Evaluation

1. 2. How effective is
the combination of
your main product
and ancillary
tasks?

2. For my A2 coursework I created a regional magazine about Indian culture and although the magazine itself is the main focus it was
important to create a means to advertise it. So, I also created a billboard and a radio advert as promotional campaign to support it and to
get the news of the new magazine across to a larger audience. It was important that they all fit a similar theme hence why the
similarities across the different mediums are consistent.
The Similarities
It was important to create a brand image to ensure that the magazine would be recognisable and appear professional. The first thing that
I made to support my magazine was the billboard, I have incorporated my house colours from the magazine into the billboard to keep it
consistent. Therefore, using colours such as turquoise and pink as well as using the same headline from the front page. “Culture” is a key
part of the branding and can be linked back to the majority of the magazine, which made it necessary for its name to be included on the
billboard in both the same font and colour to establish the brand and emphasise what it is about, this retains continuity to make it as
professional as possible and make it appear well thought out. Unlike the front cover of my magazine, I kept the text minimal as most
people will see a billboard when walking past or driving and therefore not remember as much of the writing as opposed to the image. For
the main image, I used the pictures from the same shoot of an Asian Female as the magazine cover. She effectively reaches out to the
target audience of young females and stands out amongst the billboard due to the simplistic background. She is wearing a sari to highlight
the Indian culture and incorporate the importance of colour in India and their main religion of Hinduism in order to link everything back
to the magazine name. As the image is also used across the various mediums it ties them all together and can then be associated with the
brand to make it easier to remember.
Secondly, I made a radio advert which repeatedly mentioned the word “culture,” and has an Indian tune playing in the background. The
radio advert itself, highlights the different cultural aspects of India by using alliteration to capture the listeners attention and so it stays
in their head for longer as it’s catchy and easier to remember. For instance, “sensational superstars” and
“charming cuisine.” Not only this, it emphasises the puff used in the magazine and brings light to the exclusive
interview that’s available in the magazine. It also draws in people’s attention by using the famous actress’
name as some will be familiar with her and others will wonder who she is and perhaps want to get to know this
named character who is giving an exclusive interview.
Overall, I think the billboard and radio advert helped greatly in promoting my magazine by helping to establish
its brand image and getting information cross to a wider audience owing to the strong contextual links and
harmonised house style.

3. 3. What have you
learned from your
audience
feedback?

4. Methods Used to gain Qualitative
Feedback:
In order to gain qualitative feedback, I gathered a focus group. My focus group consisted of people who fit my
target audience of young women with an interest in learning about culture. I asked them a variety of questions
to see what they thought were the strengths and weaknesses of my magazine so I could then make
improvements. Not only this, I also conducted one to one interviews to further investigate the weaker point.
The aim was to receive constructive criticism which would allow me to better the magazine as well as try to
incorporate some of the better aspects throughout all mediums, for example a consistent house style. When
asking the questions, I took note of everything that was said and also asked them to write short bullet points to
summarise their thoughts and what they think could be improved. The small focus group can be treated as the
whole demographic and it can be assumed that their ideas and opinions are reflective of the majority of my
entire target audience.
I asked my focus group the following questions;
• Describe the overall effect of the photography.
• Explain what you think about the selection of fonts.
• Explain what you think about the overall composition of the product.
• Do you think the narrative of the product contains a clear message? What is it? How could it be improved?
• Describe what you think of the representations of people and events – are they fair? Will they appeal to the
target audience? Could any audiences be offend by them?
• How can it be improved?

