2. How did I attract my audience?
Before I could address my audience, I needed to attract them and interest them into reading the magazine. I did this using a
variety of different techniques throughout the pages of my magazine. In my research, I found that my target audience was aged
15 – 18, so I needed to target the style of my magazine towards them. The gender of my audience was primarily female, but
was still made up by a large percentage of males, so I needed to target my magazine more towards females without excluding
the male readers. I decided that my target audience would range from working class to middle class, including groups B, C1, C2
and D, as the music genres in the magazine were varied and would appeal to members of each social class. The cover is the
first thing that will attract readers to picking up a magazine. They will see the cover on the shelf and, if it catches their eye,
they’ll pick it up and see if they’re interested in buying it. This means that my cover needed to be completely aimed towards
my target audience. Everything needed to be carefully chosen in order to grab the attention of my target audience. The
contents page is the next place that they will turn to decide if they’re interested in buying and reading the magazine. Therefore
the contents page needed to be full of information so that they could see what content would be included in the magazine,
while also being targeted towards them, through similar techniques to the cover. Finally, the double page spread needs to be
interesting in order to attract the reader. In my survey, I asked about the style that the audience preferred in the magazines
that they read, and used this to help aid me in designing the layout of the pages.
How did I address my audience?
Once the readers were interested in the magazine, I needed to address them, in order to build a connection with them. I did
this through the choice of specific words used in the magazine, as well as the images used. The audience need to feel like the
magazine is for them specifically, so I adapted the style of the pages to address them on a more personal level.
In these next slides, I will analyse the pages of my own magazine in order to discuss which aspects of each page were
specifically designed and chosen to attract or address my target audience.
3. Colour scheme
The main colour scheme that I chose for the magazine was red, black and white. Other colour were also used, predominantly
grey, and other colours were included less often, like yellow for the headline. I chose to use bright colours for things like the
masthead and headline, as they are bright colours which stand out on the page, and would catch the eye and grab the attention
of the audience as they’re passing by the magazine on the shelf. This is a good way to attract the readers from the cover alone.
Having a constant colour scheme also attracts the readers, as it makes the magazine appear professional, which encourages the
audience to purchase it.
Another reason that I chose these colour was because they are considered gender neutral colours. Some colours, like blue and
pink, have connotations of specific genders. I felt that using these colours, particularly on the cover, wouldn’t address my target
audience. My main target audience was female readers, so I didn’t want to use blue, as it has connotations of the male gender
and this wouldn’t address them, and they may feel alienated. However, I do still want my magazine to appeal to male readers
too, so I didn’t want to use colours with female connotations as it wouldn’t address the male readers. Therefore, I decided that
gender neutral colours, in particular red, would be much more appropriate to use, as they don’t have connotations of a certain
gender and would address my full audience better. The colours red and yellow are also bright and youthful colours, which
address the younger audience who my magazine is aimed at. An older, adult audience may be put off by the brightness of the
colours, so they wouldn’t feel like the magazine is for them, and it wouldn’t address them as much as it would a younger
audience.
I did sometimes use gendered colours e.g. in the pop album cover. Pop music is often aimed
more towards a female audience, so I used the colour pink for the text to address this target
audience. The font is also a more “feminine” font, which appeals more to girls and therefore
addresses them as the target audience.
4. Words used
To attract the audience into reading the magazine, I used words like “win” and “exclusive” on the cover. These are buzzwords,
and they stand out to an audience, as they create curiosity. The reader is then more likely to pick up the magazine to look at,
and may see something that prompts them to purchase it. The word “win” specifically may attract an audience of a lower
class background rather than a middle class background, as those of a lower class are less likely to be able to afford the
prizes, which in this case is festival tickets. This therefore will attract them as they have a chance of getting something they
would be unlikely to get otherwise.
The language of the magazine also addresses the fact that the readers are younger. While the language that I’ve used it still
formal and professional, as well as being written correctly, it is easy to read and follow. The article in the double page spread
is an example of this. This addresses the fact that the target audience is younger, as the writing isn’t as complicated as you
may find in a magazine aimed at adults. However, the writing isn’t patronising in how it’s written, and it doesn’t assume a
lack of intelligence from it’s young readers. The words have just been specifically chosen to allow for people of all reading
levels to enjoy the magazine.
