Media research. Encyclopedia of Marketing History of the formation of media research

Media studies

Ministry of Education of the Republic of Tajikistan

Kazan State Technical University named after. A. N. Tupolev

Faculty of Humanities.

Abstract on media planning on the topic:

Media studies.

Student gr. 7202

I checked the work:

Galanin S. F.

Kazan 2007.
Content:

1. Introduction…………………………………………………………….….. 3 pages.

History of audience research in the West…………..…….……. 4 pages

Basic concepts of media planning……………………………..... 6 p.

Media studies………………………………………….………..... 8 pp.

Methods for registering information………………………………... 14 p.

5. Conclusion.………………….……………………………………17 p.

Introduction.

Media planning is the planning of advertising campaigns, the meaning of which comes down to choosing the optimal program for placing advertising material. As a rule, one or more parameters of the communicative effectiveness of an advertising campaign plan are used as an optimality criterion. Many advertisers think that media planning is a tool unnecessary for a competent Russian businessman, invented in the West by large advertising agencies to siphon money from rich clients, but today media planning is an important tool for forecasting and analysis, without the knowledge of which it is currently difficult to work in the advertising market , and tomorrow it will be simply impossible and, based on this, the goal of my work is to characterize such a process as media research.

The essence of the term is the combination of American media, which denotes all means of advertising distribution, including any media and outdoor advertising, with beloved domestic planning. That is, we are talking about optimal planning of the advertising budget when choosing advertising channels. In other words, it is about achieving maximum effectiveness of an advertising campaign, since without a professionally “calculated” media plan, any talk about the effectiveness of advertising is hardly justified. A media plan is created in order to convey an advertising message to a certain part of the population, moreover, for a given time and a certain number of times, effective in achieving the goals of the advertising company.

Chapter 1.

History of audience research in the West.

In the West, the first serious steps in audiometry were carried out in the 20-30s in the USA, when the problem arose of determining the size of the audience of radio listeners in the zone of stable signal reception. At the same time, such survey methods as surveys with questionnaires sent by mail and face-to-face interviews were developed. A little later, with the development of telephony in the USA and in connection with the realization of the fact that radio information does not linger in the memory of listeners for long, two types of techniques arose. The first involved a telephone survey during the listening process, the second - the next day after the broadcast of the program. During the same period, the first commercial polling services emerged, specializing exclusively in audience measurements. At the same time, the first methods of studying the audience of newspapers and magazines were formed, in addition to regular analysis of editorial mail and tracking data on circulation sales; one of these methods involved determining the recognition of the publication’s brand. Respondents were presented with about a dozen logos of various publications and asked to answer a series of questions. Another method was that the respondent was presented with a list of publications and found out what he read in them over a certain chronological period. In Europe, the first experience in the field of audience measurement belongs to the British state corporation BBC (BBC), which has been conducting daily audience measurements since the mid-30s. In the early 40s, a landmark event took place in the United States. A device called an audiometer was put into operation. It connected to a stationary radio receiver and made it possible to record its operating mode. More than 1000 such devices were manufactured. However, a crisis in this collection of measurements arose with the advent of portable and car receivers. In the 1940s, sociologists responded to technological improvements in the market with the introduction of a new survey technique called the diary panel. Its basic features have been preserved to this day. The point is that a certain number of respondents fill out survey tables during the week, created taking into account certain socio-demographic characteristics and taking into account the broadcast schedule. The group of regular respondents is selected on a commercial basis and taking into account certain socio-demographic characteristics. In the 70s, devices appeared that made it possible to measure television audiences in a semi-automated electronic way. At first these were TV remote controls. The remote control buttons began to be used to record not only the fact of switching on, but also the number of viewers watching. The device was called “people meter” (TV meter). Over the course of a quarter of a century, this device has been constantly improved, requiring less and less intervention from the viewer. Today this is the most advanced and at the same time the most expensive way to measure television audiences. Media audience research in Russia Modern Russian and CIS media, more than ever, need objective and systematic research at all levels - federal (national), regional and local, as well as analysis by foreign researchers. For the first time in the history of mass communications, the media in 1988-1992 opposed the system, being part of this system, and played a decisive role in the collapse of the USSR and communism, carrying out deep reforms in all areas of life in Russia and the CIS. A new type of media in a transitional society has been created, which is still little studied. The existing problems of post-Soviet media stimulate the growth of research aimed at finding a way out of the systemic crisis in which the media of Russia and the CIS countries find themselves. This crisis covers its economic, professional, creative, ethical and organizational aspects.

Chapter 2.

Basic concepts of media planning.

1. Reach is the relationship of the audience to the General Population. Reach = GS audience. The ratio of the “system concept” to the subsystem concept shows how many times one is greater than the other. The ratio of the “number of audience contacts” to the “audience” shows how many contacts there are on average per person. This is “frequency” - the number of contacts of one audience member with the media or with an advertising message.

2. Contact frequency is the ratio of the number of audience contacts to the audience. The frequency of contacts is equal to the number of audience contacts. As can be seen from the formula, the indicators: “audience”, “frequency of contacts”, “number of audience contacts” are interrelated.

For some tasks, the numerical values of the audience and the frequency of contacts can be known; for other tasks, the numerical values of the audience and the number of audience contacts can be known. Using two known quantities, a third can be found.

4. The number of contacts to the GS is a relative indicator of the number of contacts of the audience (convenient when comparing media and advertising campaigns).

5. The ratio of the frequency of contacts to the GS is a relative indicator of the frequency of contacts.

6. Share of the target audience - the ratio of the target audience to the audience.

7. The share of target contacts is the ratio of the number of target contacts to the number of contacts. The share of target contacts is equal to the number of target contacts of the audience.

8. Share of the target group - the ratio of the target group to the HS. The share of the target group is equal to the target group of the HS.

10. Drive time – the time during which the largest audience of potential listeners drives cars to and from work from 6:00 to 10:00 and from 16:00 to 19:00; the most effective and most expensive radio airtime.

11. Prime time is the time period during which a television or radio broadcast can gather the maximum audience. It usually occurs in the evening hours (19.00 - 23.00), although in different countries it can start and end at different times depending on the length of the working day and national traditions of leisure time.

Chapter 3.

Modern Russian society, becoming more and more fully involved in market relations, urgently needs information about the state of the market and various aspects of population behavior. In this regard, the role of sociological research is becoming increasingly important. Among other things, they are extremely important for planning advertising campaigns. In the late 80s, when the advertising business in Russia was just emerging, there was no particular need to evaluate the media audience.

must carefully and reasonably approach the choice of advertising media and media planning in general.

Sociological research is needed, first of all, to obtain objective and reliable data, on the basis of which the optimal ways of media planning are determined.

Media research exists in two directions:

the latter, research methodology).

Many MIs are impossible without accurate monitoring

TV - the actual release time of the program may differ by hours. This is especially true in our country, where there are 10 time zones, voluntarism of local repeaters, and cutting of advertising. Therefore, the “watched - didn’t watch” survey should clearly correlate with the actual time of the broadcast (advertising).

PANEL

A group of people selected to conduct a study. The essence of a panel study is to continuously obtain information from each panel member over a period of time. Using panel studies, television and radio audiences are studied. Information can be collected using diaries, and in the case of measuring television audiences using special instruments - people meter.

"Arguments and Facts" or "Komsomolskaya Pravda" have their own inserts in almost every region.

the “crown” from the central broadcast, and the rest is filled with what the local editors like (and rightly so).

A device that allows you to record television viewing by each member of the television panel. The devices are installed on each television receiver in the family taking part in the study. They record TV channel viewing around the clock. The device has a remote control with a separate button for each family member. Study participants press their button every time they enter and leave a room where the television is on.

DIARY

A research method in which respondents fill out special diaries over a period of time (from a week or longer). Diaries can record information about watching television programs or listening to radio stations, etc.

The following terminology is accepted in the practice of media research:

refers to the entire population living in those settlements where it is technically possible to receive a particular TV channel. The size of the potential audience varies depending on the number and type of television receivers, as well as the broadcast range of television channels.

TV viewer - this is a person who is in a room with the TV on. Television audience research is a sample study that results in statistical data on the number of viewers of a TV channel among a certain group of the population at a certain period of time during a particular program or advertising campaign as a whole.

Sampling – that part of the population that is subject to the research process. It must objectively reflect the general population, i.e., repeat it in terms of its most important characteristics.

Representativeness – correspondence of the sample structure to the structure of the general population.

arrange in the following order:

Age.

Social status.

Education.

Audience measurement another method of surveying the population, i.e. asking questions to the population as a whole or to a certain group of people to obtain both factual information (watched/didn’t watch, read/didn’t read, etc.) and subjective information - opinions , assessments, preferences, etc. Persons selected in a special way to conduct a survey are called respondents. These constitute the survey sample. The sample is formed in such a way that it fully represents (represents) the structure of the general population.

General population - This is the population group from which respondents for the study are sampled. Depending on the purposes of the study, the population of the entire country as a whole, the population of a separate region, a specific city, or a specific group of the population with certain socio-demographic parameters, etc. can be considered as a general population. In accordance with the theory of statistics, if the sample represents general population (corresponds to it structurally and has a sufficient volume), then the data obtained as a result of research allow us to judge the general population as a whole. There are scientifically sound procedures for constructing a representative sample. In general, the sample should be random and respondents should be selected from a database of sufficient coverage, accuracy and relevance. Random sampling implies that all respondents have an equal chance of being selected. The ideal sample size for various methods has not been established in world practice, however, as practice shows, the reliability of the data increases noticeably when the sample size increases to approximately 1200 people. A further increase in its volume provides only a slight increase in the reliability of research.

