Target Audience

Target Audience

When I think about the average target audience music magazine's get  I would immediately think of teens or young adults. However, depending on the magazine and the genre it has become known that adults and people of an older generation are also likely to buy a music magazine.

After looking over the statistics I have extracted for the National Readership Survey I can clearly see that there is a wide differentiation between some magazines. For example, Kerrang has a readership of 15-34 year old at about 192,000 where as its readership for over 35's is only 60,000. However, Q has a higher total of readers over 35.

I have decided I will try to aim my target audience towards teens and adults, young and old. I feel this will give me a wider range of music to express throughout my magazine. I also feel that if my target audience is wide that the type of music I can out into my magazine is more interesting.

Masthead

Masthead

When brainstorming ideas for my Masthead I decided to create a mind map to help me think of different areas of music I could involve in my masthead. In my mind map I included I range of things such as cliche's and contradictions of my genre of music.                                                       

In this brainstorm I thought about a colour scheme that would work for my masthead.  I thought about what colour would give the best impression of rock. I decided that to give an impression of rock the best colours to use would be Black, White or Red. I would decide further what colours to use when I had decided on a title and see what the results would look like.

Then I decided to think about what images come to mind when thinking about rock to help me decide what image to use as a backing image for my masthead. I thought about maybe using fire as a background but decided against it as it may give off a more violent vibe than I am looking for. Death plays quite an important part in the overall look of Rock. When I thought about including skulls or cross bones in my masthead I immediately disagreed with the thought as I felt it would draw to much attention away from the title and also make the magazine have more of an adult focus.

I also thought about what words I associate with Rock which may help me create a name for my magazine. I prefer the name B.A.S.S. that gives off the impression of Rock and music but does not apply to a specific audience which works for the magazine I am aiming to create. I thought about which other names could apply to my magazine. I also liked the name Disturbance as it gave off the impression of an abnormal type of music however I felt that the name itself was too long.

When I considered what cliches you normally associate with rock music I came with the idea of leather jackets, biker boots and long, black hair. All of these represent a cliche rock impression.

Next I decided to try out the name B.A.S.S. in different fonts, colours and with different backgrounds.  After choosing a font that I liked I decided to experiment with colours and backgrounds. As show I experimented with 4 colours - Black, White, Blue and Red. All of these colours I felt gave I rock impression. After experimenting with them I decided that I liked to feel the last example gave me about rock. So I have decided to use a black background with white text.

I decided to think of a backing image to insert to my masthead. After re looking at my brainstorm I choose an object that I thought reflected Rock. I choose a simple guitar that I felt would look good behind my writing to make my masthead more interesting. After a lot of editing and changes I have now decided on a masthead for my magazine.

This is my masthead. I decided to use black and white to give a hard core impression and flipped the S.S to have a more interesting choice of words. I also added my picture of a guitar and changed to colour so it became more faint. I am happy with the results.

Types of Research

Types of Research
Qualitative Research: Qualitative research is designed to reveal a target audience’s range of behavior and the perceptions that drive it with reference to specific topics or issues. It uses in-depth studies of small groups of people to guide and support the construction of hypotheses. The results of qualitative research are descriptive rather than predictive.

Primary Research: Primary research consists of a collection of original primary data collected by the researcher. It is often undertaken after the researcher has gained some insight into the issue by reviewing secondary research or by analyzing previously collected primary data.

Secondary Research: Secondary research (also known as desk research) involves the summary, collation and/or synthesis of existing research rather than primary research, where data is collected from, for example, research subjects or experiments.

Quantitative research: Quantitative Research is about asking people for their opinions in a structured way so that you can produce hard facts and statistics to guide you. To get reliable statistical results, it’s important to survey people in fairly large numbers and to make sure they are a representative sample of your target market.

Mood Board

Research

Research

Questions I have thought about?

1) Note down All the magazines I know in my genre

2) What does the title of the magazines convey to the audience.

