Task 2 - Understand how media producers create products for specific audiences


Task 2 - Understand how media producers create products for specific audiences.


In modern media there are many ways that a company, business or franchise will lure in people to buy their product. Using different tactics companies have been able to grow using things like images, symbols and language to persuade people to buy. 

Symbols

Symbols are types of images that aren't directly linked to what they mean but mean it. For example if you go to public bathroom there will be symbols of a man for the men's toilets and there will be a symbol of a female for the women's toilets, theses aren't pictures of actual men and women and so are only symbols.

When used correctly symbols can be a very effective and powerful tool to sell a product. Symbols are usually displayed to show a deeper meaning or a message in a particular brand. In a lot of adverts that have diamonds or jewelry you may see water surrounding it because water symbolizes purity and that's what they want the customers to think their jewelry is. 

An example of a symbol being used to promote the sales of a product would be Whyte & Mackay Scottish Whiskey. They have a figure of two lions coloured in red on their bottle. The lion is a symbol or strength, meaning they are the strongest competitor for whiskey it could also be a symbol for superiority over their competition. The colour red is a meaning of love and passion meaning this whiskey could perhaps be a very good standard or that they are very passionate about their product so the customer should buy from them. 

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Icons

Icons are very similar to symbols only they are online, basically virtual symbols. Icons are primarily used online or on mobile phones. For example the internet explorer icon is just an 'e' with a gold band and the Microsoft office components all have the letter associated to it, for example Microsoft word has the letter 'w' and Microsoft Excel has the letter X incorporated in it. 

Phone apps are very popular at the minute and so have to be simple and recognisable. The most recognisable apps would be ones like Facebook and twitter  which is very basic, it is a blue background with their letter on the front, Facebook have an 'F' and Twitter have a 'T'. The blue backgrounds may symbolise either the creativity of their app of the peace of it being a social media site where anyone can escape the real world and have a bit of peace.



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Images 

Images in adverts are somewhat similar to symbols and symbolism to other meanings. Images can be distorted in various ways to portray the wanted meaning. Pictures or images added into adverts can be used for visualisation, so that the customer can see themselves with that particular product. the images that are incorporated into the first attempt at grabbing the audiences attention 

 For example, like coca-cola who have had some very good adverts to promote not just their drink but themselves as a company. A very good example of a coca-cola advert would be the one pictured below. It depicts a glass coca-cola bottle filled with famous musicians, popular food and a very popular car, the slogan reads "A classic never goes out of style' meaning that coke see themselves as popular as the likes of Elvis and The Beatles saying that we will always be a number 1 brand. They also have their famous red colour which is vert distinct, the colour red can mean anything strength and power to love and devotion or all of them. Then they have the white background which acts as a sort of arrow so there cant be anything else to distract the viewer from the advert. 
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Companies have been doing this for years in situations like the majority of the lynx adverts which usually have the image of a man using their spray and then being automatically attractive to all the women. A popular version of this is the Lynx Excite range which has an image of an angel which the caption 'Even Angels Will Fall' this advert is trying to tell the customer that if they buy this product then everyone including mythical being will instantly be attracted to them without a doubt. In the background they have hints of the colour purple which is linked with luxury and royalty meaning that their product is very high end. Purple also has to do with romantic feelings. This colour is complimented by the black which could mean power and elegance with their product. 

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Codes

Advertising codes and regulations are the unwritten rules into what can and cannot go into the making or production of an advert. In the UK, there is a self-regulatory organisation called Advertising Standards Authority (ASA). They are not funded by the British Government to do their job but are funded by a tax on the advertising industry. Their job is to   "regulate the content of advertisements, sales promotions and direct marketing in the UK" by looking at complaints made by the general public about ads, sales promos and direct marketing. 

 In 2011, two separate make up ads were banned after Lib Dem politician Jo Swinson said that the product wasn't sufficient in doing what was shown. And so was then taken off air because they deemed it misleading since you could not use the product as they advertised. 