Based on the duration of respondents’ participation in the study, a distinction is made between a one-time sample, used for one measurement, and a panel sample, in which the respondent’s participation is designed for a long, predetermined period. Replacing respondents in a panel - natural or forced - creates turnover, or rotation of the panel, which has its positive and negative sides. Too fast turnover does not allow us to trace the existence of any trends, since the observed changes and jumps in data can be explained either by some change that occurred in reality or by the formation of a new sample. In contrast, slow turnover ensures a stable composition of respondents, which reduces the likelihood of subjective factors influencing conclusions about television viewing trends. From here it is clear that smooth changes in the panel, caused by both natural and forced reasons, are more preferable. Obviously, a one-time sample, which assumes a daily change of respondents, can only provide us with ratings of the measured time intervals or television programs. This allows you to get only the most general idea of the advertising campaign, namely the GRP media indicator.

Estimates of these important media indicators for any combination of time slots on different TV channels can be obtained using panel studies. The first such studies were based on the day-after-recall technique (memory of yesterday's television viewing), developed in the West back in the 60s. Its main drawback is its appeal to human memory, which, as we know, is imperfect. The respondent needs to remember which programs he watched more than half of yesterday.

Another drawback, apparently inherent in all measurement methods, is the inability to determine whether the respondent saw an advertising block in the program, even if he was at that moment in the room with the TV turned on.

restrictions.

into fifteen-minute or half-hour intervals filled by the respondent over a specified continuous period of time—usually one or two full weeks. In some methods, the diary is a detailed list of television programs.

Chapter 4.

Methods for registering information.

There are several methods for collecting registration information. The main ones:

- Survey.

- Hardware registration of information.(Exclusively in television, radio and Internet) this method is based on a questionnaire.

In recent years, the world has begun to give preference to an automated method of collecting information about television audiences. The fact is that telephone surveys and diary studies did not fully meet the increased requirements for the quality and accuracy of information collection. These methods provided only approximate data. The main reasons here are the following: the subjectivity of the interviewer. Imperfection of human memory. Psychological characteristics of the perception of popular and unpopular programs. Absence of children aged 0 to 14 years in the samples. Practical uncontrollability of the work of interviewers and/or respondents. Lack of efficiency in collecting information. Diary and survey methods can only provide information about the respondent’s opinion regarding viewing of the program as a whole or its 15-minute fragment where this video is posted. The automated method is more suitable for determining reliable ratings for television programs. Its advantages are as follows: The consumer has the opportunity to analyze the actual behavior of the audience during the broadcast, and not the respondent’s memory of watching a particular television program. The information does not depend on the subjective desires of respondents to give standard, approved answers. Information is received promptly - the customer receives a report on television viewing for the previous day the very next day. In addition, it is possible to obtain information online. Only through the use of an automated data collection method has it become possible to provide RAs and advertisers with information about the viewing of their advertising video with an accuracy of up to a minute (and in some systems, up to a second).

Let's take a closer look at the equipment used. First of all, this is a counter - an electronic recording device connected to the TV and recording when it is turned on and what TV channel is being watched. Counters were originally used to measure broadcast audiences, but today they are used primarily for television audience analysis. The disadvantage of the counter is that it does not provide information about the demographic characteristics of the audience. To solve this problem, a device known as a people-meter began to be used in the 1980s. People-meter can also record what is viewed and for how long. But in addition to this, it allows viewers to enter their demographic characteristics. To do this, there is a set of buttons, each of which corresponds to a particular viewer. Typically people-meter has 8 buttons for family members, 7 for guests, 1 for zero viewing, etc. Each TV viewer presses their own button when they start and stop watching TV. Adding the TV meter data and individual viewing records gives the expected audience of a TV channel or other type of television (for example, teletext, video cassettes, video games, etc.).

Currently, people-meter studies use two conceptually different approaches to defining viewing: Local definition - participants are asked to register their presence in a room with the TV on. Cognitive definition - participants are asked to register only when they view themselves as watching television. Proponents of the latter definition believe that it more reflects the intention and actual viewing of television. In the case of the definition in terms of “presence”, taken literally, even a person completely immersed in, say, reading a book, but anyone sitting in a room with the TV on must nevertheless register as a TV viewer.

Among the most important parameters of television viewing are the following: All “live” viewing time of all television channels in the house within 24 hours. All the while watching videos. All the time guests watch TV. Viewing all television devices in the house that can be measured technically and for material reasons (portable, battery-powered may not be measured). A household in which this cannot be done for some reason should be replaced with a household with similar characteristics. Otherwise, foreign authors believe, “there is a risk of distortion of the research results, i.e., television viewing of individual stations will be represented disproportionately” (Towards harmonization of television audience measurement systems. Geneva. 1993). All other uses of television devices, such as the use of teletext, rental videos, etc.

It is necessary to distinguish between zero viewing as a result of malfunctions in the operation of the panel and zero viewing due to the absence of its participants (for example, if they are on vacation) or due to a power failure. The system must have the design and organizational capabilities to quickly solve problems associated with zero viewing of the first kind. A Type II null survey provides reliable information and the corresponding house should be included in the tabulated sample of the study. Excluding such homes from the sample would incorrectly assume that panelists' television viewing when on vacation is no different from when they watch television at home.

Conclusion.

are media research, since it is very important to know the target audience to which advertising is directed.

Media planning includes a lot of important points in drawing up a media plan that must be taken into account and, most importantly, understood. Although at the moment in the advertising market in Russia almost no one draws up correct media plans, that is, taking into account all the requirements and analyzing media research, since media research is a very expensive and difficult process. In the future, I would like to do media planning for advertising companies, since in Russia this is still a beginning process and requires a lot of research. Only now have experts begun to understand how necessary a proper media plan is in an advertising company for the results to be truly tangible. And so I believe that this will be my task in the future.

1. Bannikova A. Notes on media planning. //Advertiser, No. 4, 1995. 2. Bove K. L. Modern advertising. USA publishing house "Dovgan", 1995.

6. Lectures on media planning. Galanin S. F.

Applications.

(example questionnaire)

īte” is the main distributor of alcoholic beverages in country N, we invite you to answer the questionnaire. This questionnaire is a sociological study conducted by us with the aim of identifying the consumer demand of residents of the city of N for alcoholic products. Your answers will help indicate the preferences of residents, and will also significantly influence the pricing policy of stores.

The questionnaire is conducted anonymously. Instructions for filling out the questionnaire. Read the various answer options, then mark the box next to the answer option that matches your opinion with any symbol or enter your answer. In addition, you can offer answers not provided by us. Thank you in advance for participating in the study!

1. What alcoholic drink do you prefer? ___________________________

2. Where do you buy alcohol? _____________________________

3. On what basis do you choose a drink? ___________________________

4. How often do you drink alcohol? 1. Infrequently 2. Only on holidays 3. Whenever there is a reason

4. Whenever the desire arises ________________________________

5. Do you feel a particular craving for alcohol? 1. Yes 2. No 3. Difficult to answer

²bottle²? 1. Often 2. Not often 3. Never 4. Difficult to answer

sides in drinking alcoholic beverages? 1. Yes 2. No

10. Are you satisfied with the assortment that city stores offer? ________________________________

11. Have you ever encountered a situation where the alcoholic drink you required was not available? 1. Yes 2. No 3. Difficult to answer

12. What volume of alcoholic drink do you buy most often? 1. 0. 2 2. 0. 35 3. 0. 5 4. 0. 7 5. 1 l 6. more than 1 l

17. Where do you prefer to drink alcohol? 1. Home 2. Bar, restaurant, club 3. Work 4. Outdoors 5. _________________

18. Who do you prefer to drink alcohol with? 1. Family 2. Friends 3. Colleagues 4. Casual acquaintances 5. Alone 6. ___________________ 19. What do you see as an alternative to alcohol? ________________________________________

20. How do you feel about Prohibition? 1. Positive 2. Negative 3. Difficult to answer

21. What is the reason why you would give up drinking alcohol? ____________________________________________________________ We ask you to provide some information about yourself

23. What is your age? 1. 18-25 2. 25-30 3. 30-40

26. What is your monthly income ($)? 1. 60-150 2. 150-300 3. 300-600 4. 600-1000 5. 1000 –2000

Appendix 2.

Data structure Gallup Media .

TV Index – general description of the project.

The main task being solved within the framework of the GallupTVIndex project is to provide data on the audience of the main national and network television channels. TVIndex provides separate information by region.

National data (cities with a population of over 400,000 people, starting from the 3rd quarter of 2001 - cities with a population of over 100,000 people). In this case, the entire audience of all regional television channels is provided in the general category “Other”.

Data separately by city.

Information on television viewing is collected from a panel sample of households that have at least one working television.

Such studies are usually called “panel” studies; a sample of private individuals is called a “panel”, since it is expected that each of the households will participate in the study for a certain period of time, provided that it meets the requirements for the panel. (panel is a statistical sample from the general population, in which, according to certain parameters, families are selected from among those who agreed to participate in the study. Based on data on the viewing behavior of these families, data on the size of the television audience of a particular channel, a particular program is generated). Representativeness is maintained by monitoring the panel's compliance with a set of characteristics (both individual and household as a whole) that are determinant of viewing behavior. These characteristics are called "panel benchmarks".

