Audience Research

For my audience research I have created a Survey Monkey in order to find out the best way to design my music magazine and the target audience to aim towards. I placed the link onto Facebook and collected a few results and here are some of the results:

A few people took the survey and as the results show, the majority of people who took the survey were around the ages of 16-21 years of age.  However the results show that those who took the survey were from the ages of 16-33 years of age and this helps give a clear indication of the target audience I need to aim towards in my magazine. As I have already thought about the target audience to aim for, these results have helped and persuaded me to continue with my target audience I had previously decided on. 

These results show that the audiences who took the survey were mainly female. However even though only 25% of them were male. I am still going to target my magazine towards male and female audiences. This should interest ever audience who are interested in music magazines. This also helped influence my ideas and I have chosen to use a female star vehicle instead of a male because females are commonly represented more in other genres of magazines. To break this trend, I am using a female model to represent my magazine, as the majority of rock magazines feature male star vehicles on the cover. I will be representing a female audience to break the trend of 'males only' and show that audiences of both genders are attracted to the same magazine.

These are not the best results, as it shows that a number of audiences do not read music magazines. However these results show that 5 out of the 8 people who took the survey either do read music magazines or occasionally do. I would like to change this result with my magazine and allow it to appeal to all audiences. Not only will it appeal to audiences who read music magazines it will hopefully appeal to others and entice them to start reading music magazines. Also with the target audience being mainly targeted at youths, by using a colour scheme that attracts to most youths, this could make more audiences read the magazine.

These are quite good results, as they show that the majority of the audiences have voted for Q magazine and Classic Rock music magazine. I have analysed both of these magazines previously and know the common conventions and styles that each of these magazines have. As the majority of the audiences have chosen Q magazine, I have decided to use Q magazine as guidance, to create my own magazine. Due to these results being like they are, I will be using both music magazines in order to grasp different features and conventions each magazine hold. by doing this I can get a larger understanding of what features need to be included and the others that don't really need to be included.

The colour scheme is very important for a Rock magazine as the colour represents the genre of the magazine and is what appeals to its audiences. Black, white and red was the most popular answer chosen by the audience and this has determined the colour scheme for my magazine. I have analysed 'Classic Rock' music magazine and their colour scheme was similar to the colours chosen by the audience. 'Q' magazine also represents similar colours. As both these magazines were very popular to the audiences, I will use these results to my advantage and use the colour scheme that the audience prefers. This will allow me to let my magazine appeal to my target audience and represent the age range that I am aiming for. The colour scheme attracts many audiences to different magazines and helps determine whether the magazine has a good colour scheme or not. I will follow these colours as they do not clash with each other, are quite neutral and appeal to the target audience asked.

In these results, the majority of the audiences would like to see stories concerning new bands, artists and interviews involving different (new) band members and artists. Also it shows that they would like to see poll about them and have text that engages with the audience. By following these results, I will allow my magazine to appeal to the audiences by not only the appearance but the text and typography too. The stories are the key part to a music magazine and in my magazine I will include stories and band/artist information to appeal to my target audience. As here they have stated that this is what appeal to them, within a music magazine. 

These last set of results show that the majority of the audience is attracted to a music magazine because of the colour scheme and any useful information about up-coming gigs and tours with new bands and old bands. Interviews are a very popular answer and I aim to involve an interview in my feature page because the audiences who took the survey have selected interviews as one of their favorite parts of a magazine to see. Also the audience has also stated that stories attract them to a music magazine and within my feature page, I will involve a story at the beginning of the feature page and an interview at the end. By doing this, I can cover the main points that the audiences have stated and I can attract my target audience too.  This is a very important part of my music magazine as the text is what makes the feature page and the whole magazine. This is what appeals to the audiences and with interesting stories and gossip, my music magazine should appeal to the target audience.