3. xlr8r target audience
Xlr8r’s target audience is people who like music that isn’t
mainstream. It is not genre specific and doesn’t necessarily
have a target age, as it is more just people who like that
type of music, which can be any age. Although it is
definitely ‘aimed’ at a young adult/teenage audience. It is
definitely more masculine and leans towards a male target
audience, but not strictly. They focus on upcoming artists
and help promote them. They offer many songs for free DL
to help promote upcoming artists. I could not find a reader
profile for xlr8r but it has a similar target audience to
mixmag, so I will use the target age etc. that mixmag have.
4. How has the publisher used images to
appeal to this audience?
The majority of the page space is taken up by
images. This is because their target audience prefer
images to huge blocks of text and it captures the
readers attention. The magazine is a lot about art
and the images convey this message.
5. How has the publisher used words to
appeal to this audience?
They use words but not in huge amounts.
The images draw the readers attention and
then they read the small amounts of text
that accompany them. The articles are easy
reading and not too heavy. The pages are
not too crowded and this adds to the less
intense, full-on feel of the magazine.
6. How has the publisher used colours to
appeal to this audience?
Inside the magazine white is the most common colour,
creating a clean, modern feel. Different issues have
different colour schemes and there is not a ‘house colour’
so to say. Different pages will be different colours,
corresponding to the article featured on that page.
7. How has the publisher used fonts to
appeal to this audience?
Although the publisher mostly uses a bold simple font
that stands out and follows the simple convention that is
applied throughout the magazine, they sometimes use
fonts that correspond with the genre of music that is
featured in that particular article.
They use the simple font and the straight forward page
designs because that is what suits their target audience.
Their target audience are less likely to appreciate intricate
and complicated designs as opposed to the modern,
simple approach they take towards the page layout.
8. How have the publishers used the
layout to appeal to the audience?
They use a layout that contains a large
proportion of images and small units of text. The
layout is normally quite modern, simple and
easy to read. The pictures attract the readers
and then they read the text as it is not in huge
overwhelming blocks
9. How have the publishers used captions
and anchoring to construct a product
suitable for their audience?
They haven’t used captions or anchoring, the
images are normally artistic or a portrait of the
producer the article is about and are selfexplanatory
10. Codes and Conventions used
Colour scheme- the colour scheme is bold and loud. They
make use of block colours and each different article tends to
have a different colour scheme. There is a lot of white and
also a lot of black.
Photography- there is a large amount of photography
included within this publication. The majority of the photos
feature the producer(s) that the article is about. The photos
are very artistic.
Writing style and language- the writing style and language are
quite informal but also informative and mature.
Text/picture ratio- there is a lot more pictures than text as the
target audience will be more interested in images rather than
text.
11. What methods can be used for a
publisher to find out what people
think aboutfind out product? of their
it’s what people think
There are many ways a publisher can
product such as:
• Questionnaires
• Face-to-face interviews
• Focus groups
• Audience panels
Questionnaires are an extremely effective (and cheap) way to find out
peoples opinions on things and it is easy to organize.
Face-to-face interviews are another method of collecting information on what
people think of your product, but can be more time consuming and harder to
find people willing to take part in the research.
Focus groups are another way of collecting information and are good as they
are unbiased.
An audience panel is a group (often large) of people that are regularly
contacted regarding a product or service. It allows you to get feedback from
the same group over an extended period of time.