Panel controls reflect the distribution of these characteristics of the general population—households that own televisions. To obtain the missing statistical information on the distribution of most of the characteristics necessary to determine the control parameters of the panel, special installation studies are carried out. (an annual large-scale sociological study of the television audience using the personal interview method. The data obtained during the study provide GallupMedia with information about the social and demographic characteristics of the population, the characteristics of television equipment and the television environment in local markets, the volume of television viewing and its distribution across channels and time of day.) Based on the results of the installation study, the control parameters of the panel are updated, and appropriate changes are made to the panel - by means of replacement and additional sets of households.

As a source of population information, the survey also provides a database of potential panel participants, from whom recruitment is then carried out for the panel.

In each of the households of the telewatch panel, the input and processing of rhenium data on all televisions is recorded by special devices - TV meters. The TV meter automatically identifies and registers the channels to which the TV is tuned for the operating time and the time during which viewing was carried out. Using TV meters allows you to register TV channel viewing with an accuracy of up to a second. All household members and guests mark their presence in the room by pressing the button assigned to each household member on a special remote control (special buttons are provided for registering guest viewing). Once respondents have registered, the TV meter automatically records all switches made on a given TV.

Throughout the day, the TV meter collects all information about television viewing and stores it in memory. Every night, the local information collection point computer contacts each household via telephone/cellular line. All household TV viewing data is then transferred to a Moscow processing center. This procedure is carried out every night in each of the households. In parallel with this process, the GallupAdFact campaign conducts a recording of television broadcasts of national and network channels broadcasting in a given city in each locality of the panel.

To compile the overall picture of broadcasting national and network channels used in national data, a cassette recording of the broadcast in each city is processed at the central office of the GallupAdFact campaign, where a correspondence is established between the outputs of broadcast events in different cities (mapping procedure).

In the form of special reports determined by the Customer.

Data submission deadlines

Moscow – data on television viewing and monitoring of television broadcasts (daily, preliminary data for yesterday, final data for the day before yesterday);

National data, data for individual cities - weekly, with a delay of 12 days from the end of the week

software

The software package is designed for all types of analysis, to solve both television and advertising problems.

Ministry of Education of the Republic of Tajikistan

Kazan State Technical University named after A.N. Tupolev

Faculty of Humanities.

Abstract on media planning on the topic:

Media studies.

I've done the work:

Student gr.7202

Ryazapov M.Sh.

I checked the work:

Galanin S.F.

Kazan 2007.
Content:

1.Introduction…………………………………………………………….…..3 pages.

History of audience research in the West…………..…….…….4 pp.

Basic concepts of media planning…………………………….....6 p.

Media studies………………………………………….……….....8 pp.

Methods for registering information………………………………...14 p.

5. Conclusion.………………….………………………………………………………17 p.

6. List of used literature…………………………………..18 pages.

7. Applications….................................................. ...............................................19 pp.
Introduction.

Chapter 1.

History of audience research in the West.

Chapter 2.

Basic concepts of media planning.

3. The number of audience contacts is the product of the audience and the frequency of contacts. The number of audience contacts is equal to the audience “X” frequency of contacts. Such mutual transitions are especially important, since according to the conditions of some tasks, the numerical values of the audience and the frequency of contacts can be known, and according to the conditions of other tasks, the numerical values of the audience and the number of audience contacts can be known. Using two known quantities, a third can be found.

4. The number of contacts to the GS is a relative indicator of the number of contacts of the audience (convenient when comparing media and advertising campaigns).

5. The ratio of the frequency of contacts to the GS is a relative indicator of the frequency of contacts.

6. Share of the target audience - the ratio of the target audience to the audience.

7. The share of target contacts is the ratio of the number of target contacts to the number of contacts. The share of target contacts is equal to the number of target contacts of the audience.

8. Share of the target group - the ratio of the target group to the HS. The share of the target group is equal to the target group of the HS.

9. Target coverage - the ratio of the target audience to the target group. Relative indicator of the target audience. Target coverage is equal to the target audience, group.

10. Drive time – the time during which the largest possible audience of potential listeners drives cars to and from work from 6.00 to 10.00 and from 16.00 to 19.00; the most effective and most expensive radio airtime.

Chapter 3.

Media studies.

However, in recent years, such a need has become quite obvious: advertising volumes have increased significantly, competition for advertising space has arisen, and its cost has increased. Today, an advertiser must carefully and reasonably approach the choice of advertising media and media planning in general.

Sociological research is needed, first of all, to obtain objective and reliable data, on the basis of which the optimal ways of media planning are determined.

Media research exists in two directions:

MI are based mainly on sociological research, therefore, their reliability is the same as the reliability of any sociological study (depending on the sample size, the representativeness of the latter, and research methodology).

Monitoring - fixing outputs + measuring volumes + estimating costs according to official price lists.

Many MIs are impossible without accurate monitoring

PANEL

Press - regional versions of central publications differ markedly from central ones. For example, “Arguments and Facts” or “Komsomolskaya Pravda” have their own inserts in almost every region.

Radio - a network does not mean complete retransmission, quite the contrary. Locally, they choose the “crown” from the central broadcast, and the rest is filled in with what the local editors like (and rightly so).

DIARY

The following terminology is accepted in the practice of media research:

Potential audience of the TV channel refers to the entire population living in those settlements where it is technically possible to receive a particular TV channel. The size of the potential audience varies depending on the number and type of television receivers, as well as the broadcast range of television channels.

Sampling – that part of the population that is subject to the research process. It must objectively reflect the general population, i.e. repeat it according to the most important characteristics.

Representativeness – correspondence of the sample structure to the structure of the general population.

So, if we assume that we need to get a representative sample, then it would not hurt to decide on the parameters if we are talking about media research. In descending order of importance, they can be arranged in the following order:

Age.

Social status.

Education.

Per capita income.

Audience measurement is a study that provides statistical estimates of the television audience based on actual measurements for a certain calendar period. In practice, audience measurement is carried out using one or another method of surveying the population, i.e. addressing questions to the population as a whole or to a specific group of people to obtain both factual information (watched/didn’t watch, read/didn’t read, etc.) and subjective information - opinions, assessments, preferences, etc. Persons those selected in a special way to conduct a survey are called respondents. These constitute the survey sample. The sample is formed in such a way that it fully represents (represents) the structure of the general population.

General population - This is the population group from which respondents for the study are sampled. Depending on the purposes of the study, the population of the entire country as a whole, the population of a separate region, a specific city, or a specific group of the population with certain socio-demographic parameters, etc. can be considered as a general population. In accordance with the theory of statistics, if the sample represents the general population (corresponds to it structurally and has sufficient volume), then the data obtained as a result of research allows us to judge the general population as a whole. There are scientifically sound procedures for constructing a representative sample. In general, the sample should be random and respondents should be selected from a database of sufficient coverage, accuracy and relevance. Random sampling implies that all respondents have an equal chance of being selected. The ideal sample size for various methods has not been established in world practice, however, as practice shows, the reliability of the data increases noticeably when the sample size increases to approximately 1200 people. A further increase in its volume provides only a slight increase in the reliability of research.

Finally, the third important drawback of the method is the use of the telephone as a means of interviewing, which, given the insufficient level of telephone coverage in Russia, leads to significant territorial restrictions.

A step forward was the conduct of diary studies. This is a fairly simple, relatively cheap and most commonly used data collection technique (although not the most accurate). Typically, the diary is divided into fifteen-minute or half-hour intervals, completed by the respondent over a specified continuous period of time—usually one or two full weeks. In some methods, the diary is a detailed list of television programs.

Chapter 4.

Methods for registering information.

There are several methods for collecting registration information. The main ones:

- Survey.

- Hardware registration of information.(Exclusively in television, radio and Internet) this method is based on a questionnaire.

Let's take a closer look at the equipment used. First of all, this is a counter - an electronic recording device connected to the TV and recording when it is turned on and what TV channel is being watched. Counters were originally used to measure broadcast audiences, but today they are used primarily for television audience analysis. The disadvantage of the counter is that it does not provide information about the demographic characteristics of the audience. To solve this problem, a device known as a people-meter began to be used in the 1980s. People-meter can also record what is viewed and for how long. But in addition to this, it allows viewers to enter their demographic characteristics. To do this, there is a set of buttons, each of which corresponds to a particular viewer. Typically people-meter has 8 buttons for family members, 7 for guests, 1 for zero viewing, etc. Each TV viewer presses his own button when he starts and stops watching TV. Adding the TV meter data and individual viewing records gives the expected audience of a TV channel or other type of television (for example, teletext, video cassettes, video games, etc.).

Among the most important parameters of television viewing are the following: All “live” viewing time of all television channels in the house within 24 hours. All the while watching videos. All the time guests watch TV. Viewing all television devices in the house that can be measured technically and for material reasons (portable, battery-powered may not be measured). A household in which this cannot be done for some reason should be replaced with a household with similar characteristics. Otherwise, foreign authors believe, “there is a risk of distortion of the research results, i.e. television viewing of individual stations will be represented disproportionately” (Towards harmonization of television audience measurement systems. Geneva. 1993). All other uses of television devices, for example, use of teletext, rental videos, etc.

Conclusion.

In this work, I tried to understand how important media planning is in the advertising business. I learned how difficult and responsible the process of developing a media plan is. Media research is also a very important feature in media planning, since it is very important to know the target audience to whom advertising is directed.

Media planning includes a lot of important points in drawing up a media plan that must be taken into account and, most importantly, understood. Although at the moment in the advertising market in Russia almost no one draws up correct media plans, i.e. taking into account all the requirements and with the analysis of media research, since media research is a very expensive and difficult process. In the future, I would like to do media planning for advertising companies, since in Russia this is still a beginning process and requires a lot of research. Only now have experts begun to understand how necessary a proper media plan is in an advertising company for the results to be truly tangible. And so I believe that this will be my task in the future.