 Furthermore, a TripAdvisor investigation was conducted because on their advert they claimed that they provide accurate, trustworthy reviews from travellers that turned out to be false. ASA said that TripAdvisor "should not claim or imply that all its reviews were from real travellers, or were honest, real or trusted".

Language

The way that language and the variant types of languages are used in adverts can determine whether a product will be sold or not. If the language used is persuasive enough like in the before mentioned Lynx adverts then it can and will encourage people to buy it. The choice of language must be thought about very carefully when creating and advert as they don't want to seem like they are forcing the product onto you, more so that you are telling yourself to go out and buy it.

one way that advertising companies will use language is by adding two compound words and then fusing them together to create an adjective. This works very well as it makes a certain product or object seem a lot better, words like 'top-quality' and 'longer-lasting' have more of an impact than a full sentence like 'it lasts longer'. The company will usually try to emphasise how good their product is and how much better it is that the rest of the competition, this may not make sense in the normal sense but the audience take it as fact anyway. For example, a cleaning product may say 'Cleaner than the rest', but what is the rest. 

The below image is an example of a advertising team using language to persuade people to buy. It is a starbucks advert with the caption 'The best coffee For the best YOU' this advert has two meanings. The first is the 'The best coffee' part, meaning that they believe they have the best coffee and the second is 'For the best YOU.' meaning that if you have their coffee then you will be the best you possibly can be. 
Image result for adverts using persuasive language




Reviews

Reviews for games can be very important to the success or failure of a game. It can give the company a very clear insight into the minds of their audience. I can also give them a clear view into their demographic and the types of people that they are appealing to. 

There are different forms of reviews that a company can receive: Quantitative, Qualitative, Primary and Secondary. 

Quantitative data is data that has a numerical answer. A question that is answered with a number like 'What would you rate the game out of 10?' would be considered a quantitative question or any answer that can't be put into a chart. An example of this would be in the form of ratings like if a game has been rated 8/10 then this is Quantitative data. The upside to this would be that it is easier to record the data and it would be easier to put into categories whereas, on the other hand, you can't compare two games fully with just a rating. If a game has been reviewed and rated by IGN or another source and the majority of reviews are good then a lot of the time this can dictate whether the game has a sequel or even goes on to have multiple follow up games.

 An example of this is Titanfall, after its release in 2014, Metacritic gave it a rating of 86 out of 100, this then gave EA a reason to bring out Titanfall 2 which was then given a better rating of 87. (these ratings were for the XBOX ONE version of the game. EA as a company could then heavily invest into Titanfall 2 by adding DLC or creating a follow up game because it was a critical success.

Qualitative data includes open-ended questions, questions that desire a reasoning behind the answer is qualitative data. Qualitative research is exploratory research is used to try and get a better insight to how fans view a game deeper than what a rating would be. A question like 'What did you lie about the game?' would be a qualitative question. An example of this would be a person leaving a review on a game using whats good and whats bad about the game. The good side to this is that you can get a full rating of the game and the bad side would be the data is harder to record on a chart. Qualitative data is used by every gamer and critic when deciding on whats good and bad about the game, this (again) has a major factor in whether a game has any more games that follow it.












Above is a couple reviews for the newest game of DOOM released in 2016 and they are two fan reviews on how the game is. The review on the left is heavily praising the game and is helpful to other fans on whether to buy the game. Again the review on the right says how good the game is and once again is a heavy influence on whether other people buy the game.

Primary research is data that you have conducted oneself, if you have created a questionnaire and asked people to fill it out then this would be classed as primary research. A company such as Activision or EA may conduct research to see what type of game genre most people play or what the majority of either male or females play which genre, this research can be useful as they can now see how to advertise their game (whether the adverts are aimed primarily at males, females or a unisex demographic). The problem with primary research is that it can be quite difficult to conduct yourself but on the other side at least you know where the information has come from and its reliable.



