2. “Red and white is a common colour scheme for hip-hop magazines do
you think I should use reds and whites or an original colour scheme?
For this question I showed my focus group some examples of front
covers that did use red and white and some front covers that didn’t. I
had two contrasting opinions, roughly half of my target audience
thought that it would be a good idea to try a different colour scheme
because they believed if my magazine was positioned with other hip-
hop magazines using red and white on a shelf in a shop it would
stand out against the others and it would be a unique selling point.
On the other hand some of my target audience thought that having a
red and white colour scheme would mean my magazine would follow
typical hip-hop magazine conventions which would make it look like
a professional magazine, they believed that a different colour
scheme may make it look out of place and unappealing.
3. “Should I feature a single rapper or a rap group?”
My focus group all agreed that I should
focus on a single rapper as it would be
easier to find props for one person than a
group and that if I were to feature a rap
group it could be tricky trying to find a date
when they were all free to do a photo-
shoot.
4. “Should I price my magazine at about £5 similar to it’s
competitors or not?”
As my magazine would be new to the market
and relatively unheard of people thought it
would be better to price it slightly lower than
£5.00 because if people saw my magazine next
to another already established brand at the
same price they would be less likely to choose
my magazine. They thought a suitable price
would be £3.00 - £4.00 as if it was too cheap it
might make people think it was low quality.
5. “Do you have any suggestions for a name for my magazine?”
I had already thought of calling it “Hip Hop Heads”
which my focus group thought was catchy and a few
mentioned they liked the alliteration. One person
thought it should be called “sick” as in the slang
word for “good” but the rest of my focus didn’t like
it because it also means vomit and could give my
magazine a negative connotation especially to
people who haven’t really grown up around that
sort of slang.
6. “Should my mode of address use slang commonly
used it hip-hop or be more formal?”
About one quarter of my focus group believed I should
make my magazine more formal and refrain from using
slang as they thought it would make the magazine
sound “trashy” and “unprofessional”. They also
believed some readers may not understand the slang
especially if they were a new hip-hip fan. The other
three quarters believed I should use slang and a more
informal mode of address so I could connect with my
target audience who listen to hip-hop that contains
similar slang to what I was using.
