Research Types
Questionnaire
The first form of research I used for my initial stages of work was a questionnaire. This allowed me to gain some sort of insight into my target group and their likes, dislikes and habits. From this, I was able to construct the below infographic and moodboard and create a more visible idea of how my target audience's tastes could potentially influence the type of music video they would enjoy.
Moodboard representation of target audience
Psychographics can be used to analyse the above moodboard representation. It can be defined as a qualitative methodology used to describe consumers on psychological attributes. The Young & Rubicam marketing and communications group came up with the idea of 4 C's (Cross-Cultural Consumer Characterisation) in order to divide audiences into seven separate groups depending on their core motivations. The seven groups are:
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The Explorer: core motivation is discovery - they are the people to try out new experiences
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The Aspirer: core motivation is status - they focus more on people's opinions and perceptions of them rather than their own values
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The Succeeder: core motivation is control - they have a strong goal orientation as they want to be successful
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The Reformer: core motivation is enlightenment - they value their own judgement and do what they want to do
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The Mainstream: core motivation is security - they tend to copy other people and like what they like
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The Struggler: core motivation is escape - they rely on luck rather than judgement to get anywhere with their lives
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The Resigned: core motivation is survival - they prefer the known rather than the unknown
Judging from the above moodboard, my target audience who emerged from the questionnaire are a mixture of the Explorer group and the Mainstream group, from the appearance of niche products like Top Gun, My Own Private Idaho and the image of a thrift shop forming this discovery motivation, and the appearance of popular brands like Starbucks, McDonalds and Topshop forming the sense of security.
Focus Group
After I had my results from my questionnaire, I was able to find some of the people who had taken part in this initial research stage, and asked them if they wouldn't mind taking part in a focus group for the next stage of my research, as they fit into the construct of my target audience that has formed from the questionnaire results.
Summary of Audience
With regards to my target audience, the predominant age range is from 16 to 25, with some members of the audience remaining above this threshold, and some below (the full extent ranges from around 14 to 50 years old) meaning that my product is accessible to all. It appeals to these ages because of the sense of rebellion in some tracks, stemming from the post-punk scene in the 1980s and the punk scene throughout the 70s, steered by acts like Sex Pistols and The Clash. As discussed above, it's this sense of rebellion that links into the Explorer group, as they try and break away from the norm and attempt new things (with the rise of new alternative bands in today's society, this is still a relevant point, and will more than likely remain relevant, especially in the insecure state of the world at this point in time). With the notion that more women were listening to this music, it shows that there is a shift in societal norms, especially with movements like the Women's March that took place after President Trump was sworn into office, and that women are breaking down stereotypes placed on them by society in terms of music tastes.
Analysis of Existing Media Products
For this part of my music video research, I decided to analyse a recent music video created by the alternative artist Halsey. This music video, Now Or Never, has been released as promotional material and the lead single from her latest album, "hopeless fountain kingdom".
I chose to analyse this as for my music video I am hoping to use another song from this same album, and felt like it kept with my personal ideas for my own music video.
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Overall, music videos in the alternative genre usually show the band or artist in some way, be it throughout the video or at the end of the video in snapshots (like Sleep In The Heat). They tend to use muted colour schemes or reds and blacks a lot in their work, which sets them apart from other media products of the same calibre.