus Group



As part of our primary audience research, our group decided to conduct a focus group following on from the results of our survey, consisting of 4 people within the target audience for our TV programme This qualitative information gave us a deeper insight into the likes/ dislikes, thoughts, and issues which the target audience has about similar TV programmes.

The video clips shown in the focus group can be viewed from the E4 website:
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/misfits/4od#3276015
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/skins/4od#3337855




We began by showing the group video clips of the first few minutes of 'Misfits' and 'Skins' which are both E4 programmes aimed towards the same age group as our own. We then asked for their feedback on their opinions of the clips, including which aspects they found engaging and what elements they would change. We will absolutely take this feedback into account in our pre-production to ensure our own programme appeals to the wants of a current audienc.
As an example, we found in our survey that 26 out of 36 people prefer a unique theme/song for the show. To find out more detail about this opinion, we asked the group to compare the two themes from the video clips shown. Their feedback was that they preferred 'Misfits' because it is more unique, edgy, and enthralling than 'Skins'. Taking this into account, we now have a more detailed idea of the audience's preferences in terms of the theme song.


As well as their opinions on existing programmes, we also voiced our initial ideas about our own production piece. The group responded by detailing the good/bad qualities and asked them to describe the characters which they would most like to see. One opinion included the promotion of a strong female protagonist. This was a valuable piece of feedback because now we have the knowledge that this would be popular with the audience and we should incorporate this particular idea into our show.
To illustrate this idea further, we found out in our survey, that 21 people out 36 prefer to see relatable locations in a TV programme. To expand on this point in greater detail, we asked the group for their thoughts on setting our own show in a college. The response was that the group would find this interesting and entertaining to watch, and further suggesting we should include locations of a college which wouldn't conventionally be shown on TV or even in real life situations e.g. toilets.