2. My Target Audience
I produced a short survey on surveymonkey.com
to identify my own target audience from the
results. I could then construct my magazine to
cater to this generated audience so the product
would be dedicated to them. I could specify the
content to their interests and create a house style
that associated to this target audience.
In my survey, I asked about age, gender, level of
education and favourite genre of music, and how
often they buy music magazines (to get a realistic
representation of what issue I should have my
magazine as. I created a July issue). I felt that
these questions would provide a strong basis to
model my target audience.
3. My Target Audience
My survey found that most people interested in the magazine would be aged between 16 and 19,
meaning that when creating it, I had to make the content age appropriate and interesting to this age
group.
Also, the magazine was mainly female orientated (75% responses).
The responses also stated that on a whole, they bought magazines every three months, meaning I would
release my magazine quarterly. This helped me decide on what issue I should design. I chose my issue to
be July because it would have been the second issue and I wanted to fit my ideas around this. E.g. using
V-Fest as a strap line.
The vast majority of the responses were from college students. This meant that I had to make the
content of the magazine appropriate for these and slightly older people too because a handful attended
university or were employed workers but still technically teenagers.
My results showed that the audience enjoyed listening to a wide selection of music, however, pop punk
and indie/rock were most common. I had to take this into consideration when creating the magazine.
My survey also found that the potential readers had a variety of interests and hobbies such as listening
to music, playing instruments and attending concerts. I aimed to incorporate things that they would
particularly be interested in within the magazine. For example, I used a strap line on my front cover (and
also mentioned on the contents page) about winning tickets to a ‘Neck Deep’ concert.
4. My Research
The magazines that I have researched are aimed at music lovers as
the brief outlines creating a music magazine. I researched such
magazines for inspiration and ideas about how to approach the task,
then I developed their conventions to create my own publication.
Each individual issue of a music magazine appeals to fans of the artist
featured on the front cover as their fans will be intrigued to read
more about their favourite artist, for example, the issue of Q which
featured Cheryl Cole would attract her fans because they would be
interested in the spread about her. It also appeals to loyal fans of the
magazine who buy each issue upon its release.
The target audiences for music magazines are dependent upon the
genre of music associated with the publication. For example, ‘Kerrang’
is similar to my own as it has the pop punk element, yet still aims to
appeal to rock music lovers and occasionally indie. Different music
genres are associated to different magazines who will feature those
specific artists on a regular basis to engage the readers who are
interested in that genre.
