Jon Villacci conducted primary research through a questionnaire to gather information about what readers find most appealing in an alternative rock magazine. The responses indicated that images, interviews, popular bands, and information are most interesting to readers. Star appeal and promotions were also found to impact readership. The appropriate price range was determined to be £2-3, which is consistent with similar magazines. The research provided insights into design elements and content that will attract readers and influence sales of Jon's magazine.

1. Primary Research
Reflections
Name: Jon Villacci
Candidate Number: 1248
Center Name: St. Andrew’s Catholic School
Center Number: 64135

2. Questionnaire Results

3. Questionnaire (Q.1)
Q1
Mast head/ Headlines Images Sub - stories
What is the most interesting part of the
front cover of an Alternative rock
magazine in your opinion?
Images is a common answer in this
question, with this feedback I can gather
information to suggest that images
appeal more to the readers. In this case
then I must try and incorporate great
images into my front cover in order to
gain the best reader response.
This response denotes that most people
prefer to see images as it is the first
conventions they will see when turning
pages.

4. Q2
YES NO
Questionnaire (Q.2)
Do you think that Star appeal
(Richard Dyer) has an impact
on the reader and how they
Understand the magazine.?
The majority of the public
answered no, this is interesting
as it shows me that Music stars
must have an impact on readers
lifestyle especially Alternative
Rock fans.
The data suggests that star
appeal is a major pull in for
regular buyers.

5. Questionnaire (Q.3)
Q.3
YES NO
Do you think that promotions
and inside magazine add - ons
(E.G. posters) help to sell the
magazine?
The verdict is interesting as I
would assume that everyone
wants a freebee but apparently
not. I can see the logic in these
answers, if you are a buyer you
buy it for the magazine content
as in information not for the
occasional poster or free CD.
However this was pretty close to
50%. From this data I can
suggest that freebees are not
the unique selling point of music
magazines.

6. Questionnaire (Q.4)
Q.4
Images
Band news
Latest news in up and coming bands
Interviews
What do You think is the most
important part of a music magazine?
Interviews seem to be the most
interesting which is good as I am going
to include some in my double page
spread for my issue of Scream
magazine.
This data gives off the impression that
I need to incorporate a lot of
interesting interview information in
order to captivate the readers.

7. Questionnaire (Q.5)
Q.5
Images Information
What do you think as a reader is more
important the images? Or the
information inside the music
magazine?
The outcome is exactly what I thought.
If you pay for the magazine you pay for
the exact content which is mainly text
not images. For my issue I will have to
try and incorporate a lot of well
detailed information in order to keep
the readers happy.
This data denotes the importance of
information over the images. However
this does not mean that aesthetically
pleasing images are not as important.

8. Questionnaire (Q.6)
Q.6
The style Images Popular bands involved Interviews
What do you think will attract
Alternative rock fans into my
magazine?
Popular bands for the alternative
scene are always adored as they are
the most mainstream out of that
genre for example nirvana.
I will be including some very popular
bands into my issue as popular
bands seem to appeal more and
make more money for the business.

9. Questionnaire (Q.7)
Q.7
YES NO Not sure
Is the double page spread always
what you as a reader are the most
anticipated for or not?
For most magazines the double page
spread includes the front cover stories
so in a way the double page spread is
the main highlight and the biggest
event of which the music magazine
will cover so a lot of people are highly
interested in it.

10. Questionnaire (Q.8)
Column1
Intresting Boring
Do you find band / Artist
interviews interesting or
boring?
The majority went with
interesting which is exactly
what I needed as feedback as I
will be including interviews
into the content of my double
page spread.

11. Questionnaire (Q.9)
Q.9
1-2 Pounds 2-3 Pounds 3-5 Pounds
What do you think is the right
appropriate price for an Alternative rock
magazine is?
Mid – range was the largest group of
answers which is usually always the
average 2-3 pounds. Most Rock
magazines like kerrang and Rock sound
retail for similar price. This is great as
Rock sound is my magazine of inspiration I
will be retailing my issue for maximum 3
great British pounds. Exactly what the
public would spend, so I would make my
magazine reasonably priced for others to
buy making more money for the business.

