2. 4. WHO ARE MY TARGET AUDIENCE?
My pop music magazine is aimed at an audience of both male (11%) and
females(89%) aged 11-16. I conducted research into my audience to find
they’re preferences, interests and favourite topics within the pop magazine
industry to find out what would most suit my magazine. I created an audience
profile on my audience after conducting a questionnaire to find out what they
enjoy most when reading pop magazines. I then used this information to base
around my magazine to ensure it appealed to them as much as possible and
was suited to them in order for it to be a success.
3. TOP OF THE POPS AND WE LOVE POP
These two magazines both had target audiences similar to my magazine and
so I researched into these to get a clear insight and to familiarise myself with
what pop magazines include to intrigue and appeal to the audience. I closely
identified the key features, colour schemes, images, layout and language
within the front covers, contents and a double page spread from each
magazine. I then annotated what I noticed when doing so, and notified what
each magazine had In common with one another to make my magazine similar
as these magazines are very popular so their audiences must feel satisfied
with what they see.
4. AUDIENCE PROFILE
I conducted an audience profile to
represent my audiences interests and
hobbies. I included social networking
sites, boy bands etc. This helped create a
visual image of what sort of people they
are based on preferences. My audience
are latest into the latest fashion and are
influenced by the media and celebrities
when it comes to the latest trends. I
portrayed my audience as being sociable
by using various social networking sites
such as Twitter, Facebook and Bebo.
They also are interested in gossip, so
when making my magazine I tried to
include as much content that would suit
their needs as possible.
5. QUESTIONNAIRE
I conducted a survey on ‘Survey Monkey’ before I created my magazine to find
out what my audience most wanted to see inside my pop magazines. I asked
questions on colours schemes, layouts, images and content and based my
magazine around their options. Some popular answers were that the colour
scheme should be white and pink and the content they wanted to involve was
interviews with pop artists and celebrity gossip. Seeing as these are the
audiences interests I included this content in my magazine (double page
spread article) and for my contents page I used mainly pinks and whites to
make it match up to their preferences. I also advertised posters on the front of
the cover as this was almost equally as popular and I wanted to include as
much of the audiences answers as possible.
6. Features that influenced me when researching into pop
magazines
• Bright colours are used throughout such as
pinks, blues, yellows and whites. They usually with a
set scheme throughout.
• The language is simple and short sentences are used
• Masculine colours such as blues and greys are used
when articles on males and boy bands are shown.
• Main images on the front cover are taken at a mid
shot, whereas double page spread are usually taken
at a long shot.
• Pull quotes are often used as mastheads in the
double page spreads
• The layout for the front cover is often route of the
eye, with the cover story in the bottom right hand
corner (terminal area)
• The main image on the front cover is usually of a
popular pop artist.
• The magazines often involve fashion tips, celeb
gossip, posters and quiz’s
8. I tried to appeal to my target audience by basing my
magazine entirely around what they wanted to see
included within the pages. After conducting surveys and
doing research into the genre myself I found more out
about my audience which helped me understand their
social class, interests and preferences.
9. As my audience were relatively young, and of an age 11-16 I tried to keep
them as enticed as possible. I followed the conventions of typical pop music
magazines to make it look as professional as possible. I used bright colours
such as pinks, whites, yellows and blues, as seen in magazines such as Top of
the Pops and We love Pop, this helped portray the house style upbeat and
quirky much like pop music. The mode of adress was friendly and welcoming
through the use of my language such as ‘Hello love popppers’ I wanted to
create a relationship with my reader to make them interested in my magazine. I
used lanuage such as ‘Omg’ and ‘Lol’ to show a sense of slang and up-to-date
modern rhythm that Luv Pop has. I used images that would appeal to the
reader such as boy bands, and young female artists that the audience would
look up to and be interested in their stories.
10. WHAT MY AUDIENCE WANTED
My audience said they would most like to see
celebrity gossip when reading a magazine. I included
a story about a pop artists ‘love life’ which
immediately will attract them as they love gossip. By
using a pull quote from the article I aimed to draw in
readers by giving them a sneak peak of what was to
come within the story. Hopefully this made the
audience feel intrigued to read on seeing as they are
so fond and interested in the celebrities lives
Another popular response to ‘What would you most like to
see in a pop magazines?’ was celebrity interviews. I
created a story of a boy band who had fallen out with an
exclusive article with interviews with the members. The
audience would feel intrigued by the ‘the truth’ quote if
they like the band. They would get the gossip straight from
the magazine and be up to date on what happening.
11. The most popular answer for ‘what colours would most
appeal to you on a pop magazine?’ was pink and white.
Seeing as such a large percentage of my target
audience were female these colours would appeal most
to them and help create the girly and feminine vibe
within the magazine. For my contents page my entire
scheme was pinks and whites. I focused a lot of
attention on the colours as this was key to ensuring the
magazine was portrayed as bright and colourful.