Bibliography:

1. Bannikova A. Notes on media planning. //Advertiser, No. 4, 1995. 2. Bove K.L. Modern advertising. USA publishing house "Dovgan", 1995.

6. Lectures on media planning. Galanin S.F.

Applications.

(example questionnaire)

Questionnaire We, the Saulite Company, the main distributor of alcoholic beverages in country N, invite you to answer the questions in the questionnaire. This questionnaire is a sociological study conducted by us with the aim of identifying the consumer demand of residents of the city of N for alcoholic products. Your answers will help indicate the preferences of residents, and will also significantly influence the pricing policy of stores.

1. What alcoholic drink do you prefer? ___________________________

2. Where do you buy alcohol? _____________________________

3. On what basis do you choose a drink? ___________________________

4. How often do you drink alcohol? 1. Infrequently 2. Only on holidays 3. Whenever there is a reason

4. Whenever the desire arises ________________________________

5. Do you feel a particular craving for alcohol? 1. Yes 2. No 3. Difficult to answer

6. Do your failures often force you to resort to the bottle? 1. Often 2. Not often 3. Never 4. Difficult to answer

7. How do you think the availability of cheap alcoholic beverages influences the increase in alcohol consumption? __________________________________________________________________ 8. In your opinion, are there any positive aspects to drinking alcoholic beverages? 1. Yes 2. No

10. Are you satisfied with the assortment that city stores offer? ________________________________

11. Have you ever encountered a situation where the alcoholic drink you required was not available? 1. Yes 2. No 3. Difficult to answer

12. What volume of alcoholic drink do you buy most often? 1. 0.2 2. 0.35 3. 0.5 4. 0.7 5. 1 l 6. more than 1 l

13. What goods do you usually purchase along with alcohol? ___________________________________________________________

14. How do you assess the quality of alcohol produced in Latvia? 1. High 2. Low 3. Medium 4. Low 5. Very low

15. How do you assess the quality of alcohol imported to Latvia? 1. High 2. Low 3. Medium 4. Low 5. Very low

16. What is your norm for drinking alcohol? 1. 0.2 2. 0.3 3. 0.5 4. 0.7 5. 1 l 6. more than 1 l 7. difficult to answer

17. Where do you prefer to drink alcohol? 1. Home 2. Bar, restaurant, club 3. Work 4. Outdoors 5. _________________

20. How do you feel about Prohibition? 1. Positive 2. Negative 3. Difficult to answer

21. What is the reason why you would give up drinking alcohol? ____________________________________________________________ We ask you to provide some information about yourself

22.What is your gender? 1. Female 2. Male

23. What is your age? 1. 18-25 2. 25-30 3. 30-40

4. 40-55 5. 55-70 6. over 70

24. The area of the city in which you currently live? ____________________________________

25. Are you studying or working? 1. I work 2. I study 3. I work and study 4. _________________________

26. What is your monthly income ($)? 1. 60-150 2. 150-300 3. 300-600 4. 600-1000 5. 1000 –2000

Appendix 2.

Data structure Gallup Media .

Gallup TV Index – general description of the project.

Data separately by city.

Information on television viewing is collected from a panel sample of households that have at least one working television.

As a source of population information, the survey also provides a database of potential panel participants, from whom recruitment is then carried out for the panel.

Procedure for providing data

Information on the results of the study is provided:

In the form of an electronic database for specialized software - data subscription;

In the form of special reports determined by the Customer.

Data submission deadlines

Data is delivered with a delay of 1-11 days depending on the type of data:

Moscow – data on television viewing and monitoring of television broadcasts (daily, preliminary data for yesterday, final data for the day before yesterday);

National data, data for individual cities - weekly, with a delay of 12 days from the end of the week

software

The software package is designed for all types of analysis, to solve both television and advertising problems.

Ksenia, audience research, media research, is one of the relatively new specialties in Russia. You, as one of the most consistent representatives of this specialty, could probably tell a brief history of its emergence and development...

Media research is indeed one of the relatively new areas of activity in our country. Despite the fact that in one form or another they have existed in Russia for quite a long time, they began to attract more serious attention around the same time when advertising appeared in Russia, i.e. somewhere from the first half of the nineties.

At first these were mainly survey methods (personal and telephone interviews), a little later electronic measurements appeared (in 1996, TNS Russia, then Gallup Media, began measuring the Moscow television audience using people meters).

It is important to understand that the development of media research is directly related to the development of the advertising market: the larger its volume, the more money it is willing to spend on obtaining more accurate and high-quality information about media carriers, i.e. about the media audience.

Therefore, it is not surprising that in Russia, with its colossal (up to 229 billion rubles in 2007, more than 25% per year) growth of the advertising market, media measurements have undergone truly revolutionary changes. For example, TV viewing is now measured using an improved model of people meters (1) , which allows, among other things, to work with digital TV not only in Moscow, but throughout Russia as a whole.

Automatic recognition technology is used, which allows you to quickly and accurately compare the audience of the same program or commercial broadcast in the cities of our country (2) at different times of the day, and sometimes on different days.

The technology of portable people meters has been fully tested and tested, allowing you to automatically measure the audience of both radio and television, not only at home, but also outside (in the car, in a bar, restaurant, beauty salon, etc.)

Using special counters, the Internet audience is measured, and multimedia research is constantly developing and radio and press measurement technologies are being improved.

The importance of media research has long been recognized by representatives of the advertising business, heads of television channels, radio, and the press. The quality of this research is a vital factor for many businesses. There is a lot of money behind this. What does quality itself consist of (research technologies, technical support, economic viability and goodwill of customers)? And what place does the quality of “human resources” have here – the level of professionalism of employees?

It is important to understand that the results of media measurements are not just dry numbers, but are currency in the advertising and media market: for example, the purchase of television advertising is made precisely according to ratings, and when choosing a particular media for advertising, various audience indicators are also used.

This is why the quality of the information provided is extremely important for both the industry and the research company.

This quality consists of many components.

Modern research technologies.

Here, on the one hand, we are helped by belonging to one of the largest research networks - TNS - which automatically gives us the opportunity to use all international experience in our work. On the other hand, this is our unique accumulated experience! Agree that, for example, in order to measure the audience of a specific program or a specific commercial, aired in different cities of our Motherland at different times of the day, and often on different days, and to correctly take into account time zones, orbits and duplicates of different TV channels, you don’t need as much international experience as understanding the needs of our industry and our Russian specifics.

Technical support that is quite closely related to modern technologies.

In particular, whenever possible, all the advantages of modern technical support are used, automatic control and processing are used at all stages.

“Good will of customers”, or rather, constant interaction with the Industry, which is the end consumer of the information we supply.

Almost all changes in our media audience measurement projects are discussed and agreed upon in great detail with the Industry, and the development and modification of projects occurs in accordance with the ever-growing and changing market requirements. It is also noteworthy that a project on joint quality control of television data has been implemented for several years now: a group of experts (representatives of advertising agencies, TV channels and advertisers) daily receives and analyzes data that makes it possible to unambiguously understand how well the information about the television audience is collected.

But, of course, the most important thing, both for ensuring quality data and for the optimal functioning of all business processes, are the people working in the company. Our employees are our main capital. And that is why the company’s management is constantly working both to increase the motivation and satisfaction of staff, and to develop their professional level.

What specializations are there in the field of media measurements? Who trains such specialists? How do you assess the general level of training of these specialists today? Which universities would you personally advise those who want to professionally engage in media measurements to enroll in?

There are many specializations in the field of media measurements. This is explained by the variety of problems solved by measurements, and, as a consequence, by a huge number of different types and types of research. But carrying out any of them also requires experts in a variety of fields!

Now there are universities where in the departments of sociology, marketing, advertising, etc. They train, among other things, future researchers. For example, Moscow State University, State University Higher School of Economics, State University of Economics, Russian State University for the Humanities, etc. We cooperate with some universities, conduct teaching work, give lectures and conduct practical classes. We provide our data and software to many universities so that students can “touch” live data while still studying.

Many employees come to our company after graduating from Moscow State University or the Higher School of Economics, but there are also graduates of other institutes and universities. We are always glad to see young people who are passionate about research and focused on development in this industry as part of our team. However, regardless of the specific university, practical experience is extremely important, which can only be acquired as a result of real work.

Is TNS experiencing a staff shortage? What specialists are missing? How do you solve this problem?

Like any actively developing company (and we are developing very actively, we currently employ about 600 people in all divisions), we are experiencing a constant shortage of specialists in a variety of areas. The most in demand are experienced project managers, technical specialists (programmers, data processing managers, IT specialists), and assistants.

It is very difficult to find a “ready” manager or specialist on the market, not only at the highest level, but also at the middle level. Therefore, we quite often look for people for assistant positions, and then “grow” them into professionals. Often 4th-5th year university students begin their careers in our company, combining work with study. In the initial positions of assistants, they have the opportunity to gain practical research experience, and by the time they receive their diploma, which is often written on a “work” topic, our employees already have significant experience in real work. Then they get the opportunity for career growth, moving to the position of project manager, with the potential to take the position of project or department manager in the future. And in this case, everything depends on the person - on his determination, ability and desire to learn and the success achieved in his work.

You have repeatedly noted that media research data is a reliable tool for the development of the regional advertising market. Who conducts research in the regions? Are these specialists living directly there, or experts from the capital?

A reliable tool is, first of all, a quality tool. Therefore, our main priority is the quality of the information provided - regardless of the geography of our research.

