2. COLLECTING FEEDBACK
Before the focus group we prepareda set of questions for each section: music video, website, digipack and the whole campaign. We also thought about
the methods of collecting feedback and identified two: handwritten notes and recording a video. Our focus group consisted of 15 people, young males and
females aged between 16-18, which is our target audience.
In order to get a more detailedand accuratefeedback we
have decidedto record our focus group. We took a camera
and placed it behind people in order not to confusethem.
This was very helpful as allowed us to add more qualitative
data on the top of our hand-written notes, to fully
understand what did the focus group exactly mean.
Due to I was the one responsible for making the digipack, I was also the one
responsible for recording the feedback for it. In order to make handwritten notes I have
printed the set of questions, which I have prepared beforehandand was writing down
brief notes underneath each question during the focus group. These notes might be
considered as slightly short and limited, due to I had to interact with the focus group
and write at the same time, however, they still ware relatively informative. I wrote
quickly, shortened the words and used abbreviations, which I re-wrote neatly and in full
sentences after the focus group.
Other members of my group did the same when were
presenting the website and the music video. As a result,
we all end up with full-sentenced notes, which we have
uploaded to our Google Drive account to share.

3. DEMOGRAPHIC PROFILE PSYCHOGRAPHIC PROFILE
Psychographic profile have been very influential on the kind of
feedback we received from our focus group. Due to all people
have different opinions, interests and values in life they interpret
things differently. For example, the girls from our focus group
have spotted the music genre much faster than boys did.
Arguably, this is because boys stereotypically do not listen to
romance or pop music, so they don’t exactly know how should the
pop star’s music video or digipack look like. Understanding
psychographic profile is helpful when identifying who your target
audience is. The focus group proved that we have identified our
primary target audience of young females 14-16 correctly.
Moreover,it’s obvious people from different VALS groups have
respondeddifferently to our product. For example, those, who fall
under Trendies or Groupies categories were more lenient to our
product, being more dragged into the process of group
discussion and feedback giving. Where those, who fall under
Rebels and Drop-outs were more critical to our product, criticizing
the genre and the feminine style of our campaign.
Demographic profile was not so influential on the kind of feedback
we received, because our focus group consisted of boys and girls of
the same age and relatively similar home income, based on the fact
that they all are studying in the same school. The main demographic
difference was gender, due to girls are stereotypically more into
romance pop, than boys. However, it worth mentioning that boys
were still quite into the discussion, giving a lot of useful feedback.
To be honest, we cannot fully evaluate on the demographic profile,
due to we did not have a range of ages in our focus group. However,
we can predict that people from older generations would be more
critical of our pop music campaign, than the ones our from our
generation.

4. STRENGTHS
These are some of the strengths of our music campaign that the focus group has pointed out:
1) The colour juxtaposition works well. It’s
nice to have such a simple idea: white vs
red – it makes the whole campaign to link
well togetherand products to cross-
promoteeach other. Moreover, the colour
connotations are pretty straightforward.
2) We have well constructeda star image
and presented Cheri as a young, pretty
and confident woman. Her star image
successfully appeals to both our primary
and secondary target audiences.
3) It’s good that we have kept the second
element further into the music video. It’s
nice not to introduce the dancers in the
beginning, to have a fresh element
towards the end of the music video,
when the audience is getting slightly
bored of what they have alreadyseen.

5. WEAKNESSES
However, there also were a couple of weaknesses identified by the focus group:
1) On the front cover it’s unclear
where is the name of the artist and
where is the name of the album. No
inverted commas are used to indicate
this. Moreover, Mon Cheri works well
togetheras one name, but it’s hard to
treat it as separate, so you might want
to think about another album name.
2) The lips on their own on the CD look a bit
creepy, slightly reminding of clown horror
movies. You might have to think about other
ways to put it, if you want to keep the idea of
lips. Otherwise, you might want to introduce a
completely new concept for the CD cover.
3) Even though the focus of your music
video is your star, there is not enough
element 2. Try to introduce more dancers,
they add dynamics to the video and
entertain the audience. Because now it’s a
bit boring to watch the same girl
lipsyncing on the differentcolored
background over and over for 3 minutes.