5. Before & After
Receiving Feedback:
“There’s no indication of it being a regional
magazine.”
The previous cover did not incorporate the
words “south-east” anywhere on the front
cover and therefore did not successfully
achieve the goal of being a regional magazine.
After receiving this feedback, I changed the
“latest India trends” in the masthead to “All
things great and Bollywood in the South East,”
as a typical convention in the magazines I
researched had included the region in the
masthead.
“I think it would be better if you added
a barcode to the front cover.”
By adding a barcode to the front cover it
immediately looked more professional and
as though it belonged on stands in store.
“The headline doesn’t really standout
and seems to be a similar size to the
rest of the writing.”
When researching different magazine
covers, it was common that the headline
took up the majority of the top of the
page where as mine was positioned on the
left hand side and this proved to be
ineffective. I was also inspired by
“ABSOLUTE” magazine to capitalise the
word “culture” and “bride” magazine
inspired me to keep the writing over the
main image and consequently have it
stand out more.
“I feel like your magazine could have more to
offer in order to be more competitive and
stand out.”
After careful analysis what content was on
offer, I came to the conclusion that in fact a
plug would be effective with the magazine as
it’s new to stands. As a result, I added a ”Free
Hair Mask” alongside the magazine so they feel
that they are getting more for their money
aside from just articles. This also gave my
magazine more of a competitive edge.
“I love the image used on the front
cover, it’s very good quality and didn’t
overcrowd the page. It was great how it
made good use of the colour scheme.”
The image was a good reflection of both
Indian culture and the target audience I
was trying to reach out to. The consistent
colours also made the cover look
professional and was a successful addition
to the cover.

6. Contents Page
“There were a few typos and grammatical errors that make it
seem a little unprofessional upon further inspection.”
It was good to get feedback on the writing as sometimes it is
easy to miss out on the small things such as the odd spelling
mistake which could easily take away how competent the
magazine is. I went back and thoroughly checked through the
writing as the contents page is often the first page they will read
after the front cover to get a better idea of what’s in the
magazine and whether it’s worth paying for in order to read its
contents.
“The picture looks great but I especially love how the
numbers are positioned as well as the cool font!”
The numbers were one of the most important features when I
was designing the page as I wanted them to be the main focus
and this was a page that would continuously be referred back to
when looking for important pages. The numbers also fit in with
the house style and matched the picture as she is wearing a
traditional red, Indian outfit.
“It’s not extremely clear what type of things your magazine
has to offer aside from the general term of culture which was
only on the front cover.”
When looking at the contents page, you can only really make out
the general articles that are on offer and it was important for me
that the magazine incorporated a lot of different aspects of
culture. I decided that the best way to show how much the
magazine has to offer would be to add in subheadings to group
together the different subsections that make up culture. Such as,
fashion, cuisine and the different celebrations.

7. Double Page Spread
“The image is poorly edited and isn’t the best in
terms of quality.”
When I took a closer look at the picture I noticed that
the edges weren’t smooth from where we had removed
the background and even worse, her ear had seemingly
disappeared. In the end, I decided to change the image
entirely and go for a closer up shot which was much
greater in quality and the background was removed
much more nicely. The new double page spread looks a
lot nicer and vibrant with a brighter picture that took
up more space and consequently looked professional
and worth purchasing.
“It was a little boring to read and the layout looks
scatty.”
The article was very important as it was a large selling
point in the magazine and therefore had to live up to
the expectation of an amazing, exclusive interview. To
improve this, I added more text and changed the
layout by getting rid of some of the gaps to make it
look more professional and by re-formatting the
callout in speech marks and centring it. It was
important for the article to appear professional to
reflect the professional nature of the interview as it
was done with a Bollywood actress.
“The background is really nice and isn’t too
overwhelming. I also love how the headline draws you in!”
I made the background consistent with the rest of the
magazine to keep it professional and I faded the patterns so
that the writing stood out against it.

8. Before & After
Feedback Comparisons

9. My Comment:
Overall, I think the feedback was
highly informative and allowed me to
have a much more competitive
magazine. It was evident that my
house style was well suited to the
magazine and people appreciated the
consistent use of the colours and how
they all complemented one another.
The use of consistent colours and
fonts made the brand distinguishable
as they became one.
However, there was room for some
improvement in terms of
grammatical errors and the choice of
pictures. Nevertheless, these were
easy to fix and ended up making
quite the difference to the
appearance of the magazine and
resulted in a polished cover. As the focus group were carefully selected to reflect the target audience, their feedback
was well tailored to the magazine and its aim.
In conclusion, I think that the majority of the magazine had appropriately met the desires and needs of the reader
and was improved by the constructive criticism given by the focus group. It was important to gain feedback in order
to create the best product possible and that will genuinely appeal the the desired group of people.The front cover,
contents page and double page spread were all well designed and created a strong product for the radio advert and
billboard to advertise.