2. Focus Group
I have decided the genre of my magazine is going to be alternative music as this is the music I
am most interested in myself and therefore I would be able to apply the demands of my target
audience as I could relate to them. From my feedback they like the genre as it is very popular as
many people within my target audience listen to alternative artists.
I had two choices for my music magazine name, one was LOUD and one was SOUND WAVE.
From my feedback I discovered that they preferred the name SOUND WAVE as it was more
suited to the alternative genre/theme of the magazine. They also liked the physics side of the
name.
They really like the idea of having a pop art styled theme. They said that this would give the
magazine a unique and edgy look. On the FC I am going to have an extreme close up of my sister
with pop art style make-up (e.g. Red Lipstick, 60’s eyes and big blond hair). This would appeal
more to the male audience, therefore, although my magazine is unisex. I am going to aim it
more to males as this is what NME and METAL HAMMER have chosen their target audience to
be. From my research I have discovered that males read music magazines more often than
females. However, from my online questionnaire, more females completed my questionnaire.
This is why I have made my magazine unisex as my data is more influenced by females than
males.
They liked the idea of my double page spread being about how she was discovered as it is very
suited to a double page spread because they are usually to do with the artists background
3. Online Questionnaire
1. The majority of the people who
answered the questionnaire were 17,
as you can see on the pie chart.
However, I only asked AS students,
therefore, it is very unlikely to see
anyone above the age of 18. However,
I have decided to target my magazine
at 17-30 males. From previous
research I discovered that most music
magazines, such as, NME and Metal
Hammer target their audience around
the same age range. This is because
males generally read music magazines
more than females.
4. 2. The majority of
people who answered
my questionnaire were
female (75%).
Therefore, my research
could be highly
influenced by females
making it less accurate
for males. Because of
this I have to rely on my
secondary research to
see what attracts the
male audience.
5. 3. As you can see from the
graph, alternative and hip hop
music are the most popular
choice. I have chosen the
genre of my magazine to be
alternative. This is positive
data as it shows that I would
have a large target audience
who are interested in
alternative music, therefore,
more people would be
interested in buying an
alternative genre magazine.
6. 4. Surprisingly all of
the students would
pay more than £1 for
the magazine. This is
positive and this
would allow the
magazine to make a
profit. The most
popular choice was
£1.20, therefore I am
going to price my
magazine at £1.20.
7. 5. From this graph I have
noticed that many of the
students don't read music
magazines very often. This
means that I would have to
make my magazine really
attractive and make it stand
out from the rest to
encourage my target audience
to buy the magazine. I would
do this by making the
magazine unique and bold
and perhaps put freebies in
the magazine as from my
colleagues research I have
noticed that this attracts
people to buy magazines.
8. 6. I am glad that most of the
students who answered my
magazine preferred the bold
colours theme with a
relaxes/informal tone. This will
help make my magazine unique
and stand out from the rest o
the shelf. The relaxed theme
may also make the magazine
more relatable to the
consumers of my magazine. I
have chosen to have a pop art
theme as this is unique and
edgy I haven't seen a magazine
with this theme before.
9. 7. This clearly shows that my target audience are interested
in festivals and probably attend regularly. Therefore, I will
have articles about festivals. For my double page spread, I
may do it on the new and upcoming artists first time at a
festival and what their experience was like.
10. 8. The top three articles
that the students preferred
were Upcoming
Bands/New artists,
Festivals and Tours and
Gigs. Therefore this will be
the main content in my
magazine and I will use
them as plugs on my FC to
attract my target audience
as this seems to be what
they are most interested in.
11. 9. This question is quite
similar to the previous
question (Q.5). So, again,
I need to make my
magazine stand out from
the rest with a unique
and edgy look. I think that
a pop art theme would
work as from the
feedback from the Focus
Group they seemed to
really like the idea.
12. 10. From the question
you can see that they
would all prefer an
informal way of
addressing the audience.
This would make my
magazine more fun and
relatable to the
consumers of my music
magazine.