Research into Target Audience: Expectations

There are several expectations from the Target Audience of an alternative music magazine. These include:

• ·        Dark clothing: while this is not the case 100% of the time, there is a large stereotype that alternative artists wear dark, often black, clothing which connoted the emotion that is portrayed in many alternative songs.
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• ·        Strong body language: it is common that, on the front cover of alt-rock magazines, that the cover stars have strong and defensive body language. For example, arms crossed, standing at an angle (which gives a person a sturdier balance)
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• ·        Direct address: Direct address is a very important aspect on the front cover of an alt-rock magazine. This is because direct address from one of more cover stars intimidates the reader into investigating the magazine, possibly encouraging them to pick up and purchase the magazine.
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• ·        Language: Strong, short and snappy wording for my cover lines are commonly found on the cover page of an alt-rock magazine. The use of bold statements will match the attitude of the genre.

To ensure my magazine is as realistic as possible, I will make use to include all of these points within my photography on my cover page.

Research into Target Audience: Questionnaire Results

To get an idea of my target audience for my magazine, I created a questionnaire on SurveyMonkey.com. Here are my results:

Question 1 was “What is your age”. I asked this question to give me an idea of my target age range. From my results I can see that my target audience is 16-21 year olds. This information allows me to focus my attention on this age range when creating my magazine.

Question 2 was “What is your gender?” I asked this to grasp what the majority of my target audience’s gender was, allowing me to customize my magazine to suit their needs. From my results I can see that the majority of my target audience are female. Because of this I will have my magazine lean more towards a feminine feel, however to not exclude the other 30% of my audience, I will have to ensure my magazine isn’t too feminine.

Question 3 was “Do you listen to Alternative Rock?” from my research I know that 80% of my audience do listen to alternative rock, so this tells me that it is a good genre to make a magazine on.

Question 4 was “What colour scheme would you expect to see on an Alternative-Rock magazine?” from my research I know that 60% of my audience prefer the idea of a different colour scheme depending on the cover star. Because of this, I will need to ensure that my mast head is able to change colour to match the cover star. This will allow me to create symbiosis between my audience and my magazine.

Question 5 was “Should the magazine’s language be: Formal or informal?” 80 of my audience prefer informal language for music magazines. Because of this, I will use informal language when writing articles. However, I will also use formal language sometimes to account for the other 20%

Question 6 was “How frequent should an Alternative Rock magazine be published?” 60% of my audience suggested that a monthly magazine is best for my music magazine.

Question 7 was “What content would you expect to find in an alternative rock magazine?” from looking at the above results, I noticed that interviews, news, events, band information, etc. were all popular answers from my audience. Because of this, I will be sure to include these features.

Question 8 was “Should the magazine be advertised on social media?” 100% of my audience said yes to this question. This means that my magazine should have social media links on it.

Question 9 was “Should an online version of the magazine be available?” 100% of my audience replied “Yes” meaning that an online version of the magazine will be ideal; this will allow my magazine to not be made redundant in the future if paper magazines go out of fashion.

Question 10 was “How much would you be willing to spend on a magazine?” 9% said £3.50 - £5.00, 18% said under £2.50 and 73% said £2.50-£3.50. This tells me that people are more willing to spend a mid-range price for a magazine. This is the range that I will price my magazine.

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).