Research Unit

LEARNING OBJECTIVE 2

Be able to apply a range of research methods and techniques

TARGET AUDIENCE

For my Research Unit, I was tasked with a Scenario whereby a film promotions company will like to hire me as an apprentice. I would have to carry out research for a marketing campaign in order to pass the interview but I would have to choose from a varied amount of productions including such productions as a children’s animation and the new James Bond film.

I decided to choose the new James Bond Film but as I have decided this, I will have to look into various different topics in order to fulfill my research. One of these is target audience. When it comes to the target audience, just like all the other topics in store, I looked into different types of research, namely Primary Research involving questionnaires, library research where I looked into the confines of books, through the internet at different types of material from posters to trailers and other research which I feel is appropriate for this unit and more specifically, this learning objective.

Target audience in this case, in a nutshell, is what sort of person goes to the cinema to watch your chosen genre and in this case it would be James Bond of the spy genre but I will be researching and looking into genres around the James Bond films after this target audience segment.

Primary ResearchI started my target audience with one of the various types of research techniques which were primary research by producing a questionnaire. I felt with this questionnaire it would be suitable to look into what people think the target audience is for James Bond films specifically as my task for to put my mind of the scenario that I would be possibly hired as an apprentice at a film promotions company. This was the questionnaire and the responses:

Responses to the question:“Who do you think the target audience is for James Bond films?”

#1:“I think the target audience for the James Bond films is mostly catered to a male audience but to females also with the later James Bond films as it appears females in the James Bond films of recently memory have become more respected and seen more as a team member or assistant of which can still be very capable on their own than simply a pretty face which is probably due to the way times have changes in regards to women and women rights in film and so it has been portrayed in the James Bond film franchise.”#2:“Mostly boys as I think it can’t be denied that boys love their cars, their gadgets and visiting exotic places. James Bond is just one of those characters that boys dream they wish they were.”#3:“I feel the target audience for James Bond is for all kinds of people as it covers a lot of different genres in the films from action, romance, and thriller and covers various different locations and topics that are of interest to many people across the globe.”

#4:When thinking about the target audience about James Bond, I feel it appeals to both male and females of all age groups as a new James Bond tends to be released to a new generation of viewers every so years and that it appeals to the males with the cars, gadgets and more but also females enjoy that stuff also and perhaps appreciate the story more so than the action in my opinion.#5:James Bond films’ are for the target audience of which consist of teenagers, young kids are starting to get older and understand more in life and want to not watch Disney Cartoons anymore and watch something that takes place in real-life, with explosions and whilst it might appear cheesy, corny and very grand, at least it’s exciting. People who like James Bond like something exciting and that stays true to the books but it’s mostly for teenagers.

Library Research

With Library Research I managed to find one book by author Ken Adam which helped bring further research and understand for the target audience for James Bond and ultimately the type of people who would watch these films.

Ken Adam in his book titled “Ken Adam design the Movies – James Bond and Beyond” discussed and analyzed various James Bond movies and when I was looking through the book, he stated how the target audience for James Bond films has changed along with the times. It is still seen as very much a “male” thing and a “boy” thing to do/view but it is both appealing for males and females as the boys seem to want to take the role and become James Bond whilst the girls seem to want to have someone save them and love them like James Bond does.

He also mentioned how the age group has changed in time but because the fact that James Bond has been a stable franchise and has been going for so many years, including several decades, that fans of the older films from the 60’s and 70’s are still very much loyal fans and enjoy the new entries and that a new actor to take the roll of James Bond seems to signify the right time for a new age of people to view the films.

Internet Research

When it came to looking into Internet Research for the target audience of James Bond films, I decided to have an interesting mix of sources that some might consider reliable and others not. I started off with websites such as yahoo answers and whilst some of the responses aren’t that great, I feel that they are some of the best sources on the internet from getting responses from the people, the public. In this case I looked at two yahoo answers questions that came to the same point of what the main target audience for the James Bond, one in particular pointing towards James Bond’s latest outing ‘Quantum of Solace’.

This is an example of the type of responses I found:

“All Bond films are aimed at males, 13-55, especially, though, males 13-21 who are dating. Dating couples, where males traditionally buy the tickets, are the 'bread and butter' (base customers) of the entire film industry, all over the world.”

“Primary audience is young males, 16-30 but Bond is popular with males and females in the 30-50 range, too... Many of the 40-50 age range grew up with the original Bond movies of the 60's and 70's, along with shows like Mission Impossible, the Wild Wild West, etc.”

“Gadget loving males of all ages.”

When looking at the responses, it seemed apparent that the people over at the Yahoo Answers websites felt that the James Bond films were mostly made for a male audience but still had a female audience following. To be more specific, gadget loving males and when it came to age groups, it was a little more varied with back and forth between younger age groups and older age groups.

Younger age groups were typically discussed to be dating couples,aged between 13-21, whilst older age groups were aimed in the 30’s to 50’s.Mostly due to the fact that the James Bond films and franchise have been around for several decades now and still get a following from the older fans who know them well and from the new fans that are just entering the series with each difficult bond from Pierce Brosman to Daniel Craig.

One other source I looked into was a blogger account by someone known on blogger as ‘DENE’. This was an interesting source as it contains various different facts and figures about the James Bond Films and its audience, making it a fine candidate and a good source for the statistic side of this target audience research process.

It was categorized with such information as how many households watched the individual films are they were released on television for the first time, how much was made at the box office, release dates, bbfc ratings and more.

It seemed apparent that as the films went on, they have grown massively from the beginning to the end with gradual increases with each film in terms of audience, budget, sales and more, with only a few mishaps here and there but not a lot. Mostly due to other films being released at the time that became more popular or the fact that the economy was a little shady but still a valid and interesting source.

Sources:http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100921054719AAMC6zWhttp://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080914033806AARdZGhhttp://eustonfilms.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/james-bond-in-uk-audience-facts-figures.html

GENRE Just like with Target Audience, with genre I am going to look at various different sources and material, using a variety of different research techniques such as Primary, Library, Internet and Other appropriate Research material in order to see how the 5 films in particular I’ve chosen, that I feel are from the genre that is similar to James Bond, have been marketed.

(animation, chick flicks, James Bond franchise, British Film, Bollywood or independent film); how are these genres advertised normally? Select at least 5 films

from your genre and discuss how they are marketed

Overall Explanation

I managed to get this conclusion by searching through the following types of Research:

Primary ResearchLibrary ResearchInternet ResearchOther appropriate Research

Sources:

PRINT SCREENS, LOG, IMAGERY, YOUTUBE CLIPS

Country of exhibition (UK, USA, Other)

Methods of marketing (TV adverts, viral campaigns, press junkets, Bus adverts, trailers, Cinema foyer advertising, merchandising, premiers) would you use all these methods – research into what is appropriate for your genre, What methods have your 5 researched films chosen?

Production companies (what production companies would normally promote your type of film)

How films of the same genre have been marketed before

Table of Summarized Research:

Target Audience Genre

Methods of Advertising

Country of Exhibition

Production Companies 5 other Films

The Dark Knight, Mission, Tinker Tailor Solider Spy, The Bourne Ultimatum, Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, The Departed