12. Questionnaire (Q.10)
Q.10
YES NO
Do you think that by including Star
appeal(Richard Dyer) on the front cover
of an Alternative Rock magazine will
help increase sales?
This is a clear example that Idols are a
great eye opener for the public.
Especially for the front cover as it will
draw in attention a lot more.
For my issue I will be adding in big stars
to show how my magazine is
professional and also to captivate
readers.

14. Evaluation And evidence
The image on the right is the screenshot of my questionnaire
which I asked 10 people (classmates and family members) to
fill out so that I could gather enough results to create a clear
picture of the best alternative magazine.
My questions where chosen around basic knowledge on
music magazines and I recorded what the public truthfully
think about music magazines through these questionnaires.
In question 5, the public chose that images where more
important in a music magazine as it is more appealing and
stands out. In my magazine I will be editing images and taking
professional images to achieve this.

15. Analysis

16. The majority of
the responses
are from ages
16-20 similar to
my target
audience so will
understand the
appeal that rock
magazines have
on younger
people.

17. My results where
exactly what I
predicted, as the
price range (£2-3) is
the average for a
music magazine in
the similar style to
mine. My magazine
of inspiration rock
sound, retails for £3
GBP so this is a good
representative of
how my magazine is
similar.

18. The majority of my answers
that I gathered entail that the
majority of the public aim to
be purchasing music
magazines once a month. This
is a good piece of research as
my magazine of research
(Rock sound) release
magazines monthly which is
exactly what I aim to achieve
with my music magazine.

19. My research suggests that
the information is more
appealing to magazine
readers than images.
Because of this information I
have gained I know that I
should include well detailed
and relevant data into my
pages, for example, my
interview on my double
page spread will need to suit
the genre and captivate the
audience via the information
as well as the images
because images are just as
important to create an
appeal.

20. 37% (the majority) of my
survey users find music
magazines only 3 out of 5 as
being interested. From this
data I have gathered how
music magazines may not be
appealing to many people.
Within my magazine I must
ensure that I design my pages
to look as appealing as
possible to intrigue non
magazine readers to start
reading magazines like mine
and alike.

21. 50% of my response gathered
preferred the style of rock
music magazines. The response
could infer that rock magazines
are one of most popular so my
magazine will need to appeal to
the popular demand of the
public. 37% of my response
chose pop music which is
different because pop music is
usually the ‘popular’ style of
music in the mainstream music
category.

22. The wide majority of my
response gathered form this
question suggest who readers
want to see their fans which
means that when I come to
design my final pages ‘star
appeal’(Richard Dyer) should
be the repeated (Steve Neale
1980) code that I should
endorse throughout my
magazine pages so that the
audience will still find my pages
as interesting and favorable.
The star appeal seems to be
a common interest from
members of the public.

23. Interests in artist and
recommendations from
peers seem to be the most
common type of response
from my survey. My
magazine will be sold in
local supermarkets such as
Tesco's, ASDA and
Sainsbury’s as well as the
local newsagent stores
within location to my
target audience. As it will
be sold in shops influence
of purchase will be
through marketing in
shops as well as via word
of mouth. My magazine
pages will include social
links to re enforce the
brand identity and to reach
out to buyers on different
platforms.

24. An amazing 75% of my
response stated that
reading music magazines
help to understand that
specific culture. For
example my magazine of
inspiration ‘Rock sound’
includes a lot of cultural
background such as rock
star attitude and lifestyle
which helps the readers of
the magazine to understand
the genre and the social
groups which follow.

25. 37% of my survey response (majority)
chose the fact that news and gossip is
the most appealing USP of music
magazines. This is the same as every
music magazine because ‘star appeal’
(Richard Dyer) has a iconic effect on
the stars audience for them to want
to idolize and personally identify their
lives around their favorite stars (Katz).

26. Break down of results
From gathering my results of my survey I have
averaged out each question that I feel is important
and more related in terms of gathering the best
answers for an alternative rock magazine.
The most important question for me , was question 4
(What do you find more interesting in a music
magazine ?) The answer was a clear ‘information’ over
‘images’. This was different to my questionnaire as
those results recorded that in fact images where more
important, from this I can conclude that I should be
taking into consideration that all of my content should
be appealing and interesting not just one or the other.