Feedback 24.11.09

Magda,

Good work so far. Good feflection on prelim task. You now need to get stuck into the research. Outline the conventions of music magazines in general and analyse a front cover, contents and feature artcile from a music magazine of similar genre to your intended project to see how it suggests genre and targets its audience etc. You also need to conduct some primary research - audioence questionnaire and present the quantitative data with a summary - say how it will inform your design ideas. See the checklist for more research tasks.

Mrs A

Beginning My Research, Target Audience and Media Theory

So, I finally finished my prelim task and was ready to begin my the actual, proper music magazine!! :)

It was at this moment that the realization that I would have to do looooaadsss of research and pointless scanning of google in a frail attempt to find something vaguely connected to my idea.

So I went to look at some websites:

http://indieintune.com/ -

An online forum devoted to indie music.

http://info-hqs.com/the-most-talented-female-singers-in-indie-rock.php -

An interesting article I found on female rock musicians.

http://musicmoz.org/Women_in_Music/Magazines/Links/

Here I found a list of popular, online, female music magazines. I browsed through the links listed and looked at the online magazines, and I feel that there is still a lot of work to be done for this market, as the online magazines weren't very good, although some of the ideas they had were fantastic, such as message boards, and forums for women with similar interests to talk.

The best women's online music magazines I found were:

http://www.musiqqueen.com/

Its layout and appearance was the most professional looking, and it had interesting articles that women of this target audience would want to read, but it wasn't the same genre as the magazine I want to make.

http://bitchmagazine.org/browse/results/taxonomy:2315

A 'feminist response to pop culture'. This magazine promoted the independence I think women deserve to feel when they read music magazines specifically for them!

The magazine I that was most similar to how I hope mine will be was Kerrang! magazine, which is a mainly male dominated rock magazine.

http://www.kerrang.com/

I also looked at circulation figures for music magazines for the first six months of 2009. The figures don't look that good, particularly for Kerrang! and NME, which have experienced a double digit percentage fall, which indicates that the needs od the target audience aren't being met. I would hope that my magazine would fill the gap in the market and get people buying Indie/Rock magazines again! Interestingly, one of the most popular magazines by far is Classic Rock, which proves Rock is a popular genre.

Here are the circulation figures I found:

Classic Rock 70,301 (70,188, 66,362)

Kerrang! 43,253 (52,272, 60,294)

Metal Hammer 46,004 (50,269, 48,540)

Mojo 97,722 (100,507, 106,367)

NME 40,948 (48,459, 56,284)

Q 100,172 (103,107, 113,174)

Uncut 76,526 (87,069, 86,925)

From looking at these figures I can see that Rock/Indie is still a popular genre, but the two main magazines of this genre are not doing well, which suggets that there is a gap in the market for a magazine like mine that will fix the problems that these magazines have.

Because I am pretty sure of how I want my magazine to be, I have thought about my target audience, the needs of my audience, and how my magazine will cater for those needs.

get market using the theories of demographic and psychographic profiling...

Demographic:

As the media industries grew after World War Two, the need to identify specific target audiences became more pronounced, and so the first type of audience profiling was developed, taking into account age, gender, geographical area, class, economics, religion, sexuality etc. This demographic method groups people into smaller groups according to their 'socio-economic status'.

Socio-economic segments are widely used in marketing, and in the UK, the six standard socio-economic groups are...

A - Higher managerial, administrative or professional

B - Intermediate managerial, administrative or professional

C1 - Skilled non-manual

C2 - Skilled manual

D - Semi skilled

E - Unskilled

Demographic profiling is problematic because the people in each group all differ, they have completely different jobs and incomes and class. Your job and class does not reflect your own personal taste, for example, one Caucasian female doctor may enjoy R'n'B, whereas another may hate all types of music and prefers to spend her time fishing.

This is where Psychographic Profiling comes in...

Psychographic Profiling:

This type of profiling looks closer at the audience's needs, and aims to appeal to your emorional and psychological needs. These needs can be explained by Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs...

Another important theory to keep in mind when targeting a specific audience is the 'Young and Rubicam's Cross Cultural Consumer Characteristics'. This approach characterizes people into five groups in terms of their personal aspirations...

1) Mainstreamers - 40% of the market. This group seek security in conformity and tend to buy well known brands.

2) Aspirers - motivated by status. Will buy smart, high tech and fashion goods.

