Market Research and Production Research

What is Market Research and Production Research?

What are the main purposes of these methods of research?

Ieuan Lloyd

10/12/2011

Introduction

There are many different methods of research and obtaining information. Below are to main methods used within the gaming industry and why they are used in order to help them create their product and be able to sell them worldwide. In the gaming industry, research is a key part of gaining information on what is needed to gain an idea of the product they are going to develop. The main purpose of research is so that organisations are able to see what their target audience is wanting in a product or in the gaming industry, what sort of game they are wanting. By researching on similar games they are able to gain ideas on what sort of game they need to develop. Another reason for research is so that they can lower the risks of their product failing to sell on the market. We do research to help us find out key information on what kind of product we are looking to make and what kind of product the consumer is looking for.

Market Research

Market research is obtaining data and information on key areas such as target audience, what sort of competition there is against other organisations and what sort of environment you are dealing with.

The main purpose of any market research is to obtain information and data to gain a full understanding of the marketing area.

How do they get the information?

Organisations do regular surveys to find out what information they can use to help them towards achieving their goal which is what sort of product do they need to develop or come up with in order to satisfy their consumer.

The most commonly used research technique used is quantitative research. This is technique needs the most amount of attention to help towards the organisations goal as it assesses their overall performance to the customers and their work. As an example a restaurant would do a survey on their service and the customer would give an overall rating of excellent, good or poor. This technique is also relevant to the gaming industry, for example a well-known gaming company such as EA would give out questionnaires on how well their games are doing and if they have any problems with their games what can they do to sort them so that the people are satisfied with their product they are buying. By gaining information on the game from surveys if most of the people they surveyed said they didn’t like the game or they did the games company will know whether to bring out a sequel to the first game or whether not to.

Companies also have another technique for gaining information that is called qualitative research. This technique gives more information on why and how the product is the way it is. An example of this is say a market researcher from EA went up to someone who had just purchased Fifa 11 they would ask them why they chose that game and what are they looking for in the game or when purchasing the game. In this method they do not ask a set amount of questions unlike quantitative research. This method uses a guide so that they are able to discover a number of issues in great detail. By doing this they hope to get the consumers true thoughts on what they are buying and how they feel when they have purchased the game. When they interview the customers they tend to either speak with them face to face or a common method is to have discussion groups were they have up to eight people who are the main respondents. A way they interview these groups are from one way mirrors or recorded on video for proof that they have surveyed their audience.

What are the benefits of market research?

The benefits gained from market research vary as there are a few such as:

      You gain communication skills by talking face to face with potential customers.

      You find what your potential customers are wanting in new products

      You will see potential opportunities such as what can you do in order to be better than your competitors.

      The risk of failing to sell the new product will decrease as you will be more prepared and ready for any fall backs. You will achieve rather than under achieve.

What are the disadvantages of market research?

      You might not have the funds to carry out this research.

      You may not have the resources to be able to carry out market research.

Production Research

Production research is always needed when developing a new game or product. It is research to help give information on the characteristics of the product. The purpose of production research is so that the producers are able to see what the consumer is wanting in the game and how you can offer that to them.

When organisations do production research it helps them see an overview of the commercial viability which is businesses skills to be successful and gain profit. The company has to be commercially viable first otherwise they won’t as profitable as they want to be and will start to go downhill. For example Bethesda developed BRINK and it is a first person shooter. The advertisement looked really good and encouraged people to buy the game but when the buyers played the game, reviews were put up to gaming websites saying how poor the game was. On IGN one person who had a hands on go of the game said:

“I played BRINK for most of the day today. In my opinion, it is mediocre at best.
The graphics are poor and choppy and as well, it can be hard to determine who is exactly on your team and who is not if you don't really pay attention to it.”

This opinion on the game was from ign.com

From this review it shows what was bad about the game and why they were upset with their purchase. The player explains how the detail of the game is at a poor standard for what it was meant to be.

When organisations carry out research they gather demographics which shows the characteristics of the target audience or the population by their physical aspects such as age, sex and their postcode. This is relevant to the gaming industry as they need to know what sort of game to develop for their target audience and by knowing the general age of their target audience they are able to know whether they should add gore.

By knowing their target audiences main gender and which one tends to play their games more they are able to create towards either a certain sex or make it so that it appeals to both which would also gain in profit as more people would buy the game.

What are the benefits of production research?

      You know your target audiences characteristics

      You are able to develop the game according to their sex, age and gender

      You are able to develop a game that appeals to both sexes.

      It helps to provide additional content

      It helps you gain information on commercial viability

      Helps you plan pre post production

What are the disadvantages of production research?

      If you have already got a game concept it may have offensive content or characters included within it so you will get told to create new characters or start the game from scratch.

Who would carry out these types of research?

The main people within the gaming industry who would carry out these types of research are the researchers and producers. The reason these two people would carry this out is because in their job role it shows they are capable of doing this task and can do it to a professional standard.

Conclusion

In this report I have explained what is meant by market research and production research. This will be a summary on what I think is plays a key part in the gaming industry and is also useful to have.

For market research I think that this is needed in every industry as without companies will not have the essential information needed to find who their target audience is and who they can aim the game at. Without this information other areas of the industry are unable to get on with their task such as the development area because if they do not know who their target audience is they are unable to create a game to their requirements.

For production research each company should take this sort of research as it helps them gain a full understanding of what their consumers are wanting in the game. By taking out this research companies are able to see the full characteristics of the game they are developing. This sort of research lets the company know how to portrait the image meaning by saying what it is and how it is better than any other games on the market.