TNS company offices are located in many cities of Russia. However, with the exception of Moscow and St. Petersburg, these offices perform technical functions. Only metropolitan experts are involved in organizing the research, developing its design and determining various parameters. Who will be directly involved in collecting information is determined primarily by the type of research being conducted. For example, if we are talking about conducting a certain number of focus groups or in-depth interviews, specialists from the capital go to the regions. If you need to interview several thousand people, this, of course, is done by local performers.

At the same time, capital experts monitor the quality of work at each stage. There are various techniques actively used by our company.

At the same time, we are constantly working to improve the technological effectiveness of the research. For example, at the end of last year we organized a call center in Tula with 1000 telephone lines. This made it possible to transfer part of the all-Russian surveys, previously conducted using personal interviews by regional partners, to a computerized telephone system with unique capabilities for monitoring the quality of work.

What is the job of the “boss” of all television research? What does your working day consist of?

You may expect the answer “I continuously analyze the data” or “I constantly monitor the work of people meters,” but this is not at all the case! In principle, the production of television data itself is not so different from any other high-tech continuous production process. The work is clearly streamlined: each of the existing divisions is responsible for a certain part of the work. Highly qualified professionals work everywhere. That's why every morning at 9 o'clock our clients receive the latest television ratings. Thus, this “production” part of the work requires little or no attention from me. Therefore, to summarize, we can say that I mainly do:

meetings and communication with industry representatives: clients and potential clients. This is necessary to understand and study the needs of the Russian market, which is important for determining the main directions for the further development of telemetry in our country;
directly determining the strategic directions for the development of the company’s TV division;
management work, leadership and motivation of employees.

How did your career develop? What position do you need to start from in order to subsequently head a television research service?

I joined the company from the very beginning of our television measurements, i.e. more than 10 years ago. There were very few of us then, about ten people, which is completely incomparable with the current several hundred employees. It is curious that, despite the fact that so much time has passed since the founding of the company, the core has been preserved: those people who started and now work in the company, heading its strategic directions. However, this does not mean at all that work experience is a necessary and sufficient condition for career success. You can start from almost any position. You just need to clearly understand your own aspirations and ambitions, love the work you do, and constantly develop - both professionally and personally. Then success is inevitable!

Why do you love your job? In what industry could you make an equally brilliant career, relying on your own knowledge, skills and abilities? And what are your career plans at the moment?

For me, “conquering new heights” (all three words are important here) is very important: on the one hand, this is the achievement of goals that are difficult to achieve at first glance, and on the other, the constant creation of something new. My work always provides me with an excellent opportunity to achieve difficult goals in a variety of areas and areas of activity, constantly develop and try something new. This is what I really appreciate about her. Therefore, I am sure that now I could achieve success in almost any field of activity that requires:

strategic analysis of the situation (understanding of the current state, SWOT);
determination of strategic directions of development and main ways to achieve the goal;
managing the process of achieving the goal;
people management.

_______________________________________________________________________________

(1) People meter is a device that automatically records, down to the second, which channel the working TV in the family is tuned to, and which family member is watching it.In most countries of the world, including Russia, it is used to measure TV audiences.

(2) Cities with a population of 100,000 or more.

Table of contents

Introduction……………………………….……………………… ……………..3 pp.
1. MEDIA RESEARCH………………………………… …………....4 p.
1.1. Development of audience research abroad and in Russia………......4 pp.
1.2. The need for media research……………………...…… …..…10 p.
1.3. Media research market: sellers and buyers............12 pp.
2. measuring media audiences………………....15 p.
2.1. Measuring the audience of television and radio………...………………...…..15 p.
2.2. Measuring the press audience……………………………………………………21 pp.
2.3. Outdoor advertising and the Internet: measurement possibilities…………..…25 pp.
Conclusion……………………………………………………… ……..…31 pp.
LIST OF REFERENCES……………………..…33 pp.

Introduction

Media research or media consumption research has recently taken an increasingly strong position in the system of marketing communications both in Russia and abroad. Increasingly large shares of advertising budgets are spent on purchasing media measurement results, organizing, conducting in-house research, or measuring brand awareness after a video has been shown as part of an advertising campaign.
Western technologies for measuring media audiences are actively being mastered and improved, and domestic companies are offering their solutions and projects. True, in the domestic practice of media research, a uniform system for conducting media research has not yet been developed. There is a significant shift in the sophistication of media measurement technologies towards broadcast media, while alternative media are not only not measured using a general methodology, but practically remain without the centralized attention of research companies.
Considering the relevance of this problem, this course work will analyze the issues of conducting research on the audience of various media using various methods.
The purpose of writing a course work is to consider the process of media measurements using various methods.
In accordance with the topic of this work, the following tasks were set when writing it:

1. MEDIA RESEARCH

1.1. Development of audience research abroad and in Russia

The first prerequisite for the formation of modern mediametry can apparently be considered the speech at the first session of the German Sociological Society in 1910 by the famous German sociologist Max Weber, in which he used the concept of “sociology of the press”.
Taking into account the tasks of the sociology of the press stated by Weber, one could consider 1910 the starting point for the development of a new branch of sociological knowledge - the sociology of mass communication and the media. But Weber’s proposal did not receive any real development, so it makes sense to look for the origins of the development of media sociology on the American continent.
Even 16 years before Weber, in the first American textbook on sociology by A. Small and J. Vincent, published in 1894, the idea was expressed about the need to identify a new branch of knowledge that would consider issues of media activity and audience formation. The Faculty of Sociology, later founded by Small, became the “base” for the Chicago School of Empirical Research, the influence of which is difficult to underestimate.
As the size of the media audience increased, they began to be studied for their influence on various social processes.
By the 1930-1940s in the United States, the direction of applied research on the media and their audience began to be determined by the requirements of advertisers who were interested in certain audiences of potential consumers of their product/service. They needed to identify specific advertising media that would provide maximum audience reach for a relatively reasonable fee. This is approximately how the question was posed already in the 1930s. determined the direction of development of rating research on mass media audiences in the United States.
The development of this type of research was preceded and facilitated by the general development of empirical research and the first attempts at practical research on media audiences in the 1920s. In 1921, George Hotchkiss conducted the first survey aimed at determining the reading habits of not just an audience, but educated and solvent New Yorkers. Around the same time (1927), George Gallup was working on a technique for conducting an oral survey of a representative sample of readers at the University of Iowa. According to Gallup's methodology, the interviewer conducts a so-called “copy test,” during which the respondent literally shows which articles he read in the latest issue and what he paid the most attention to or did not pay attention to at all.
In the 1930s, research on radio listeners developed greatly in the United States and European countries. In 1929-1930 Daniel Starch published the results of the first radio audience study, commissioned by the NBC radio network (USA). At the initiative of the Rockefeller Foundation, the Bureau of Radio Research was founded in 1937 at Princeton, and since 1940 at Columbia University, as a center for the social scientific study of radio audiences, which was required by numerous radio studios and companies.
In the mid-1930s, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology created a device to record radio use, called an “audiometer.” This technical innovation in data collection tools has proven to be very important in improving the accuracy of recording audience behavior. Its application and improvement in the future made it possible to conduct regular quantitative studies of the radio audience with minimal registration error. The appearance of the audiometer largely predetermined the development trends of technical tools for collecting data on television audiences, becoming the prototype of a similar device called the “TV meter”, and then the “people meter”.
In 1936, this device was purchased by Arthur Nielsen, who by that time had been engaged in marketing research for a long time, in particular panel research in retail trade. After a long period of refinement of the device and test studies, Nielsen began using it in 1942 to conduct regular radio audience research on a national American sample of 800 households. The research procedure included the removal of a perforated tape with information recorded by the device by a company employee A.S. Nielsen once a month. Considering the processing time, the user received the information several months late.
Since 1950, the company A.S. Nielsen began measuring the audience of a new media - television. At the national level, a modification of the audiometer called the “TV meter” began to be used for this purpose. Over time, the technology for collecting information from audiometers and TV meters was improved, and the data began to be automatically sent for processing to the company’s office via telephone lines, which reduced the time for the final provision of data to users.
In 1987, two new systems for obtaining television ratings appeared on the American market, using a new tool to obtain information - the people-meter (hereinafter referred to as PM). This tool, in addition to the capabilities of a TV meter, made it possible to find out exactly who was watching a particular channel, program or station. One of the new rating systems belonged to the company A.S. Nielsen, the other is from AGB, which has already been carrying out PM panels in the UK since 1984. A year later, AGB had to leave the US television audience research market, without ever displacing A.S. Nielsen. Another competitor A.S. Nielsen has become Arbitron in the American audience measurement market since its formation in 1949. The players in the American and European media measurement markets will be discussed in more detail in the next section of this chapter.
Thus, the development of broadcast media has finally formed two models of markets: the American, characterized by the commercialization of the media market with a central position in the advertiser's market, and the European, which is characterized by state, public and subscriber television broadcasting with a central position in the broadcaster's market. For each of the models, its main function of audience rating research turned out to be a priority: for the American one - assessment of advertising effects; for the European one - assessment of the effects of program content in broadcast media.
Considering the history of the formation of mediametric science, one cannot fail to mention Russian experience in this direction.
Leaving aside the Soviet experience of media measurements, it can be noted that the objective need for these studies and measurements of media audiences appeared in Russia in the early 1990s. This was caused by the appearance on the market of a large number of advertisers and, importantly, including Western advertisers (meaning their importance as carriers of certain traditions of working with the media), the growth in the number of commercial advertising media and the corresponding increase in competition between them, the need to create effective sales structure of advertising time and space.
The first experience of regular (wave) measurements of television audiences in Russia belongs to the French company “Mediametrie”, which in 1991 began implementing the international project “Media Focus” in Russia.
In Russia, these data were not widely disseminated, but Mediametrie’s research pushed domestic companies to find their niche in the emerging field of media measurements. Mediametrie's activities in Russia did not last long, and by 1995 all research by this company was curtailed.
In 1992, data appeared from the first study of the Russian audience of broadcast media, conducted by another foreign company - the British branch of the Gallup Institute - “Gallup Poll”. This study, called the Russian Media Monitor, used a diary as a tool to collect information on television viewing and radio listening.
In 1994, a number of Gallup Poll managers decided to purposefully engage in audience measurement in Russia, for which the Russian Research company was created. By the beginning of 1997, the sample of the study conducted by this company amounted to 2,800 respondents in 33 largest cities, at the same time the market situation was further assessed through the use of data from the companies COMCON-2 and VTsIOM/MediaMar.
One way or another, Russian audience measurement data began to penetrate the advertising market by 1992. In just a few years, Russian media research companies also appeared: COMCON-2, Gallup Media, VTsIOM/MediaMar.
The COMCON-2 company began its activities in the media audience research market in 1993 with a project to measure television audiences in Moscow. For this, the company used the telephone interview method using the CATI (Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing) complex. By 1995, COMCON-2 began conducting a national television diary panel with a total sample size of 1,600 households.
This study by COMCON-2 came into direct competition with the study by Russian Research, but as a result of the 1998 crisis, both companies were forced to curtail their television panels.
The place of these companies was taken by a new player - Gallup Media. Founded in 1994, this company began its activities in 1995 with a project to study the Moscow press audience under the promising name “National Readership Survey” (NRS). Over time, this project has truly become national and currently represents residents of cities with a population of more than 100 thousand people. The company entered the television measurement market in 1996 with the TV Index study.
In 1995, another company, VTsIOM/MediaMar, began its research. This company placed the main emphasis in its research on conducting regional measurements of the audience of all three media - television, radio and press. At the same time, the audience of all three media was studied using the same diary, which made it possible to assess the overlap of their audiences. In 1998, the company provided data on media audiences in the 50 largest cities of Russia. In the same year, part of the shares of the VDIOM/MediaMar company was sold to the German research company G1K, after which it received the name GfK/VTsIOM Media.
In general, the development of media research in Russia resembles the general trends in the development of this type of research in emerging and developing markets. Such markets are characterized by the dynamism of research development, the rapid assimilation of experience, the latest technologies and audience research methodologies accumulated by Western countries, which began work in this area back in the 1930s. However, it should be noted that the development of audience measurements is closely related to the development of the advertising market and, therefore, the development of the economy as a whole. Here, Russia does not yet stand up to comparison, and this is associated with virtually no visible development in the field of audience measurement and even a reduction in the number of media audience studies.