One example of a way that I have addressed young readers personally through language is the inclusion of “digitally” when
discussing an album pre-order on my double page spread. Younger audiences tend to be more up to date with technology
than older audiences, and therefore are more likely to purchase the album digitally than they are physically. Offering the
option of downloading the album digitally addresses the younger audience in this way.
The language that I’ve chosen is very gender neutral and representative of equality. I haven’t spoken of male and female
artists differently to each other. This addresses the fact that my audience consists of both genders, as, if the magazine was
aimed at one particular gender, the language would be written with their language choices in mind. However, keeping it
neutral addresses the varied genders in my readers.
5. Photography
The photography is mostly of the artists who have articles written about them in the magazine. This attracts the audience,
as if they see an artist that they’re interested in, they will be more interested in picking up and possibly buying the
magazine. The photos that aren’t of an artist are the album covers. However, album covers would be recognisable to an
audience, and if they recognise one of the covers shown to be in the reviews, they may be more interested in buying the
magazine.
The location of the photography is representative of the age of my audience. While the cover and pop album cover are
professional photos taken in a studio, the rest of the images are in a regular location. For example, the images taken for the
double page spread were shot at college. This addresses the younger audience as they are more likely to connect with
locations like this than they are with a professional studio, as they more than likely haven’t been to a professional studio,
and even if they had, they prefer the outdoors. The characters in the photos are both male and female, which addresses the
fact that my audience is both male and female. The cover artist is female, addressing how I got the most response in my
survey from females, and they make up the majority of my audience. However, male artists are still included to address how
I still received a high number of male responses. The costumes of the characters represent how the magazine is aimed at a
wide range of social class groups. While some of the characters are wearing branded clothes, like the character wearing
Vans in the images on the double page spread, some of them aren’t, for example how the clothes that the character on the
cover is wearing are unbranded. This addresses the range of classes, as a middle class audience would be more likely to
easily be able to purchase branded items, whereas a working class audience wouldn’t,
and would be more likely to purchase unbranded clothes, due to their budgets. As there’s
a range of classes in my audience, a range of classes are represented and addressed in the
magazine.
6. Photography
The style of the photography attracts the audience along with the mise-en-scene. For my cover, I
chose to use a medium close up, as this feels more personal to the audience and creates a connection
between the artist and audience. The reader then feels like they will get a more personal insight into
the artist’s life from their article.
I chose to use a combination of staged, posed photos and candid, relaxed photos in the magazine. For
my cover and the main image on the double page spread, the character is posed. They are staring
straight ahead into the camera, which creates a connection with the reader, and smiling. This portrays
the artist as professional to the reader. However, as my readers are younger, I also wanted to show the
fun, youthful side of my characters, as I felt that it would better address my target audience.
Therefore for the other images of characters (the double page spread sub-image, the pop album cover
and the contents page main image, the characters are natural. I shot all of the photos for these
without telling the characters what to do. They are not posing for the photo. I felt that young people
would have a stronger connection with these artists, as they can connect to their youthful and fun
personalities more than the serious personalities. Therefore, the candid photos better address my
target audience than the posed photos.
7. Layout
The layout of the magazine was much more professional that a magazine aimed towards young people.
Often these magazines are quite busy, with lots of information on each page. However, in my survey I
found that my audience prefer a more “minimalist” approach, so this is what I did to try and attract
them. I don’t this this addresses my audience’s age very much, as it is unlike the usual magazine of this
type, but it does address their preferences from my research.
Price
The price of the magazine is £3.50. This is cheaper than most monthly music magazines, so I
think that this will definitely attract an audience to read my magazine. It also addresses the fact
that my magazine is aimed at a range of social class groups. If my magazine was aimed more
towards the middle class, I would have priced it higher, as the few extra pound will be less
trouble to them. However, I want readers from working class backgrounds to be able to read
the magazine too, as I think that it’s unfair to alienate them just because the price is too high.
Therefore I decided to price the magazine at £3.50, so that it is more affordable to a wider
range of social class groups. The price addresses the different classes that I want to target with
this magazine.
