Primary Research Results

Name: Sean WayneCandidate Number: 1254Center Name: St. Andrew’s Catholic SchoolCenter Number: 64135

Q1: What gender do you think the majority of people that watch Soap Operas are?

6%

94%

Q1: What gender do you think the majority of people that watch soap operas are?

Male Female

The majority of the people that filled in this questionnaire thought that it was mostly females that were interested in soap operas. This connotes that when designing the trailer and poster for our soap opera we will have to ensure there are plenty of topics and storylines that will appeal primarily to the female audience. Even though the majority of the soap opera audience are thought to be female, there are still a small number of males that are interested in soap operas, meaning that we will have to ensure that there are still some aspects of the trailer and poster that would appeal to a male audience.

Q2: What class of person would you say likes soap operas?

6%

44%50%

Q2: What class of person would you say likes soap operas?

Upper class Middle class Lower class

50% that filled in this questionnaire thought lower class people like soap operas more that the upper and middle class, which means that I need to ensure that there are plenty of relatable storylines and characters for this demographic. However a large portion (43.75%) of the people that carried out this survey also though that middle class people show an interest in soap operas. As the they are both very close I will have to ensure that there is a balance of people from the two classes in the soap opera to ensure that everyone that is watching the show has someone they can relate to.

Q3: What time would you expect a soap opera to be shown?

13%

75%

13%

Q3: What time would you expect a soap opera to be shown?

9:00 - 12:00 12:01 - 15:00 15:01 - 18:00 18:01 - 21:00 21:01 - 00:00

75% of the people that filled in this questionnaire thought that Soap operas should be shown in the evening (18:01 – 21:00) rather than any other time of the day. This is before the water shed which means that we will have to ensure that all of the content shown in the soap opera is suitable for television at this time.

Q4: Would you expect people from a variety of ethnic backgrounds to be in a soap opera?

88%

13%

Q4: Would you expect people from a variety of different ethnic backgrounds to be in the soap

opera?

Yes No

The 87.5% of the people that filled in this questionnaire think that many people from a variety of ethnic backgrounds need to be shown within the soap opera. As well as giving more people from different ethnicities something in the soap that they might be able to relate to, this can also be used to create different storylines that may not be able to be created if everyone in the soap comes from the same ethic background, such as cultures clashing.

Q5: Which of these plot devices would you expect to be covered in a soap opera?

16%

13%

10%

13%10%

16%

12%

9%

Q5: Which of these plot devices would you expect to be covered in a soap opera?

Adultery Marriage/Divorce Drug Abuse MurderKidnapping Family Feuds Accidents Bullying

87.5% of the people that filled in this questionnaire thought that adultery and family frauds where the main plot devises that they would expect from a soap opera. This means that these two plots will have to be implemented within the soap opera as two of the main narrative strands. However as denoted on the pie chart, people selected all of the plot devices almost equally, meaning that we should try and include as many of these plots as sub stories in our soap opera as possible.

Q6: What setting would you most expect a soap opera to be set in?

13%

63%

13%

13%

Q6: What setting would you most expect a soap opera to be set in?

Highly Urban Area Smaller Urban AreasSuburbs Rural Areas

62.50% of the people that filled in this questionnaire thought that the most appropriate place for a soap opera to be set in would be small urban areas such as towns. This would mean that we will have to base our soap opera in a town, and that we will have to film our trailer in a town or street.

Q7: What marketing strategies would encourage you to watch a soap opera?

The people that filled in this questionnaire came up with a variety of different marketing strategies that would encourage them to watch a soap opera. The most common suggestions given were, Social Media Adverts, Trailers and TV adverts. This means when creating the poster for my soap opera, I need to include different social media logos and reverences to the trailer in order to encourage potential audiences to look at the soaps social media and trailer.

Q8: What do you think would be suitable name for a soap opera?

67%

27%

7%

Q8: What do you think would be suitable name for a soap opera?

Langley Vale Castle Combe Port Issac

The 66.67% of the people that filled in this questionnaire thought that Langley Vale was the best name for the soap opera out of the 3 choices given. This connotes that we should make the name of our soap opera Langley Vale.

Q9: Has a soap opera’s trailer ever encouraged you to watch that soap opera?

56.25% of the people that filled in this questionnaire said that they had not been encouraged to watch soap operas from a trailer. However 43.75% of the people said they had been encouraged to watch a soap as a result of watching the trailer . The majority of the people that said yes said that it was the EastEnders trailer that encouraged them to watch the soap, with one person saying Hollyoaks. This means that we should watch EastEnders trailers (and Hollyoaks) in order to see what aspects of those trailers we can ‘repeat’ (Steve Neale – 1980) in our own trailer that would encourage people to watch our soap opera.

44%

56%

Q9: Has a soap opera's trailer ever encouraged you to watch a soap op-

era?Yes No

Q10: What would you say the majority of soap operas are lacking?

The people that filled in this questionnaire came up with a variety of different way the majority of soap operas are lacking. The most common criticisms were a lack of issues relating to younger audiences, a lack of depth in storyline and a lack of realism when it is needed. When creating our soap we need to ensure that we fix these criticisms in order to make our soap more appealing. There are other criticisms such as not enough for the male gender and more interesting camera techniques that we will be able to improve on in order to increase the interest in our soap even further.

Evidence of someone filling in the survey

ConclusionIn conclusion, I have gotten a variety of results that will be able to help me to improve my ideas for my magazine, trailer and poster. I will need to base the majority of these on attracting the female audience as females show the most interest in soaps, however it is also important to include aspects that would appeal to the male demographic in order to encourage men to tray watching a soap opera. I will have to advertise the soap in a variety of different ways (such as Social Media) in order to give the sense of viral marketing, encouraging more people to watch the soap. I will also need to include a variety of storyline with different plots in order keep the audiences interest in the soap, resulting in them watching the soap regularly.