Here is our music video.

Here is the outside panel of my digipak album cover.

Here is the inside panel of my digipak album cover.

Here is the inside panel of my digipak album cover.

Here is a link to my artist's website. Please click on the image below to enter the website.

Wednesday 3 January 2018

Evaluation Q3: What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Throughout the production process, we made constant reference to our target audience groups to feedback on our work. Understanding our audience was vitally important to us; if our audience are not satisfied by our products, then they will not be convinced to buy into The Acrylic's brand. We aimed to tailor our main and ancillary products to the needs and suggestions of our audience. In this answer, I hope to analyse how we have responded to our audience feedback and gratified their needs using my knowledge of Blumler and Katz's Uses and Gratifications Theory.

OUR AUDIENCE

Our target audience group is indie pop fans, skewed towards girls aged between 12-25. In the table below, I have broken down our primary and secondary audiences.

Please click on the image to enlarge.


PRE-PRODUCTION

With this understanding of our target audience, we started developing our ideas for our band and the type of image they would portray. This theory suggests that audiences have wants and needs when consuming media texts, and that different audience members consumed media for different reasons. We used Blumler and Katz's Uses and Gratifications Theory to help understand the needs of musical audiences and ways in which we could gratify their needs through our decision making. In the mind map below, I have illustrated how Uses and Gratifications Theory have influenced our decision making. 

Please read my mind map below to find out more. Click and drag to navigate the mind map, and right click on the mind map to bring up an option to zoom in or out.


We thus came up with our initial ideas for the band: 
  • Potential names for our band included 'Pickaxe Party' and 'Pillow Fight'.
  • Our band would be an indie pop group.
  • Include a female lead singer and a group of three boys to play guitar, keyboard and drums.
  • Album cover, website and music video have a bright, pastel colour scheme.
  • Our single would be 'Sweet Dream' (a song by the band 'Black Cat Zoot').
We tested these ideas on our target audience to receive their feedback. We received feedback from Survey Monkey and from talking directly to our audience. We asked a main focus group of female indie pop fans aged between 12-25, who we sourced from people we knew from our school and relatives. In the table below I have illustrated how our feedback informed and developed our ideas during pre-production. 

Please watch my slideshow below to find out more. Use the arrow keys to navigate between the slides.


The main thing we learned from audience feedback in the pre-production stages was that it is vitally important not to confuse the audience. We discovered that even just the name of the band is a big part of understanding the type of music the artist produces and the image of the artist, and if this does not correlate with the rest of the image the band is trying to communicate, this can severely limit the audience's willingness to engage with the band and purchase their music. 

A real world example of this is with Echosmith. When the band signed on to Warner Bros. Records in 2012, the record label changed their name from 'Ready, Set, Go!' to 'Echosmith'. 


'Ready Set Go!' ---> 'Echosmith'
Although it is not documented why the name was changed, I interpret this to mean that the record label did not think that the original name would have as much consumer potential, and does not speak volumes about the type of music the band creates, or the identity the band wants to convey. The new name communicates a lot more about the ethos of the band and what sort of music they make- similar to a 'blacksmith', Echosmith's aim is craft good music. It summons more light hearted imagery, such as bright colours and soft sounds. 

At the end of the pre-production process, we felt that we had successfully tailored our planning for our music video, website and album cover to the feedback of our audience. 

PRODUCTION


During production, we put our audience's feedback into practice. We employed their corrections and suggestions into how we constructed our music video, website and album cover. During production, we also received feedback from our target audience via word of mouth; we would ask members of our audience to see a screening of our working edit for our music video, or to have a look around the website and album cover. We noted down what they liked and improvements they would like to see.

In the presentation below, I will analyse how we translated our initial audience feedback from the pre-production phase into our construction of our three products, describe the feedback we received and show how we tailored our construction to their advice.  

Please read my presentation below to find out more. Navigate the presentation using the scrollers seen on the right and bottom of the screen.


Made with Padlet

At the end of the construction phase, I think we successfully tailored our decisions to appeal to, and suit the needs of, our target audience. 

EVALUATION


After we completed construction on our three products, we screened our products in front of members of our target audience. From their feedback, we evaluated whether our products successfully communicated the branding of our band, and whether the band's products directly appealed to them as our target audience. 

Music Video

We screened our music video in front of members of our target audience, who viewed the product in groups so as to instigate conversation between them about the music video whilst it was playing. We also collated feedback through a structured interview which we carried out immediately after the screening, so the video was fresh in their heads. We recorded this evidence on a smartphone. 

I have used VideoAnt to analyse the feedback given to us. To access my analysis of the feedback, please click on the link below the image - the link will open in a separate tab. To use VideoAnt, simply click play on the video on the left and read my analysis on the right - each piece of analysis is time coded and will flash when relevant. Feel free to pause the video to have more time to read the text. 
Click here to access our audience feedback on VideoAnt 
Overall, although there were some small things that we could've improved - for example, communicating the image of the band more effectively so it does not appear 'girly' - we learned from our feedback for our music video that we were mostly successful in communicating our brand to the audience, and we were unanimously successful in creating a product that entertained and appealed to our target audience. 

Album Cover

We showed our album cover digipak to a member of our target audience, Sian Richefond, and carried out a structured interview to gather their feedback and immediate responses to the album cover. We recorded the audio for the feedback on our smartphones and uploaded it to SoundCloud.

To hear our audience feedback, please click the play button below. 

  


Overall, we learned from our feedback for our album cover that we were successful in selling the band's music, and the band identity, to our audience with our digipak, and appealed to them with the way we chose to construct our final product.

Website 

We showed our artist's website to members of our target audience, and recorded them navigating our website. We then carried out a structured interview with them to receive feedback to see if we were successful in appealing to our audience.

To see our audience feedback, please observe the slideshow below by clicking on the arrow icons to navigate the slides.


Overall, we learned from our feedback for our artist's website that we were successful in appealing to the audience, and satisfied their needs for information, entertainment and interaction.

CONCLUSION


In conclusion, I learned from our audience feedback that we were very successful in creating three products that appealed to our target audience. The feedback showed me that our audience were entertained by our products, and they could correctly decipher our band's genre, identity, star qualities, and aesthetics from all of our products. This showed me the effect of our products synergising well together to communicate the same information and not confuse our audience, which will positively influence their decision to buy into the band. Furthermore, not one of our audience said that there was anything they would improve, and although their were minor points that I have analysed from their feedback where our communication of our band identity could have been clearer, I do not believe these were major negative factors that would cause damage to the band's appeal. Overall, the feedback was very positive and demonstrated that we were successful in appealing to our audience. 

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