Research into Target Audience

For my magazine, I have chosen to get inspiration from Rock Sound magazine as I like their stylish approach on their covers – using a large amount of symbiosis within the colour scheme they use. Furthermore, each issue of Rock Sound (from what I have seen) is unique in the colour scheme they use. What I love about Rock Sound’s covers is they are not afraid to use vivid colours and then in the next issue use dark, gloomy colours – I feel like this keeps the reading experience fresh.

   This contrasts magazines such as Kerrang or Q who keep an almost rigid design and similar colour scheme. Furthermore, I feel like the front cover of Kerrang is too “in your face” with screamers and imagery all begging for your attention - something I find distracting and unpleasant when reading. One other thing I like about Rock Sound over Kerrang is that Rock Sound uses the entire band as the cover star, while Kerrang only uses the lead singer. I don’t personally like this as I feel it makes the other members of the band seem less important. Kerrang only featuring the Lead vocalist as caused some bad relations between the magazine, the band and ultimately the audience/fans of the bands. To avoid these bad relations, I will try to include a full band where possible.

   

Because I have chosen Rock Sound to be my inspiration for my magazine, it means that my target audience is made up of 59% females, and 72% 15-21 year olds. Because my target audience is majorically female, I will be more likely to use a male cover star and use bright house colours, however I don’t want to exclude males from wanting to purchase the magazine so I need to find the right balance. Furthermore, as my target audience are mainly made up of 15-21 year olds, I will use lots of imagery within my magazine, and few large bodies of text, as 15-21 year olds are less likely to enjoy reading long articles. Also, because my magazine will be aimed at a young audience, whom may have little to no income, my magazine should be priced reasonably enough that I would benefit as well as the audience – a good price generally is £3.00-£4.50 as anything over £4.50 will most likely be too expensive for my target audience, while a price lower than £3.00 may give off the impression that the magazine is cheap (in terms of quality).