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.
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!
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