Why and how do media industries use research?

Market research - finding out who their target audience is, who their competition is, how they are going to market the product or brand. In order to get funding for, say, a magazine, you need sponsors, through advertisements. Doing research is very expensive, however it is more cost effective to get your marketing spot on first time, which is why companies will spend a lot on research.

Audience Profiling and Demographics - Gender, age, occupation, level of income, ABC 1 (Social class) etc... Finding out your readers demographics is a vital. They help give information about the lives of your readers. For example In Style found that 79% of their readers thought it was important to look good and be well dressed, In Stlye readers are also twice as likely to spend a lot of money on cloths than other women, this information helps the magazine place specific adertisements into the book.

Psychographics - Personality, interests, how you think, what your values are, beliefs.

Social Media Research - Social media research is begining to put the consumer in charge of how products are viewed, sold, branded etc... Productrs are now starting to be launched as a result of social research. Social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter have vastly contributed to questionnair responces. Brands such as Coco-Cola have started facebook pages where fans can write coments and make suggestions, this is also a much more cost effective way for companies to get instant feedback from their consumers.The drawbacks of social media research are that it is very inpersonal,

Hargrave 2010 Media research methods