The document discusses feedback received from a focus group about a musician's products including a music video, website, and album packaging. Key findings include:
- The music video portrayed the artist as genuine but some shots made him seem synthetic
- Interviews provided specific feedback but lacked breadth, while questionnaires standardized responses but lacked explanation
- Strengths included portraying the correct genre and appealing to a wide audience, while weaknesses included some narrative confusion
- The website homepage was effective but some elements lacked clarity, and packaging had good design but limited photos
Audiences decoded the video's narrative in different ways depending on their perspective. The artist was seen as an innovator, and the products matched the target audience's lifestyle. YouTube stats
2. We had a focus group for our three
products. Our digipak, website and
music video to understand to what
extend we had achieved our aim of
creating a successful artist by correctly
making appropriate products that our
target audience would enjoy.
3. Definition
A focus group is the most grass-roots way you
can learn about your media business. By
gathering a select group of regular people
together, you can find out how your company is
perceived versus your competition. The answers
you get can be a road map as you build your
brand.
5. From this Focus group we
learnt:
Our song is a synthetic song sung by an organic artist. This
way it appeals to everyone, because the song is generic, but
the artist is genuine, as portrayed in the video. Although we
tried to make an organic artist, by having him in the video
himself came across as rather synthetic, as he may be
judges by him image and appearance, but there was a
general consensus that due to the location and angle of the
shots, it did not focus on his image, but rather an organic
location and the creation of music. Further, without showing
the artist playing the music himself, it is more difficult to
portray his authenticity, and so there is a dilemma in putting
him as the main focus of the music video.
6. Types of Feedback
When gathering our feedback we aim to gather
both quantitative and qualitative feedback.
We used questionnaires to get quantitative
data
And interviews to get qualitative data
7. Qualitative research gathers information that is not in
numerical form. For example, diary accounts, open
ended questionnaires, unstructured interviews and
unstructured observations. Qualitative date is typically
descriptive data and as such is harder to examine than
quantitative data
Quantitative research gather data in numerical form
which can be put into categories, or in rank order, or
measured in units of measurement. This type of data
can be used to construct graphs and tables of raw data.
8. Advantages of Interviews
Able to get personal opinion about our
video
Information is precise and specific
We are able to respond to their answers
instantly and directly by asking ‘why’ they
felt a certain thing. Which can not be
asked on questionnaires.
9. Disadvantage of Interviews
The information lacks depth as it not a
wide spread of society. the opinion we
received were therefore limited.
If we were to extrapolate these results
they would lack reliability as we would
simply be assuming that their opinions
would be that the rest of the population.
11. Advantage of Questionnaires
The responses are gathered in a standardised way, so the
information we were able to gather is more objective, more
so than interviews
They far quicker than than interviews as were are able to
gather the information on mass in very little time.
Because it’s online we can send it to people outside of our
physical reach in an interview and expand our questioning,
to people 18-35 who are in our target audience but aren't in
school to interview.
12. Disadvantage of the
Questionnaire
Because the questions are standardized
its not possible to explain any
misinterpretation by the person doing the
questionnaire.
Some respondents may answer the
questions superficially because the
questionnaire takes a long time to
complete.
13. Strengths of our Music Video
From the questionnaire feedback, we were able to
evaluate the strengths and weaknesses from our final
production.
The majority of viewers were able to tell that the artist
was organic, "focusing on lyrics and originality", and
"he looked like he was being himself and having a good
time", as well as recognising the significance of him
"play[ing] the acoustic guitar". This is a strength of our
video, because this is what we were trying to portray - a
fun loving nature, focusing on the music and nature of
the artist.
14. Strengths of our Music Video
Another strength of our video was the audience's
reaction to the link between narrative and
performance. They often stated that it "kept [them]
interested" and they "balanced each other nicely",
However, some said that the only link between
them was the ending, where both characters are in
the studio at the same time, which they perceived
to be negative, but we believe that this added to
the dramatic effect, and would not change it.
15. Strengths from our Music
Video
All of the respondent's knew the genre of the
production to be a mixture of "singer/songwriter" "indie
pop" and "folk". This was positive for us, because it
demonstrated that we portrayed the correct subliminal
messages to the viewers. Further, they stated that it
would appeal to a wide range of audiences, which was
another positive, as it showed that we created a well
rounded star, who was appropriate and likable for a
wide range of audiences of all ages.
16. Strengths of our Music Video
What people liked most about our production was the
flashbacks of the female character, and how the time lapsed
from him to her, being in the same place at different times.
They also liked the variety of locations and shots we used.
