The author conducted a focus group with 8 individuals from their target audience to get feedback on their magazine front cover design. Participants were asked about what they liked best, if the pricing seemed fair, and how it could be improved. For the cover design, participants liked the color scheme and headlines most. For pricing, most felt it was fair. For improvements, they suggested making the cover bolder and more unisex by using a different background color for the main image in a "disco" style. The focus group provided useful primary feedback that will help the author refine the cover design.

2. 
I compiled a group of 8 individuals from my
target audience, and organised a focus
group. I did this because I wanted a
representative sample of my target
audience to evaluate my front cover so far.
I asked them questions ranging from what
they liked best, did they think it was fairly
priced and what did think I can improve. I
planned to get a comment from everyone,
and so I compiled notes from the focus
group from each question I asked.

3. 

The first question I asked was what did they like about my front cover, and
could they be specific to a category; i.e colour scheme, main image, mast
head, house style, the headlines.
From the target group, I was able to find that every element of my front
cover was appealing, my colour scheme and headlines more than others.
This means that if I am going to alter my front cover, I should work on my
house style, and main image.
colour scheme
main image
mast head
house style
the headlines

4. 
The second question I asked was whether or not they thought my magazine
was fairly priced?
›
›
›


Yes
No (Lower)
No (Higher)
I wanted to ask this question to make sure I was pricing my front cover
adequately compared to the primary research that I compiled earlier in my
project as if I didn’t I could lose my target audience’s interest.
From the results of the focus group, I found the majority of my focus group
thought I was pricing my magazine fairly, this could result in a long term
loyalty for a magazine.
No
(Higher)
No (Lower)
Yes

5. The third question was whether they thought my magazine was
suited to my target audience, i.e minimal, bold and unique. If
not, how could I improve. From this question I then took notes
from the comments.
 The main comments that arose were that they thought my front
cover should be bolder, for example use a different coloured
background to capture the main image, in a certain ‘disco’
light. As well as, more unisex. My focus group felt it was too
pushed towards the female market whereas my target market
was unisex.


6. 


From this focus group I have found that I need to work on the editing of my
main cover image, and house style. Possibly altering it so it makes it more
consistent. One comment I will take into heavy consideration is the idea of
the variant background, I will now edit my main image and it’s background
to make it more appealing and bolder. Putting the model in a somewhat
disco environment by using the various colour editing tools on Photoshop.
I have learnt from this focus group that I do not need to alter my pricing on
my front cover as it is adequate for my target audience.
This focus group has been helpful because it has given me primary
evaluative feedback that I would have not got from a survey, as the results
of a survey wouldn’t have been so accurate.