Q. 4+5 TARGET AUDIENCE AND HOW I APPEALED TO THEM.

4. WHO ARE MY TARGET AUDIENCE?

My pop music magazine is aimed at an audience of both male (11%) and females(89%) aged 11-16. I conducted research into my audience to find they’re preferences, interests and favourite topics within the pop magazine industry to find out what would most suit my magazine. I created an audience profile on my audience after conducting a questionnaire to find out what they enjoy most when reading pop magazines. I then used this information to base around my magazine to ensure it appealed to them as much as possible and was suited to them in order for it to be a success.

TOP OF THE POPS AND WE LOVE POP

These two magazines both had target audiences similar to my magazine and so I researched into these to get a clear insight and to familiarise myself with what pop magazines include to intrigue and appeal to the audience. I closely identified the key features, colour schemes, images, layout and language within the front covers, contents and a double page spread from each magazine. I then annotated what I noticed when doing so, and notified what each magazine had In common with one another to make my magazine similar as these magazines are very popular so their audiences must feel satisfied with what they see.

AUDIENCE PROFILE I conducted an audience profile to represent my audiences interests and hobbies. I included social networking sites, boy bands etc. This helped create a visual image of what sort of people they are based on preferences. My audience are latest into the latest fashion and are influenced by the media and celebrities when it comes to the latest trends. I portrayed my audience as being sociable by using various social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook and Bebo. They also are interested in gossip, so when making my magazine I tried to include as much content that would suit their needs as possible.

QUESTIONNAIRE I conducted a survey on ‘Survey Monkey’ before I created my magazine to find out what my audience most wanted to see inside my pop magazines. I asked questions on colours schemes, layouts, images and content and based my magazine around their options. Some popular answers were that the colour scheme should be white and pink and the content they wanted to involve was interviews with pop artists and celebrity gossip. Seeing as these are the audiences interests I included this content in my magazine (double page spread article) and for my contents page I used mainly pinks and whites to make it match up to their preferences. I also advertised posters on the front of the cover as this was almost equally as popular and I wanted to include as much of the audiences answers as possible.

Features that influenced me when researching into pop magazines

• Bright colours are used throughout such as pinks, blues, yellows and whites. They usually with a set scheme throughout.

• The language is simple and short sentences are used

• Masculine colours such as blues and greys are used when articles on males and boy bands are shown.

• Main images on the front cover are taken at a mid shot, whereas double page spread are usually taken at a long shot.

• Pull quotes are often used as mastheads in the double page spreads

• The layout for the front cover is often route of the eye, with the cover story in the bottom right hand corner (terminal area)

• The main image on the front cover is usually of a popular pop artist.

• The magazines often involve fashion tips, celeb gossip, posters and quiz’s

5.HOW DID YOU ATTRACT/ADDRESS YOUR AUDIENCE?

I tried to appeal to my target audience by basing my magazine entirely around what they wanted to see

included within the pages. After conducting surveys and doing research into the genre myself I found more out about my audience which helped me understand their

social class, interests and preferences.

As my audience were relatively young, and of an age 11-16 I tried to keep them as enticed as possible. I followed the conventions of typical pop music magazines to make it look as professional as possible. I used bright colours

such as pinks, whites, yellows and blues, as seen in magazines such as Top of the Pops and We love Pop, this helped portray the house style upbeat and

quirky much like pop music. The mode of adress was friendly and welcoming through the use of my language such as ‘Hello love popppers’ I wanted to

create a relationship with my reader to make them interested in my magazine. I used lanuage such as ‘Omg’ and ‘Lol’ to show a sense of slang and up-to-date

modern rhythm that Luv Pop has. I used images that would appeal to the reader such as boy bands, and young female artists that the audience would

look up to and be interested in their stories.

WHAT MY AUDIENCE WANTED

My audience said they would most like to see celebrity gossip when reading a magazine. I included a story about a pop artists ‘love life’ which immediately will attract them as they love gossip. By using a pull quote from the article I aimed to draw in readers by giving them a sneak peak of what was to come within the story. Hopefully this made the audience feel intrigued to read on seeing as they are so fond and interested in the celebrities lives

Another popular response to ‘What would you most like to see in a pop magazines?’ was celebrity interviews. I created a story of a boy band who had fallen out with an exclusive article with interviews with the members. The audience would feel intrigued by the ‘the truth’ quote if they like the band. They would get the gossip straight from the magazine and be up to date on what happening.

The most popular answer for ‘what colours would most appeal to you on a pop magazine?’ was pink and white. Seeing as such a large percentage of my target audience were female these colours would appeal most to them and help create the girly and feminine vibe within the magazine. For my contents page my entire scheme was pinks and whites. I focused a lot of attention on the colours as this was key to ensuring the magazine was portrayed as bright and colourful.