Secondary research is opposite to primary research, this is research that has been conducted by someone else for themselves or for other people. This research is usually conducted by a professional body or another company for a specific reason. If you find a website that has figured out which country plays a certain type of game such as  "The UK video games sector remains the largest in Europe employing around 9,000 people in games development in 2010", this is secondary research. Other professional bodies such as UKIE and IDGA give out information when it comes to the video game industry but the problem with this secondary research is that some of the information may not be as reliable as you think depending on where your source is from where as the benefits are you will not have to go out and spend your own time on doing the research yourself.

focus groups

The first of these ways is focus groups, this is a very good way of getting a lot of data in one point. In this, they will take in a group of people which are specifically picked by the company involved. The company will ask the group to answer a survey surrounding the topic they are covering. This style of research is a qualitative style, the focus is to gather a lot of different opinions on the one subjects. Focus groups, if used correctly, can be very important to a company who are trying to improve what their company is doing, this is because they can see a much wider variety of opinions and it is still cheap . 

On the other hand focus groups have the potential to be dangerous when they aren't done properly. There are a few examples as to why they may not be the best method to choose:
  • The sample sizes that are being used aren't the biggest, they used a group between 8-10 and so they are only hearing a very small sample considering the thousands/millions that will be using the final product and so they are not always reliable.
  • Also, there could be a group bias situation and because of such not everyone is able to get out their own opinions and so to guess that the groups decision is correct is very risky
  • To run a successful focus group you would have to do a lot of travelling because you need a well rounded vision from different groups. This can be very difficult under a budget. 

 Censorship

In games and films, there will always be censorship for younger viewers when it comes to the context of the game/film. In games specifically, there are precise restrictions on games so that they are aimed at and closed off to certain ages. In Europe, PEGI is responsible for rating each game based on what it contains such as violence, gambling, discrimination etc. The Pan-European Game Information has been the legally enforceable system in the United Kingdom since 2012. Since this law was passed, it has been illegal to sell a person under the age of the game rating the said game. When it comes to producing a game you can see this to decide where your game will be rated and what it should include, you may want to keep the game at the lowest rating of 3 so that it can be purchased by a wider audience than if it is a very drug-fuelled discriminatory game. Games like GTA V have an 18 age rating because they have drugs, violence, bad language and scenes of a sexual nature within them. The films industry in the UK has their own rating system. The BBFC ( British Board of Film Classification) are in charge of setting the rating system for each film that is shown or sold in the UK. Their rating starts at a 'U' which symbolises that the film is suitable for all ages. Films like 'Shrek' have been given as a U as it entails no violence, swearing or sexual scenes, therefore suitable for anybody. On the other hand, a film such as 'fight club' has been certified as an 18 rated film or an adult only film. 

Beta Testing

Sometimes being reffered to as end user testing, this part of the games development has the company will have thier game put out to an intended audience so that they can recieve the last reviews and tweek the game before finalising it and putting it out to the public. The trial version of the game which is usually put out for gamers to download to people with a code or for everyone to try out. Not only does this help developers solve the last few problems but it also adds some excitement for the new game. Some games that have been introduced as a beta first were: Tom Clancy's The Division, Overwatch, Black Ops III and Battlefield 1. 

Complaints

In media production, no matter what form from games to films you will always have different people having majorly different opinions about the product. These can cause upsets in certain groups of people and it a lot of cases this can be quickly resolved with either a refund or they will five the game, film or tv show a bad review from their opinion. Complaints aren't always bad as the developers can always turn it around with these reviews, for example if the company has created a game and they decide to beta test it to PC gamers only and the response given is that there are too many characters to choose from in the PvP mode then the developers can take out a few of the characters in order for the game to feel better for the player. However, these complaints shouldn't be taken seriuosly unless there is an overwhelming amount of people conplaining about the same thing.  

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