1. Planning & Research:
Magazine Target Audience
How understanding your audience leads to a more effective product
2. Target Audience?
Magazines exist to gather readers of certain types together in one place so advertising
can be effectively targetted at people who are likely to respond to it.
A magazine needs to have a very clear idea of its readership, which is reflected in its style
and tone, its content, and the kind of advertising it attracts.
Most magazines produce a media pack which defines their typical readers: their interests,
spending power and spending habits. This helps advertisers decide if they should be
marketing their products through each particular publication.
The more specific the target audience, the more effective the advertising will be.
You will need a definiition of your target audience/typical reader, and clear ideas about
their likes/dislikes, their spending habits and needs in terms of magazine content.
You will need to show you have conducted research into existing publications, as well as
finding out more about your magazine’s typical readers.
4. Existing Magazines
Identify a magazine that specialises in the style and genre of music that appeals to you, to
use as a case study and basis for your own magazine.
Find out as much as you can about how this magazine targets certain readers through its
style, content and the advertising it carries. Record the results of this research on your blog.
Extend your research by finding out the media platforms/channels used by your chosen
publication: print, hoardings, online, social media, concerts, festivals, shops, merchandise.
How does your chosen publication connect with its readers? Where does it find them? How
does it ‘speak’ to them? What language and tone of voice does it use?
5. Primary Research
You need to connect with your target audience, and find out first hand what makes them
‘tick’.
This can be achieved through primary research such as questionaires and interviews.
The questioning needs to be aimed at informing your decisions regarding style and content.
This will include a mixture of short answer (‘closed’) questions and longer answer (‘open’)
questions.
You will need to select your respondents carefully to make sure they represent your typical
reader. This means thinking about who you ask, and where you find them.
6. First Steps
Using the Q definition as an example, create your own description of the typical reader for
your magazine, in as much detail as you can at this early stage.
Be prepared to revise or add detail as you find out more about your audience.
Post your ‘Typical Reader’ definition to your blog, explaining how you will add to it as you
find out more.
7. Initial Plans
You can gather more useful feedback if you have something for your audience to
comment on.
Before you start making questionnaires, spend some time getting your initial ideas for the
music mag together, so you can ask people what they think.
Initial ideas could include: a title, a house style, draft layouts, main cover story & photo,
main feature ideas, price.
Before you get too far with your plans, get feedback from your audience. Try to find out
what they think of your ideas, which ones appeal most and least to them.
Give your audience an opportunity to make suggestions for content ideas that might not
have occurred to you.
8. Planning a Questionnaire
Create a questionnaire to gather information from your target audience that will help you
decide what to put in your magazine.
Start with a few simple questions that allow you to find out who is filling in the survey (e.g.
age, gender, background)
Ask questions about their current media consumption: which mags have they bought,
which (relevant) websites do they use, which (relevant) programmes do they watch, what
music do they listen to?
Ask questions about what they might look for in a new magazine, what would tempt them
to buy it?
Ask for their opinions on your ideas for your magazine. This could include possible name,
price, distribution, artists, features, offers.
Think carefully about how you word your questions so it is clear what you are asking for.
Remember that closed questions (e.g. multiple choice) will be easier to count/analyse,
but open questions (free text or interviews) will give you more in-depth information.
9. Conducting a Questionnaire
Design your questionnaire so the questions and answer choices are clear and fair. All
information should fit on 1-2 sides of A4.
Choose whether you are going to issue the survey on paper or online (e.g. Survey Monkey)
You will need to select your respondents carefully to make sure they represent your typical
reader. This means thinking about who you ask, and where you find them.
You will need a minimum of 10 respondents, but more is better for drawing meaningful
conclusions from your data.
Post your questions to your blog.
10. Survey Results
Answers to closed questions can be counted, analysed and graphed more easily if they
are input on to a spreadsheet (e.g. Excel). You should aim to produce some suitable
graphs or charts to show what your respondents said.
Answers to open questions will need to be explained in your own words.
Post a summary of the results to your blog, saying how they will influence your design and
content decisions.
11. Following Up
You need to explain how your research has helped you to decide what to include in your
magazine, and any design decisions that have been influenced by your results.
The best work will involve gathering feedback from your target audience (e.g. a focus
group) at key points as the work develops. For example, you could ask for feedback on
alternative cover designs.
Try to steer your focus group to give you feedback that helps you improve your designs.
For example, rather than asking them if they ‘like’ your cover, ask them which features
they would be most interested in reading, how the headline relates to the main photo,
which quotes would make them want to read more, or how much they would pay for a
copy.