6. ENCODING AND DECODING.
‘Encoding and Decoding in the Television Discourse’ is a theory by Stuart Hall in which he argues that owners encode
certain messages in their products for consumers to decode.
From our focus group we have learnt that most of our
messages have been correctly decoded by the
audience. For example, they have correctly identified
the pop genre by decoding the conventions we have
used: contemporary dance element, glamorous star,
multiple costume changes. Also, they have correctly
identified that our star is synthetic, not organic (Keith
Negus theory), because of the way we have
presented her: beautiful, shining, always in the
center of the frame, close-ups highlighting her eyes
and lips. Moreover, the idea of juxtaposition between
white and red colors, connoting the juxtaposition
between loneliness and love, have also been
successfully decoded by our audience.

7. GRATIFICATION THEORY
This is a theory by Lazarfeld, Blumer and Katz, who claim the audience are not passive, but that they actively select what
media to consume to fulfil specific needs and desires within their lives.
Based on what we were trying to create with our synthetic pop star and how
the audience have reacted to it – it’s clear our music campaign falls under
Diversion category within the gratification theory. Diversion – is escapism
from mundane existence, in other words, consuming media purely for
entertainment. However, it may be argued our campaign also falls under
Personal Identity category – identifyingwith characters and situations in
order to make sense of your own life.
With our music campaign we have constructed a star, a young pretty
woman, who appeals to both types of our target audience: primary, young
girls, who look up to her, and secondary, young males, who like her
sexuality. The first category are more likely to treat our star primarily as a
role model, trying to be as pretty and attractive as her, so our primary target
audience are more likely to fall under Personal Identity category. Where
men, who watch Cheri and listen to her music are more likely to do that as a
part of entertainment, ‘to experience her beauty’.

8. PREFERRED, NEGOTIATE AND OPPOSITIONAL READINGS
Most of the readings we have received were preferred, due to the
audience agreed with the ideas we have presented and
generally seemed to be enjoying them. For example, they liked
the color juxtaposition we were using throughout our music
campaign or they did find our star interesting and attractive as
we wanted them to.
However, it worth mentioning there were a couple of negotiate
readings, when people tried to criticize our products or came up
with the suggestions to help us improve them. For example, we
were told to use more dance element in our music video, change
the font on the front cover of the digipack and remove extra gifs
from the website’s homepage. There were no oppositional
readings, which would encourage us to completely change our
music campaign.
This difference in interpreting the same product may be caused
by the difference in psychographic profiles, which we kept in
mind while responding to the feedback and improving our
products.

9. CONCLUSION
Summing up the whole Evaluation task 3, these are some of the points we have learnt:
1) Star is a construction and a commodity. Star’s image is created for the sake of the audience (Dyer’s Star Theory), so that they can
identify with it and, therefore, buy new albums and concert tickets. Therefore, while creating a new star you have to priorities the
audience’s preferences.
2) When creating a star and a music campaign, keep in mind who you are doing it for. Correctly identify your audience and target them
in order to be successful. Remember the demographic and psychographic profiles, evaluate how these could be used to address
your audience more efficiently.
3) Remember that your star is a commodity, therefore the content she/he produces should be entertaining for the modern audience,
who would switch off if they are bored. Therefore, your music video should be carefully constructed to hold the attention of the
audience for 3 minutes, your digipack should stand out from the similar artists’ ones and your website should be simple, but
informative and entertaining.
4) We have also learned a variety of different ways to record feedback, including video recording and quick hand-written notes.
Combining these, helped us to accurately record feedback and not to lose any valid points.
5) Lastly, we have learnt how to manipulate and evaluate preferred and negotiate readings from the focus group in order to improve our
product to it’s best version, according to the direct feedback from the target audience.