1.2. The need for media studies

Media research (media measurement) plays an important role in the modern advertising process. They allow advertisers to correctly allocate their budget and choose exactly those media on which they need to spend money most efficiently. This can happen both between different media and within one media across different media. The question of how best to spend money is answered by a type of research called media measurement. There are many different research methodologies that can be used to study different media. Some measure the level of knowledge of a TV channel, print media, or radio station. Others are the attitude of the audience and non-audience to this media.
Media research is designed to answer 3 main questions: what is the size of the audience, what is the composition of the media audience, what is the frequency of contacts between the audience and the media. These 3 parameters allow the advertiser to correctly distribute the advertising budget.
As already noted, the development of mediametrics is due to the development of both media technologies themselves and their growing diversity, as well as the steadily increasing volume of advertising budgets.
In these conditions, the need for media measurements has opposite grounds. Firstly, measurements are necessary for advertisers seeking to spend their funds most efficiently and minimize losses from non-core placement of their advertising.
On the other hand, the same data is used by the media themselves and advertising intermediaries as a factor of competitive advantage and the basis for pricing, in which the higher the rating, the higher the cost of a particular medium.
Thus, we can distinguish a couple of main functions of audience rating research: 1) assessing the effect of an advertising campaign, caused by the need to assess the effectiveness of advertising investments as a whole, and 2) assessing the effect of programmatic or editorial content of a mass media, caused by the need to assess the effectiveness of its actions to attract and retain audience.
The resulting assessment may indicate the need for any changes that need to be planned and the effects of the planned actions assessed. Accordingly, following the paired evaluation function carried out by audience measurements, a paired planning support function can be identified. For advertisers, this is planning the effective placement of advertising messages; for media representatives, it is planning and optimizing effective broadcast networks, editorial content, etc. As a third, general function, we can highlight the provision of the results of rating studies of a unified coordinate system in financial relations between advertisers and representatives Media, since the demand and supply of airtime or space, prices for them are determined based on the results of audience rating studies.
It can be said that it was the implementation of these functions by rating studies that determined the absence of significant changes in the structure of the data obtained with their help. As a result, rating studies have not undergone significant methodological changes for almost 70 years. The existing changes largely concerned the methods of analysis and interpretation of the data obtained.
The development of rating studies of media audiences is primarily associated with the development of radio broadcasting. The long history of the press did not lead to the emergence of standardized audience studies. And the point here is not even the lack of necessary research methods. They would appear if there was a demand for them. Before the advent of radio, the press was the only media that allowed publishers not to worry about advertisers leaving. In addition, publications have always been more material than broadcast media. You can hold it in your hands, it has such characteristics as circulation and geography of distribution, so it has always been easier for an individual publication to prove that placing advertising in it will bring certain benefits to the advertiser.
However, with the development of less tangible media, additional needs for their assessment appeared, which could not be solved in any other way except by organizing constant measurements of the audience, first of a quantitative and then of a qualitative nature.
Along with this, media measurements were able to solve the emerging control problem by implementing methods for monitoring and post-measurement of the effectiveness of advertising campaigns.
The modern media measurement industry is actively developing, especially in countries and regions with a developed system of mass communications and a capacious advertising market. The specifics of this market, as well as its main players, will be discussed in the next section of this chapter.

1.3 Media research market: sellers and buyers

The results of rating studies, as purely applied research, affect the interests of all sides of mass communication - the audience, media representatives (journalists, producers, publishers, etc.), and the advertiser.
Based on this statement, rating research can be considered as a type of applied research on media audiences that has utilitarian and commercial significance. The customer of a rating study is, for the most part, a regular client of the research company. He is a subscriber to the audience data set he is interested in,
that is, he needs to receive such data on a regular basis. Because of this, most rating research is standardized and conducted regularly over a long period of time, often at the expense of the research company itself, and then distributed on equal financial terms to subscribers of the study, as well as to one-time or occasional clients. The specific customer of the rating research is, as it were, hidden among the entire mass of clients of the research company; more precisely, the customer of the audience research is the advertising industry or part of it.
In general terms, we can distinguish two groups of customers for media audience rating studies: broadcasters and publishers, on the one hand, and advertising agencies acting on behalf of their advertiser clients. Schematically, the interaction of the listed participants can be expressed as follows (see Figure 1):

Figure 1. General diagram of the media measurement market

A broadcaster can also be considered as a producer of a certain product - broadcast. At the same time, his interest in rating data stems from two interrelated aspects of his activity: 1) the need to “sell” the broadcast to the audience, attract and retain it with certain program content; 2) show the advertiser the presence of audiences of interest to him and, on the basis of this, sell him time for advertising.
But an advertising agency does not buy time on a channel or even just an audience - it buys the attention of a specific audience, which, among other things, is determined by consumer characteristics on a given channel. To assess the attention of the audience and make a forecast: how many representatives of the target group and with what frequency will see the advertising message, the agency also turns to a research company that is able to provide data on both the consumption of goods and services and media consumption.
The advertising market, taking into account the activities of research companies, can be expressed in the form of the following diagram, where researchers provide information in all aspects (see Figure 2).

Figure 2. General scheme of interaction between media measurement market players

The advertiser realizes the need to maintain or increase the number of consumers of his product/service and turns to an advertising agency to conduct an advertising campaign for him. From this moment, the chain “advertising agency - mass media (broadcasters/publishers) - audience" is activated and the interaction of participants in the advertising industry begins, with the maximum task of changing the consumer situation in the market or consumer behavior, which requires the implementation of intermediate tasks - coverage of the advertising message a specific target audience with a certain frequency of contact with the message. To reach the audience, the advertising agency turns to the broadcaster.
Having examined the general scheme of functioning of the media measurement market and studied the interaction of its players, we can move on to studying the features of measuring audiences of various media. This will be done in the next chapter of this work.

