New photoshoot for the digipak

After the focus group we understood that we have to change our digipak. We needed to start with the photoshoot as the previuos photos were not working for our audience. We arranged the photoshoot with our Cheri in the photo studio. We made her classic  make-up with red lipstick and found new red dress which would folllow the conventions of the pop genre.
Firstly, we took some close-ups of how Cheri looks to the camera. This type of picture we wanted to use for our front cover. After our reserach and focus group we understood that if there will be an eye contact between the Cheri on the album cover and the potential customer, the digipak whould be more succsessful. Than, we wanted to experiment and we gave a cherry to our artist. Here we wanted to play with words and create association which would make our product more memorable. We asked our artist to bite the cherry so it would also look sexy and attract our secondary audience which are men in the age of 16-19.

After that we took some more pictures of Cheri, however these shots were mid ones and we took them for the back cover. For these shots we asked our friends to holds phones with the camera so Cheri would also be on the screen of these phones. That would create a star image of a popular artist which communicate with her audience.

Feedback from the focus group

Feedback video:

Overall the feedback on music video was positive and it is said to be similar to the other videos of the same genre. Here are the main points that were mentioned:

• Red and white as juxtaposition worked very well
• The build-up for the first chorus seemed anti-climax for some of the members of the focus group
• Opinion on the makeup was quite mixed: for some people it was confusing to see her without makeup and then with it, however other thought that it worked well as natural makeup suited the idea of her inside the sheets and glamorous when she is in dresses and in high heels
  
• When we asked if they would want to see more of the particular element, they said that it would be nice to see more of dancers. Also, some people wanted to see more episodes of the artist with a guy. However, at the same time, they said it worked that we have not seen him and it leaves to the imagination of the viewer to decide who it was.
• The ending on the dancers was unexpected and confusing. This group expected the video to end with the artist herself.

For the album cover, we had positive and negative feedback. Here are the main points:

• Colour theme of white and red works well, however, reminds a bit of Christmas
• The album cover has a good representation of the genre: pop
• The front and back looks a little bit cheap due to the blur effect 
• The font is readable, however, it is not clear what is album name and what is the name of the artist.

Main points of the feedback on an overall campaign:

• Colour theme works well and connects all products together 
• When we asked what was their favourite part of our campaign, almost everyone preferred music video more, than the digipak
  
  After we received this feedback and analysed it, we decided to change our digipak according to our target audience preferences. We decided to make one more photoshoot and change the front and the back cover completely.

Preparation for the focus group

We came up with questions which we are going to ask our focus group. We tried to plan them by following all the rules like excluding leading questions. Here are they:

Website questions:

1. What do you think of this website?
2. Which genre do you think this website promotes? Why?
3. Do you think there are enough pictures of the artist? Or enough pictures in general
4. How it is compared to other websites of similar genre artists that you have seen?
5. Best point of the website?
6. The worst point of the website?
7. What can be improved? (if anything)

Digipak questions:

1. What do you think about the digipack?
2. Do you think the four pictures link together?
3. Do you think the colours work?
4. Could you tell the music genre from this digipack?
5. What do you think of the artist and the album names?
6. Is the font readable? Does it link to the style of the album cover?
7. Can you remember any similar album covers of the existing singers or bands?
8. Would you notice this album on the shelf in the music shop, do you think?

Music video questions:

1. What elements of the music video worked (if any)?
2. What elements of the music video didn’t work (if any)?
3. Were there any elements of the music video you wanted to see more of? 
4. Were there any elements of the music video you wanted to see less of?
5. What was your least favourite part of the video? 
6. What did you think was the ‘highlight’ of the video, if any?
7. How did this compare to other music videos of a similar genre that you have seen?
8. Do you see any juxtaposition in this video?
9. On the scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate it? (1 being the lowest and 10 being the highest)

Overall questions

1. To what extent it is an effective campaign? If at all 
2. Are the genre conventions of pop met, if at all
3. Do you think there is a link between the album cover and music video?
4. What are the best elements of the products if at all
5. What is the worst element of the products if at all

Focus groups: what and why?

A focus group is a small, but demographically diverse group of people whose reactions are studied especially in market research about a new product or something else to determine the reactions that can be expected from a larger population.
Focus groups give an understanding of what your consumers think about the product before the mass production has started.
Now we can still make some adjustments in order to improve the product. Any adjustments now will not cost a lot of money and will potentially increase sales. That's why it is better to do it now.
To prepare for the digipak feedback it is important to prepare not leading questions. Print copies of the album cover to give it to focus group. This way participants of the focus group will actually see the products in their hands and it would be easier to reflect on them.
When getting the feedback for the website it is important that the website should be uploaded and all links actually should work. It is important for audience what the product is, not how it is going to look like.
When getting a music video feedback, he video should be shown on the big screen. Questions should also be very well prepared.
The website promotes the digipak and digipak promotes video clip. Also, it is important to find out if website and digipak represent the genre of music video. That's why it is better to do it in that order: website, digipak, music video.
To sum up:
Prepare everything in advance. Record the feedback.
Do not ask leading questions. Do not argue with the participants of focus group.
Record it on video. It is better to put the camera behind the group so people will be more confident to talk.