3) Succeeders - have already climbed the ladder, want to keep control of what they have. Car adverts which emphasize power are usually aimed at this group.

4) Reformers - want the world to be a better place, usually educated, likely to buy eco-friendly or health products.

5) Individuals (added to the profiling in 1988) - want to stand out from the crowd, likely to buy unusual, quirky, products. Responds to advertising.

In the 80's/90's, consumer groups were categorized further into VERY specific groups. To list them all would take a long time, so I picked out the groups which I felt summarized by target audience, be warned, some of the group names are a little crude!!

KIPPERS: Kids In Parent's Pockets Eroding Retirement Savings

OINKY: One Income, No Kids Yet

SNAG: Sensitive New Age Guy

SNERT: Snot-Nosed Egotistical Rude Teenager

I now have a clearer idea of Media theories and my target audience. Let the research commence!

Preliminary Task Analysis (SMC Magazine)

Before beginning my task, I did a preliminary task to learn how to use the computer software (such as Photoshop and InDesign). The task was to create a college magazine front cover, and a draft for the contents page.

I'm really glad I had the opportunity to do this task because it has given me a lot of new ideas for my final product, as well as showing me my mistakes and giving me lots of room for improvement for my final magazine. However, despite me seeing certain errors in my work, I am oddly quite pleased with it! :)

I quite like my front cover, the colours are funky, bright and eye catching (if a little gaudy) which is perfect for a magazine aimed at 16-18 year old college students. I think the colour scheme might be a little bit too girly, the pink and yellows are quite gender specific, so this would be something to improve, as the magazine is meant to be unisex, and the use of pink would probably discourage men! I think the title doesn't stand out enough, and really the title should be one of the first things you are drawn to, so this would be something to improve on. I also think the pulse logo needs to be more eye catching, so I would maybe like to work in some interesting colours. It has to be something you recognise.

I like the white background, because the rest of the magazine is quite busy, so the blankness behind makes the front cover easier to digest, however, this style probably wouldn't work for a rock music magazine. I used two different fonts, I think they both work well when they're big, but the smaller text would probably require a clearer font, so its easier to read. I also like the effect of the "student reviews" photographs being tilted slightly, it makes the page look more interesting. I really like all my photographs actually :) Billie was really good to work with, she was creative with her expressions so the different photos express different emotions, tying in with their particular subject. I like my text boxes too, they explain well what will be inside the magazine, capturing the readers interest. I would criticize the first one though, as it rambles on a little too much, and should be short and snappy like the other two.

I think my contents page sketch would've looked better once it had been properly done up :) but I guess it looks alright! I quite like the layout, but there's a few big blank spaces which makes the page look dull.

Initial Ideas.

I have chosen to make a music magazine for my project. I chose this option because I really enjoy writing and journalism, and I feel this particular option will be the most exciting and enjoyable project for me.

I have a few ideas for what genre of music magazine I will make, the music magazine market is quite popular, and so for me to find a product with a unique selling point will be difficult, as so many different genres of music have already been covered in magazines. However, there are a few specific genres I feel would work well:

* Indie/Rock magazine - although these are possibly the most common type of music magazine, they have a large audience, and I personally could target my product at a smaller, more specific audience, for example, a women's rock magazine.

* Women's Indie/Rock Magazine - I am not aware of any that currently exist, so this is something I will research.

* Electronica/Electropop - I think it would be good to produce a magazine that caters for an audience that currently isn't catered for. This genre is quite popular, modern, new and funky, and I think it could be successful.

Before I decide which magazine I choose to produce, I will have to conduct some research to find out who the specific target audience would be. I will do this by making a questionnaire, looking at other popular magazines and internet research.

For my USP (Unique Selling Point) my main focus will be that my magazine will cater for an audience that is currently not catered for, for example, there are many male dominated or unisex rock magazine (e.g. Kerrang!, NME, etc) but none of them cater specifically for women. If I made my magazine for women, my USP would be that it would give the reader the celebrity gossip that you would get in a typical women's magazine, but it would be more music related, rather than about pointless reality TV stars. It could include articles about 'how to dress like your favourite rock star". I think a more feminine approach to rock music would make my product more successful.

Before I begin to produce my product, I need to finalize my idea. To do this, I intend to carry out research. To confirm that my product has an audience, I will make a questionnaire to find out who would buy my product - and how interested the would be. I will also try and find magazines similar to my own, and analyze their strengths and weaknesses.