3) What does the font of the magazine convey to the audience.

4)Think of possible titles for my magazine.

Answers I have concluded from my questions

My genre I will be basing my magazine on is Rock. All the rock magazines I am familiar with are:

• Kerrang!
• Rolling Stones
• Rock Sound
• NME
• Classic Rock
• Mojo
• Metal Hammer
• Spin

The title of these magazines convey different things

Kerrang!'s title is the sound of a guitar.

Rolling Stones is named after one of the greatest bands of all time.

Rock Sound conveys the genre and feeling of rock.

Classic Rock conveys the impression of old rock, classic rock.

Mojo conveys burgeoning interest in classic rock music.

Metal Hammer conveys the impression of heavy metal and hard core rock.

The font of these magazines:

These magazines have very bold and stand out mastheads. They catch the eye of people and they are mostly used of colours black, white and red.

All the magazines titles have a theme. Kerrang have a smashed header. Rolling Stones has a swirly title and the metal from metal hammer has been almost scribbled on.

The Penumbra Effect and Readership

The Penumbra Effect  and Readership

In media the penumbra is the tiny audience that is unexpected, e.g. a elderly woman watching MTV with a child present.

Elderly Woman = Penumbra

Child Present = Main Audience

There are companies and organizations in the world which focus on finding readership results on every thing from television guides to music magazines.

One of the most well known readership organizations is NRS, which stands for National Readership Survey.

The National Readership Survey is a joint venture company in the UK between the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA), the Newspaper Publishers Association (NPA) and the Periodical Publishers Association (PPA). It provides audience research for print advertising trading in the UK. The survey covers over 250 of Britain's major newspapers and magazines, showing the size and nature of the audiences they achieve. It classifies audiences in a number of ways, one of which is the NRS social grade.

This is the statistics of music magazines form July 2013 - June 2014. These were recorded and inputted by NRS.

As you can see there is a difference in the type of magazines people enjoy. ABC1's (Higher up in the social class) enjoy some of the same things as C2DE's (Working Class).  The amount of ABC1's reading Kerrang compared to the amount of C2DE's reading it is not a dramatic change. However, the amount of ABC1's reading Radio times is drastically bugger than the amount of C2DE's reading it. This makes me believe that the content and genres of music involved is more appealing to people of a higher class.

History of Magazines : Rolling Stone

History of Magazines : Rolling Stone

Rolling Stone is a bi-weekly music magazine. It focuses on music, politics and culture and likes to give an overall choice of everything to get most readers. It was first published on November 9th 1967 by Jane Wenner and Ralph J. Gleason. Its known widely for it's musical coverage. In 1990's the magazine decided to change its format to interest a younger generation of readers. It became about television shows, films and actors. However, recently its become more focused on its music content. Wenner stated in the first issue that the title of the magazine referred to the 1950 blues song, "Rollin' Stone", recorded by Muddy Waters, the rock group The Rolling Stones, and Bob Dylan's hit single "Like a Rolling Stone".

On November 5, 2012, the magazine published its first cover in the Spanish language as recognition to the influence of Latino artists in American culture.

Rolling Stones expanded with now a website and a restaurant.

History of Music Magazines: Kerrang

History of Music Magazines: Kerrang

Kerrang! was first published in the UK on 6th June 1981by Bauer productions. Young from ACDC appeared on the first front cover. It was originally set to be published as monthly issue but as it became more popular, it was decided that it would then me published fortnightly and then weekly. During the 1980's and 1990's the magazine put bands such Bon Jovi, Metallica and Poison but later moved on to more grungy bands for example, Nirvana. It is mainly aimed at a niche audience who will listen to the bands and/or music that they feature in the magazine.

Throughout the magazine it features many different things such as band info, tour dates, new bands, album releases and the current charts relevant to the genre. It features many different types of bands such as Paramore, Green Day and Black Sabbath. Kerrang not only have a magazine they have now branch out with a radio station, television show and festival tour.