Market research - posters

For one of my tasks, I need to create a poster. A good poster is one that attracts the attention of passers-by, but before I can make my poster, I need to know what it is that attracts those people to it.

 Firstly, I wanted to know whether or not posters actually had an impact on people, and question 1 sees that they do not appear to. This means that I will need to make my own poster imposing and thought-provoking, to make sure 4/6 people were not just 'walking straight past it' or 'not noticing' it. The answer for this could be colour, but similarly, some of the most striking images are simplistic, like The Beatles' The White Album.

 Secondly, I asked people what kind of outdoor advertising would catch people's eye, as I need to choose where to put my poster before I can make it, to get things like paper dimensions right. Unanimously, bus stop posters won over road side billboards, which doesn't surprise me, as people walking along a street will have more time to read a bus stop poster than they will if they are driving a car along a busy road and see a billboard for a newspaper. This suggests that I should use bus-stop posters, which fits in with my previous research, and now I know that it is what would catch people's eye the most.

Finally, I asked what people think my poster should look like, and quite surprisingly the simplistic approach took a big lead against a more complex approach with more to digest. I think that in this climate of technology with instant information, people's attention span for something like a poster in the street will be minimal, so it is imperative I can grab their attention within the first few seconds of them laying their eyes upon it.

In all, my market research was extremely productive. I have learnt that I will need to make my poster attractive for an audience who seem to naturally block out posters in the street, as well the fact a bus-stop poster will be the most attractive, where people are stood aimlessly waiting for buses, looking around for something to stare at. I will also need to make my production simple but eye catching, much like those that I have already analysed.