2. Measuring media audiences

2.1. Radio and television audience measurement

As already mentioned, the people-metrics method is currently considered the most promising, although there are a number of more traditional ways of measuring television audiences.
Calculating ratings using diaries. Using diaries to count TV viewership is the oldest method. Its essence is this: each member of the household is asked to write down in a diary what he watches on television. The day in the diary is divided into 15-minute time intervals. Each household member writes down the name of the station, the channel number, and the name of the program watched on TV.
To select target families, multi-stage probabilistic selection is usually used. Thus, the company A.C. Nielsen practices the following scheme of action: diaries for each of the televisions in working condition (up to 5) are sent to households that agreed to participate in the survey. In addition, diaries are sent by mail to households that refused to participate in the survey, whose telephone numbers are listed in the telephone directory, as well as to households where no one answered 5 telephone calls over two days, spaced during the day and evening. Along with the diary, a certain amount is included in the mailing package as a monetary reward. To reduce the frequency of lack of contact with audience members not listed in the directory, 10 attempts are made to contact each telephone number.
In order to ensure a high level of participation in filling out television viewing diaries, A.C. Nielsen holds the following events.
Each family is sent a reminder to start journaling on Thursday. For households with cable television with 60 channels or fewer, a list of all cable channels is also included with the letter. All other participating households receive a postcard reminder. After a week - the period provided for the end of keeping the diary - all households are sent postcards again with a reminder to return the completed diary. To ensure high participation rates from certain ethnic and racial groups, additional measures are taken by calling all Hispanic and listed non-Native households throughout the diary period to remind them to return the completed diary. All Black households and listed non-Indigenous households are called twice during the diary period: at the beginning of the week to remind them to start keeping the diary, and at the end of the week to remind them to send it back.
Panel members keep personal diaries, recording the television programs they watch during certain “audience measurement months”: November, February, May and July.
Calculating the rating using an audiometer. An audiometer is a device that connects to a TV and automatically records the state of the TV (on or off) and the channel being watched. (To select target households in which audiometers will be connected, multi-stage probability sampling is used, just as when forming a sample for keeping diaries.) Audimeter records, compared with diary records, by definition do not contain errors in answers, since when used With this device, people in the sample do not need to waste energy filling out a diary, remembering what they watched, what numbers they dialed, what the name of the channel was, what the name of the program was, etc.
Audimeters therefore collect accurate rating and audience share information, but unlike the diary method, there is no way to collect data to determine ratings and share for specific demographic groups.
Using audiometers, quantitative characteristics of the viewing audience of specific local markets are collected throughout the year.
Calculating ratings using a TV viewer counter (people meter). Having mentioned the people-metric method several times, we should still briefly describe its technology. The ratings of television programs on a national scale can be calculated using a people meter. This electronic device resembles a cable television box with a remote control. In the nationwide panel pear company A.S. Nielsen includes about 4,000 households that have a people meter installed on every TV. Households are selected using a multistage, geographically stratified probability sample to maximize the generalizability of the findings to the entire US population.
Each peoplemeter is individually programmed and contains personal data of each household member: age, gender and other demographic characteristics. When you turn on the TV, the people meter automatically records the program you are watching. A family member, having turned on the TV, and other household members in the room press separate, individually assigned buttons on the meter's remote control. Thus, the device counts each person (recorded by pressing a button), recording him in the category of the audience of the given program. As they leave the room, family members press another button, signaling that they are no longer members of the television audience. The people meter program also involves counting household guests who manually enter their demographic information. At night, information received about the audience is transmitted via telephone lines to the computer of the A.S. company. Nielsen, where the data is tabulated. The next day, clients receive printed data.
In conclusion of the review of methods for measuring television audiences, we can note the introduction in Russia of systems of portable people meters (hereinafter referred to as PPM), which reduce the share of manual data entry by the measurement participant. Thus, in 2003, TNS Gallup Media tested the MRP system in Russia. To evaluate the operation of the system, 38 Moscow households were selected. Television companies NTV, Russia and STS, as well as radio stations Radio Russia, Russian Radio and Love Radio took part in the testing. In relation to TV, a comparison of the results of the PM panel and the results of the PPM mini-test showed an increase in viewing time and coverage for the channels participating in the test (see Figures 3-4).

Figure 3. Comparison of average daily TV viewing time measured by different methods (in minutes)

Figure 4. Comparison of average daily audience reach measured by different methods (in%)

As can be seen from Figures 3-4, the PPM test data shows an increase in the values of TV viewing indicators. For radio, test findings showed an increase in radio audience but a decrease in radio listening time.
Speaking about the methodology for measuring radio audiences, it is necessary to note the similarity of the methods with television measurement, however, not without its own specifics. One of the main differences is the shorter period of time in which the measurements are taken - usually a 15-minute interval. This is due to the specific nature of radio media consumption, which is often listened to “in the background” and so-called. “surfing”, when radio stations are constantly switched by the listener.
For a long time, hardware measurement of radio media consumption was also difficult due to its specific nature as a media outlet. The greatest automation could be achieved only in the use of semi-automated CATI systems for telephone survey of respondents, however, in 2001, the German research company GfK tested an interesting technology “Radio Control”, in which respondents passively participated in the measurement, wearing a special watch on their hand, recording at the beginning every minute all the noise. These noises were digitized, transmitted to a data processing center and then presented in the form of information about radio listening or the lack thereof. Despite all the promise of this method, the technology has never been fully developed, and attempts to improve it are still being made to this day.

2.2. Press audience measurement

The total readership of newspapers is usually measured by circulation or the size of the total readership. Circulation is the average number of copies of a newspaper entering the distribution network, which readers have access to purchase and read. For example, the daily circulation of the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper is approximately 2,800,000 copies. But taking into account the fact that one newspaper, as a rule, is read not by one person, but by several, the total readership of this newspaper is calculated by multiplying the average number of readers of one copy by the circulation of the publication. For example, if the average number of readers of one issue of the newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda is 1.5, then the total number of readership of the newspaper will most likely exceed 4 million. The stated readership figures for newspapers (as well as magazines) are often verified by the National Circulation Service.
The cost-effectiveness of advertising in a particular newspaper publication is usually assessed based on its circulation. The relative cost and cost of advertising placement are determined by calculating the costs of delivering an advertising message to 1000 readers (in media planning terms - CPT, cost per thousand). However, it is necessary to emphasize here that CPT parameters are calculated only on the basis of data on the circulation of the publication, therefore their value is lower than the value of analytical information published in special electronic publications and print magazines, where advertising media are assessed by the degree to which they cover specific demographic targets
etc.................

About five years ago, the term “media research” was a rather exotic concept in our market. What kind of research is there if the advertising was presented on the principle: “I want a minute in the “Field of Miracles”!” Now, albeit with difficulty, the situation is changing. Research is becoming truly in demand not only because of the need for “beautiful packaging” for the advertising budget. The market is gradually becoming more and more transparent and requires a coordinate system that is understandable and acceptable to everyone. But research would not be research if everything were simple.

To begin with, it makes sense to divide media studies into two types:

1. Research on media popularity (ratings and other media data (MD), actually called media research (MI).

Monitoring - fixing outputs + measuring volumes + estimating costs according to official price lists.

Many MIs are impossible without accurate monitoring

TV- the actual release time of the program may differ by hours. This is especially true in our country, where there are 10 time zones, voluntarism of local repeaters, and cutting of advertising. Therefore, the “watched - didn’t watch” survey should clearly correlate with the actual time of the broadcast (advertising).

Press- regional versions of central publications differ markedly from central ones. For example, “Arguments and Facts” or “Komsomolskaya Pravda” have their own inserts in almost every region.

Radio- network does not mean complete retransmission, quite the opposite. Locally, they choose the “crown” from the central broadcast, and the rest is filled in with what the local editors like (and rightly so).

PANEL

When, whom, for how long

If we classify media studies, then there are a number of “shelves” along which they can be divided. So, shelf number one is frequency. There are one-time, wave and continuous studies. The first ones are carried out only once, and that’s it. Wave, respectively, - “waves”, usually with equal time intervals between waves and with a frequency, as a rule, no more than once a quarter. Continuous ones are carried out continuously over a long period of time (years). Research of any periodicity has its own clear limits of applicability, but more on that later.

The next shelf is the method of obtaining data, that is, the method by which the information was obtained. They are surveys, when the respondent is questioned using interviews, diaries, and questionnaires. In any case, the interviewer takes part in the survey in one way or another. Another type is hardware. Everything happens here automatically. The person is completely excluded from the survey process; the respondent interacts with the device, which collects data about his behavior.

Survey methods are simpler and cheaper. By the way, we ourselves sometimes use them without even realizing it. When you ask your friends: “Have you watched XXX?” or “Did you read YYY yesterday?”, then, in fact, you are doing essentially the same thing as COMCON and Gallup, only they operate on a much larger scale.

But survey methods have one drawback - the human factor. After all, we often ask: “Did you read YYY yesterday?” we say: “But in vain, read it!”, which is already pressure on the respondent. In addition, people tend to work slowly, make mistakes, be subject to mood swings, and have different moral qualities, finally. All this cannot but affect the source data obtained. Hardware methods, so-called "people meters", are very expensive. The device costs about 800 USD, or even more, it needs to be serviced, and most importantly, data must be taken from it.

The easiest way to do this is by phone. But this is also a problem. Although our installation of telephones is widespread, it is not universal. In addition, respondents are very difficult to control. I turned on the TV, turned the volume down to zero and... fell asleep, but the device continues to record that I am watching TV until it turns off on its own or I wake up. If I slept for five hours, then mathematicians will catch it and “make me a goat.” If you take a nap for an hour during a viscous tearful melodrama, then nothing.

All these shortcomings are compensated by one undeniable advantage - the data is obtained very quickly (even while watching the program) and with very high accuracy (in principle, you can break down the audience of the video even by seconds).

Another important “shelf” in the classification is the duration of the relationship with the respondent. There are types of media research: panel (the respondent is surveyed regularly over a period of time) and with a variable composition of respondents (new people participate in the sample each time).

This position is typical mainly for continuous (less often wave) research. A typical example of panel media research is the Gallup Media TV metric panel. An example of a study with a variable composition of respondents is television measurements of the FOM (they are not carried out now).

The main advantage of panel MI is its low cost. The panel exists for a very long time; the respondent’s lifetime in it can be from several months to several years. We spend money on selecting a respondent for the panel only once, whereas with a complete update of the sample, we must spend money on selecting respondents each time. Why? More on this a little later.

