Pilot Focus group research

Although our production team have already analysed and finalized research we have decided to take part in one more extra element of research - this being a focus group.
This involves a small group of our target audience with the aim to produce cooperative data on the specific topic of our new TV soap being discussed. They will be asked to express their opinions of elements of the soap which could affect them in some way. It allows the viewers to express what they feel needs to be improved and is a way for our group to decide whether these judgements are strong enough to be changed.

Therefore we will be asking around 5-8 people aged 16-25 years of age to be part of the focus group and we will provide them with an outline of our pitch and treatment. As well as asking them the below questions:

- Looking at our two main storylines (Cultural clash and Celibate teen) our aim is to represent realism. Do you feel that these are types that are appealing and could be reflected back to your own life?

- On any element if any, what improvements do you feel our plans need in order to attract you?

- In terms of TV scheduling, do you think that these times are suitable for a modern yet traditional soap like ours?

- State both factors, negative and positive of what you think will make our new TV soap appealing or not so appealing?

The RESPONSE :

Before putting forward our questions to the public, in lesson we took part in a pilot focus group - which meant we asked students from our own class the questions which we will be asking to our actual focus group. This was done in order for us receive feedback, to be ready for the real thing and whether we should change any of the questions. Although taking into consideration that the publics answers will not be as of much technical knowledge as our pilot focus peers, the questions are quite broad.

We asked five students asked 17 to 18 years of age the following above questions. Overall we received mostly positive feedback from our peers. They felt optimistic about our target audience being aged 16-25yrs old as we are mixing the two elements of traditional and more modern soap conventions. Though they supposed we need not forget about our secondary audiences who we would also want to be attracting. Bearing this in mind we may need to extend our focus group to asking people outside of the 16-25 age band to achieve more opinions and responses.

Another important element was brought up focusing on the TV scheduling times. Originally our production group had agreed that if aired we were going to be competing against well known popular soap operas such as Eastenders and Coronation Street therefore we wanted our soap to be on at a later time of 9pm therefore we would not be intertwining and overlapping onto these programmes hoping the audience will choose our soap. Though our pilot focus group felt that this time was too late and my not attract high numbers of viewers. They suggested that to repair this risk it may be more wise to change our original TV schedule times. Therefore we have now chosen that our new soap will be aired only three times a week including: Tuesday, Wednesdays and Thursdays at a more reasonable time of 8pm.

This pilot focus group included only the students from our class therefore we will soon be taking part in a real focus group where we will be asking members of the public.