Property creators target audience: separate roles

What to take away

For “property creators target audience” research, define the people or organisations whose decision the content or service should change.
Give a commissioning client, an adult viewer and a person on camera separate rows.
Use a dated frame for organisations and clear criteria when recruiting people.
Collect only the personal data the research needs, and keep eligibility apart from commercial appeal.

Write one decision statement

Use this form: "We need evidence from [population] in [English geography] about [recent task] to decide whether to [specific action] by [date]." It forces you to name who decides and what changes if the research finds something.

A useful example is research with people who approve residential agency media in the West Midlands and London, to decide whether to pilot a source-checked video service. The statement does not assume the service is wanted. It only says what the evidence will be used for.

One decision statement per audience

Which population and English geography?

Yes

write decision statement with task and date

split into separate audience rows

Keep each audience in its own row

Do not combine a commissioning client, whatever the business model, an adult viewer, an operator supplying property facts and somebody visible in a room tour. Make a separate row for each:

the organisation that could buy the media service;
the employee or contractor who briefs and approves it;
the adult reader or viewer completing a property task;
a buyer, renter, seller or landlord taking part in research;
an occupant, neighbour or worker who may be identifiable in the finished asset.

Permission and findings do not transfer between rows. An operator can verify a listing fact but cannot report every viewer's preference. A participant can agree to a confidential interview without agreeing to appear in marketing.

For an identifiable occupant, neighbour or worker, release wording can say: "I agree to appear in this video and I can ask for my face or voice to be withheld before publication."

Choose a frame for each row

For organisations, the ONS activity, size and location statistics can provide a dated frame. Record the edition, unit and geography, and note what the count excludes; a UK-wide figure is not an England-only count.

Frames for each audience row

Organisation

Source: ONS business dataset
Unit: Enterprise
Record: Edition, SIC, exclusions
Misses: Unregistered firms
Not proof: Media buyers

Adult housing task

Source: Multiple routes
Unit: Volunteer
Record: Task, route, bias
Misses: Non-response
Not proof: Audience exists

A business count will miss unregistered organisations and does not identify likely media buyers. For adults, define the housing task first. The English Housing Survey collection holds government information and publications on English households, but it is neither a participant list nor proof that a proposed content audience exists.

Do not contact people from property transaction addresses. Do not infer that an occupant is buying, selling or vulnerable. Your buyer persona method should rest on evidence you can name, not on guesses about who lives where.

Set recruitment criteria and numbers

The GOV.UK recruitment guidance says recruitment criteria should clearly specify the people you want to take part. It was written for public-service research, so treat it as method guidance and take a project-specific ethics and privacy decision.

The same guidance gives a rule of thumb: typically between 4 and 8 participants for a round of interviews or usability tests. Outside any specific criteria, try to recruit a spread by age, gender, ethnicity, disability and social and economic status.

Use a short screener that confirms role, adult age band, a recent relevant task, England geography and ability to consent. For an adult viewer row, ask: "In the last three months, have you searched for a home to rent or buy in England?" Then ask whether they are an adult and willing to join a recorded interview.

Draft customer interview prompts after the screener, so the questions match the task the participants actually completed. Choose a channel strategy only after you know which viewers you are studying.

Collect only what you need

The data minimisation principle means you identify the minimum amount of personal data you need to fulfil your purpose. Avoid exact addresses, mortgage balances, access codes, occupancy routines and health or financial details unless a named reviewer establishes that they are necessary.

Map where identifiable data enters your research, who sees it and when it is deleted. The data protection mapping guide for property creators covers roles and data flows in more depth.

Record invitations sent, replies, eligible people, completed sessions, withdrawals and each exclusion reason. Report recruitment bias, digital exclusion, non-response and missing roles rather than hiding them behind a broad persona.

Keep eligibility apart from commercial appeal

Someone may be eligible because they completed the housing task, even if they would never buy a service. An organisation may fit the prospect frame but lack authority to commission work. Store those outcomes in separate columns so an eligible-participant rate is never reported as purchase intent.

A commissioning contract should not be drafted from interview enthusiasm alone. Test the invitation and information sheet with someone outside the project. They should be able to explain who runs the study, what happens, which details are optional and how to leave.

Example coverage table

Finish with a table that shows, for each population, the decision, the frame and the gaps. Fill in the invited and completed denominators and the dates from your own project.

Population	Decision it informs	Frame	Gaps to record
Organisation that could buy media	Whether to pilot a source-checked video service	ONS business counts by industry and region	Unregistered organisations, buying authority
Adult viewer completing a housing task	Which property facts viewers check first	Volunteers recruited through two or more routes	Age groups, tenures and access needs not reached
Occupant or worker on camera	Whether release wording is clear	Named individuals at each shoot	Anyone who declined or withdrew

Before you act

Write one decision statement naming population, geography, task and action.
Create separate rows for each distinct audience relationship.
Choose a frame and record its edition, unit and exclusions.
Write screeners confirming role, age band, task and consent.
Record invitations, replies, completions, withdrawals and exclusion reasons.
Finish with a coverage table showing denominators, dates and gaps.

Common questions

Why treat a commissioning client and a viewer as separate audiences?

A client decides whether to fund the service. A viewer completes a housing task and may never buy anything. Merging them mixes two decisions into one set of numbers and makes neither reliable.

What can the ONS business statistics provide?

They give a dated count of UK VAT and PAYE registered businesses by industry and region. They will miss some unregistered organisations and cannot show who would commission property video.

How should recruitment bias and missing roles be handled?

Report them. Say who was invited, who replied, who was missing and why. An achieved sample can be useful without being representative, provided the write-up says so.