This is reassuring as it shows that the work we put in to our
production payed off, and all that travelling wasn't for
nothing! It was different from other productions, and this was
recognised as being unique and exciting. People also liked
the narrative, and though during our pre-production research
most people thought it would be cliche, they enjoyed it with
the visuals, and it was easier for them to see how it would
work with the locations and shot variations.
17. Weakness of our Music Video
One weakness of our video was confusion
within the narrative. Some people felt that the
plot was not clear until the end of the video,
often being confused by the absence of the
female character, believing her to be dead
rather than just not with him at that current
time. However, most seemed to get it right
away, and commented how they thought it was
"cute" and liked how she found him in the end,
stating it was an exciting "twist".
18. Weakness of our Music Video
The thing people disliked most about our video was the
vintage effect on the female, not because it wasn't
aesthetically pleasing, but because it gave the notion
that she was dead. Further, they thought the shots in
the studio were slightly repetitive, which is
understandable. We had predicted this may be the
case, and to avoid this used the GoPro camera as well
as the standstill DSLR, but this may not have been
enough. Compared to the outdoor variation of location,
the studio can seem small and insignificant in the grand
scheme of things.
19. Strengths of our Digipak and
Website
Digipak
‘nice outdoor and artistic photos’
‘Clear singer/songwriter presentation’
‘good song lyrics added, good for fans’
Website
‘Really nice home page, simplistic, good relative image, artistic
and naturalistic.’
‘Gives option to listen to music straight away, which is main focus
of the campaign.’
‘Interesting layout, scrolling down.’
20. Weakness of our Digipak and
Website
‘Not clear what the relevance of James Bay is.’
‘Not enough pictures, repetition of same
pictures’.
‘Social feed unclear – does not look like
instagram or twitter, and no option for audience
to tweet directly.’
‘Subscribe to what?’
22. Encoding and Decoding
Stuart halls model of encoding and decoding claims that TV
and other media audiences are presented with messages
that are decoded, or interpreted in different ways depending
on an individual's cultural background, economic standing,
and personal experiences.
For example, since advertisements can have multiple layers
of meaning, they can be decoded in various ways and can
mean something different to different people. Hall claims
that the decoding subject can assume three different
positions: Dominant position, negotiated position, and
oppositional position.
23. The Three Different Positions
Dominant position
This position is one where the consumer takes the actual meaning
directly, and decodes it exactly the way it was encoded.
Negotiated position
This position is a mixture of accepting and rejecting elements.
Readers are acknowledging the dominant message, but are not
willing to completely accept it the way the encoder has intended.
Oppositional position
In this position a consumer understands the literal meaning, but due
to different backgrounds each individual has their own way of
decoding messages, while forming their own interpretations.
24. Encoding of our Music Video
The encoding of my music video is that Alfie is search for his
long lost love and throughout the music video he is running
across the country to past locations where the then couple
have been together. At each of the locations, he triggers a
flashback of his lost love. However, this was decoded in
many different ways by our audience. They all recognised
the theme of love and many did fully have a upstanding of
the narrative we intended. However, some took negotiated
reading and thought the girl was dead and or artist was in
mourning. From this we became aware that audiences will
always decode the text in different ways but will ultimately
enjoy the music video which is our aim task.
25. VALS Profile
Our VALS profile matched our expectations from our
audience's comments on the music video.
‘love that he can play guitar’
‘He’s soo talented’
‘Please make more music you’ll make the world a better ‘
They have correctly shown themselves as Experiencers who
are Innovator, Groupies and Utopians.
26. VALS Profile
Innovators – wish to make their mark. They appeal to my artist
because he prepared to make his mark by cross the world for the girl
he loves. With his own music making it organic, documenting his
personal yet reliable love struggle.
Groupies – want to be accepted, they appeal to my artist because he
loves the girl unconditionally, and as he is running he is showing his
dedication. He too wants to be accepted by her, making my artist
relatable, a feeling that much of the audience would share.
Utopians – want the world to be a better place. They appeal to my
artist because he's prepared to do anything for love as that’s his
current priority and therefore the only important thing in his life is the
girl he loves. And the world is better place when we show a bit more
love to each other.
27. YouTube Statistics
For looking into our YouTube
Statistics that only are audience only
watches 61% of our video, which to me is
concerning but to truly understand the
narrative you have the watch the video till
the end.
Other statistic show that the devices use to
watch our video is consistent with our
VALS as our young target audience are
watching our videos on mobile device such
as tablets and phones as opposed to the
more traditional way to watch music videos
with is on TV channel such as MTV or
4Music.