In addition, in panel studies, the respondent learns to perform his duties in the panel (registering in people metrics, filling out diaries, etc.) quickly enough. This means less control costs. With a variable composition of respondents, the presence of an interviewer is almost always mandatory.

As usual, disadvantages are a continuation of advantages. The “old” respondent often begins to “crash” (for example, he fills out a diary once every two or three days, or one person fills out diaries for all members of the household). We have to fight this. Additionally, the panel is somewhat more difficult to maintain in terms of representativeness.

PEOPLE METER

Right choice

Representativeness. What is this thing and what do you eat it with? If you want the data to truly reflect the media preferences of the WHOLE population, then it is not enough to just survey housewives or old ladies at the entrances. It is logical to assume that old women and their young grandchildren watch slightly different TV shows and do not read the same newspapers.

This means that we need to find out the opinions of all socio-demographic groups of the population.

An old Eastern proverb says: “To know the taste of a melon, you don’t have to eat the whole thing,” which is absolutely true for sociology. But... you need to know how to cut a piece.

Using the melon as an example. If we cut a piece along the "equator" of a melon, we will not be able to learn anything about the taste near the "poles". But if we cut a slice in the meridian direction, then the entire spectrum of taste will be at our service. All that remains is to slowly try and write a report. A sociologist will say that such a slice was representative of the “meridional distribution of melon taste,” i.e. the slice contains all the flavor zones in the same proportion as in the melon itself.

The same is true in sociology. We want a sample in which all population groups are represented in proportion to their distribution in the population (in our case, the population is all those we want to study).

Important! The general population (GS) must (!!!) be described explicitly in the title of any study. For example, “the entire population of a region is over 13 years of age” or “the urban population of a region is over 10 years of age.” If this is not the case, we do not know the limits of applicability of the obtained figures.

Thus, if we have 12% of unemployed women in the GS, then there should be 12% in the sample; if there are 0.8% bus drivers in the GS, then there should be the same number in the sample.

This leads to an interesting conclusion: “No sample is completely representative!” I don’t think there is a sample anywhere that is representative of the respondents’ eye color or ear shape. No one needs this. But representativeness regarding the presence of pets would not hurt. Therefore, they always indicate regarding which parameters the sample is representative.

Important! The description of the sample of any study must (!!!) contain the phrase: “...a sample representative of...” (hereinafter referred to as a set of socio-demographic parameters).

How to separate millet from millet

Well, we’ve sorted out the representativeness. Now let's talk about how to achieve it. There are two main methods: completely random sampling and quota sampling.

Imagine a basket in which balls of three different colors and different sizes are evenly mixed. We need to find out the average size of the balls of each color. We scoop up a handful of balls (this will be a random sample). We sort by color, measure the size of each and calculate the average by color. But this is only if the balls are very well mixed. If not, there may be problems.

Same story, but we know the percentage of balls of each color (quota) in the basket.

We can randomly select No. 1, No. 2, No. 3 (in proportion to their quotas) of balls of each color (this is the quota sample), measure and get the average by color. This is, of course, more reliable; there is no need to think about the degree of color mixing. You just need to know the quota for each color.

But this is all theory. The fact is that people are not balls in a bucket, so in real life it is very difficult to achieve absolute randomness. The flow of pedestrians on the streets has a fairly strict pattern, depending on the time of day, a specific point, weather conditions and a bunch of other factors. The distribution of residents into apartments is also quite natural. A random sample is extremely difficult to obtain. You have to try a lot.

The most commonly used combined method in practice is random, quota sampling. This is when they first make a random sample, then check the quota in it, and then compensate for violations of the quota in one way or another. We will have to talk about these methods separately, since this is a very delicate point, and most importantly, it greatly influences the results of the research.

Ptak, we can now describe the sample as follows: random, quota sample, representative of... (a set of socio-demographic parameters).

We'll talk about socio-demographic parameters next time. In the meantime, in conclusion, a small note regarding economics.

It is already clear that quite a lot of effort must be made just to construct a somewhat extensive sample. If we talk about building a panel, then there is even more effort (maintenance, control, compensation for natural loss). And you can only conduct panel studies on electronic media (if you want the information to have any practical value). Thus, it is obvious why obtaining media data is not cheap.

DIARY

Global redistribution

Age.
Social status.
Education.
Per capita income.

Anticipating criticism, I’ll make a reservation right away. Per capita income is placed in last place not because it has the least importance, but because income data is not always correct. What can be done about the categorical reluctance of Russian citizens to share information about income. Respondents often lie, and they lie shamelessly, the funny thing is that they lie in both directions. But that is not all. There are also objective difficulties. First, it is necessary to know not just income, but the share of total household income attributable to each of its (household) members, or per capita income. When it comes to the panel, this problem is solvable. But when the study is a one-time study, and only one member of the household takes part in it, then the error in determining per capita income is usually very significant. This is why one-time studies so often diverge from panel studies in terms of income data. Naturally, it is important for advertisers to know this characteristic as accurately as possible, but nothing can be done, you have to accept it. Secondly, our society is extremely socially mobile. If today a person works at a fairly lucrative job, then tomorrow he may lose it or get an even more lucrative job. People often forget to tell this to the interviewer until the interviewer notices changes in the household's life. But this all applies only to the diary panel. For a peoplemetric panel, this is almost impossible to track.

Now a few words about the remaining parameters. Gender and age are obvious. Social position is important primarily because it determines your social circle, which often greatly influences media preferences. Education, of course, again determines media preferences, but to a lesser extent than social circle. Thus, we obtained a ranked list of socio-demographic parameters.

Detailed study

In addition to the parameters, we need to determine the socio-demographic characteristics of the audience. These are the same characteristics of the audience as for the general population, but broken down by parameters.

In other words, if we surveyed 1000 people and 253 told us that they watched the “Vremya” program yesterday, then the rating of yesterday’s “Vremya” is 253/1000 = 25.3%.

By analogy, we can determine all the socio-demographic characteristics of a given program. Why this is needed - a little later. In the meantime, a small lyrical digression.

You can often find the following definition of rating: “Rating is the ratio of the number of people who watched the program to the size of the general population.” Now, this is a wrong definition. Judge for yourself, in this way the rating can only be determined through a referendum (national poll).

And even the largest company is unlikely to be able to carry it out. In addition, such a definition gradually suggests to us that the rating is a characteristic of the entire population.

Figurines! The rating characterizes only our sample, and the relationship it has with the general population depends on how well our sample represents the general population, on the research methodology, sample size, etc.

Why is this necessary?

Let's continue the conversation. What are the socio-demographic characteristics of the audience needed for? Yes, first of all, for us, advertisers. If you can formalize your target audience (for example, housewives 20-50 years old), you will be able to calculate the rating (and not only) in this target audience, and therefore find out how many people were in contact with the advertisement. How? Very simple. The rating in the target group (TG) must be multiplied by the volume of the TG. The result is the number of people from the CG who watched this program. This is called the projection of the rating onto the population (in this example, onto the TG). This value is usually expressed in thousands of people and is designated (OOO"s).

And this is where the subtleties begin. If we take the target group “men and women aged 16-20, with higher education,” then, as you understand, the rating will be zero. There are no such things (there are, of course, child prodigies, but there are very few of them, and they are unlikely to be included in the sample). What am I getting at? Moreover, on very small CGs the media data becomes incorrect. Now is the time to talk about accuracy. There is one unspoken, although absolutely true, rule: “You cannot rely on the opinions of less than 70 people!” This is a very convenient rule. It is extremely easy to use. We see a rating of 0.75%, we know that the sample is 1000 people, and right from the start we say to this researcher: nonsense, they say, this is not a rating. Not only did only 7 people respond positively, but you also found half of the person somewhere - did they die while watching? Where did this rule come from? Generally speaking, it can be proven using methods of probability theory. But, excuse me, I won’t do this. Those who wish will take a textbook and... Now about half of a person. This often happens to media metricians. And this comes from the peculiarities of the calculations carried out when obtaining media characteristics. We will look at these features in the next article.

Thus, in a sample of 1000, only more than 7% of the ratings are correct. Everything below is “plus or minus two crocodiles,” as they say. A very correct remark, by the way. But probability theory is a tricky science. And mathematicians have long since (the end of the 19th century) managed to measure these crocodiles. They call them, however, “confidence intervals”. Without going into details, I will say that the confidence interval expands (crocodiles are larger) both when the rating decreases and when the sample size decreases. Yes, such ratings also contain some information, but they can only be trusted with some caution. In other words, if in a wave study with a sample of 1000 we get a publication rating of about 0.75% from wave to wave, then most likely this is exactly the case if nothing serious happened to this publication. At the same time, it’s funny to say that the rating increased from 0.75 to 0.76. This is all within the limits of measurement accuracy.

This brings up one interesting point. The more we limit the target group to the intersection of socio-demographic parameters, the less accurate the ratings in this target group are. Indeed, the sample size in each sociodemographic group is smaller than in the entire sample, and in the intersection of groups it is even smaller. This means that in a group represented in the sample by less than 70 respondents, the ratings have no meaning.

Now we can describe the sample, for example, as follows: “The study used a random, quota sample, representative by gender and age. The sample size is 1500 people” and further “The general population is the entire urban population of the Tver region (a city with a population of more than 100,000 people )". I hope everyone understands the meaning of this description? It clearly outlines the main parameters of the study, allowing us to judge whether the results of this study are suitable for solving our problems or not.

Such a study is completely useless for Belarus or Lithuania (geographically), an advertising agency from the city of Vydropuzhsk (20,000 people) for planning advertising campaigns in their city - too, but for campaigns designed for the entire region - completely!