How did you attract/address your audience?
Before constructing our magazine we had to think about who/what we wanted our target audience to be. This is where the questionnaires came into play. We handed them out to people our age by hand and by email who were in our ideal age group 16-21, both male and females. This meant that because we handed them out to such a wide variety of people a lot of different people gave back a large amount of ideas and suggestions. After finding out what our audience wanted from our magazine we worked around that to construct and satisfy the audience. We chose the most popular genre and styled the magazine around that. Our magazine is based on what the audience wanted, this helped it to relate to the audience. Instead of our method we could have created our magazine, then shown the audience. We didn't do that idea because we thought that more people would be interested in a magazine that was designed by the ideas of the readers. By looking at our questionnaires it is clear that we asked their opinions on; contents, price, when it is issued and genre. Which are all major factors of the magazine. This helped us to keep the audience happy. Which then would encourage sales of the product. We also know from experience that people between the ages of 16-21 can easily get bored of seeing the same thing over and over again, so we keep a good variety of features and topics in our magazine to keep them hooked and interested.
Wednesday, 27 April 2011
Evaluation 4 (Sophie Lane)
Who would be the audience for your media product?
My magazine is aimed at teenagers ideally between the ages of 16-21 years of age.
We wanted our magazine to be;
Up-to-date
Stylish
Informational
Casual
Fun
Edgy/Risky
Combining all of these ideas was hard enough, then we had to apply them to our target audience ages. Baring in mind that a 16 year old will have complete different interests to a 21 year old, it was challenging. But we managed to forget about making it age suitable and focus on the genre, because if everyone is interested in the genre and topic of the magazine then that should be enough to keep them reading, buying and recommending the magazine to others. So even though the diverse age differences may cause problems, the category will bring them all together into the same stereotype and make them feel that their differences no longer matter.
Our magazine, because it is targeted at a young audience will have to be affordable and suitable to their lifestyles. For example it will have to be easily accessible and could even be shown online for ease of access. As people this age will be leaving school and starting careers it is reasonably sensible and grown up.
Most of our audience follow the Indie/Rock crowd, as that is the genre of the magazine. however the magazine is easily suitable to any other readers. Our readers dress, act and hang around with people from the Indie or Rock crowd so will all share a passionate interest in this type of music. This will also help upcoming bands which are featured in the magazine to be heard by their ideal target audience.
My magazine is aimed at teenagers ideally between the ages of 16-21 years of age.
We wanted our magazine to be;
Up-to-date
Stylish
Informational
Casual
Fun
Edgy/Risky
Combining all of these ideas was hard enough, then we had to apply them to our target audience ages. Baring in mind that a 16 year old will have complete different interests to a 21 year old, it was challenging. But we managed to forget about making it age suitable and focus on the genre, because if everyone is interested in the genre and topic of the magazine then that should be enough to keep them reading, buying and recommending the magazine to others. So even though the diverse age differences may cause problems, the category will bring them all together into the same stereotype and make them feel that their differences no longer matter.
Our magazine, because it is targeted at a young audience will have to be affordable and suitable to their lifestyles. For example it will have to be easily accessible and could even be shown online for ease of access. As people this age will be leaving school and starting careers it is reasonably sensible and grown up.
Most of our audience follow the Indie/Rock crowd, as that is the genre of the magazine. however the magazine is easily suitable to any other readers. Our readers dress, act and hang around with people from the Indie or Rock crowd so will all share a passionate interest in this type of music. This will also help upcoming bands which are featured in the magazine to be heard by their ideal target audience.
Evaluation 3 (Sophie Lane)
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
Companies such as Seymour or EMAP would be suitable to distribute my media product. Seymour is an international magazine distributing company that publishes thousands of magazines every year. This would be ideal for my magazine as it is not too big, and not too small. Therefore my magazine would be sold in the best magazine shops nationwide. EMAP would be a very good distributor to use, however they are a very large company and I think would be too large for a small magazine like 'Indigo'.
Another possible company is the BBC, however they do not have a very good track record when it comes to magazines. In the past they have tried, and failed to create, produce and distribute mainstream magazines. One of their well known media products 'Top of the Pops' was released and was up against a lot of competition and was very successful for a while but eventually larger, more popular magazines such as NME and Kerrang have taken over the music magazine market in the last few years. Any new upcoming music magazines will have to offer something extra to even be seen amongst the current music mags. Even though BBC do have very successful productions on TV and the Radio, I think that magazines was probably one of their weakest areas.
Companies such as Seymour or EMAP would be suitable to distribute my media product. Seymour is an international magazine distributing company that publishes thousands of magazines every year. This would be ideal for my magazine as it is not too big, and not too small. Therefore my magazine would be sold in the best magazine shops nationwide. EMAP would be a very good distributor to use, however they are a very large company and I think would be too large for a small magazine like 'Indigo'.
Another possible company is the BBC, however they do not have a very good track record when it comes to magazines. In the past they have tried, and failed to create, produce and distribute mainstream magazines. One of their well known media products 'Top of the Pops' was released and was up against a lot of competition and was very successful for a while but eventually larger, more popular magazines such as NME and Kerrang have taken over the music magazine market in the last few years. Any new upcoming music magazines will have to offer something extra to even be seen amongst the current music mags. Even though BBC do have very successful productions on TV and the Radio, I think that magazines was probably one of their weakest areas.
Evaluation 2 (Sophie Lane)
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
Our magazine genre is ‘Indie Rock’ so in order to attract this type of audience the front cover and contents of the magazine had to fit this style. This was done in many different ways. Firstly, the language used inside would have to match the language the typical reader is used to. So for example we would say ‘Check out this new hot band’ instead of ‘Have an insight into the lifestyles of this famous trio’. By doing this we are already relating to the audience. By the look of my magazine cover you can easily see which genre/stereotype it is aimed at. As you can tell by the images ours is very different to some other magazines which are aimed at different styles. Below is a cover for a completely different target audience. This cover compared to my cover shows that both are made to be appealing to different styles and stereotypes.
Our magazine genre is ‘Indie Rock’ so in order to attract this type of audience the front cover and contents of the magazine had to fit this style. This was done in many different ways. Firstly, the language used inside would have to match the language the typical reader is used to. So for example we would say ‘Check out this new hot band’ instead of ‘Have an insight into the lifestyles of this famous trio’. By doing this we are already relating to the audience. By the look of my magazine cover you can easily see which genre/stereotype it is aimed at. As you can tell by the images ours is very different to some other magazines which are aimed at different styles. Below is a cover for a completely different target audience. This cover compared to my cover shows that both are made to be appealing to different styles and stereotypes.
My magazine also sticks to a theme throughout this shows consistency. When I was researching into other brands of magazines I noticed they kept the font and colour scheme roughly the same. This brings the whole magazine together and looks more professional. If I was to change my font and colours a few times it would make my magazine look less attractive and other magazines would then be one step ahead of mine.
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