Audience Research Analysis

I have collected in the results of my survey, which was created and accessible online via the online survey site www.surveymonkey.com I have included the use of charts to show the results more clearly.


Q1: Are you male or female?

The first question of my survey was simple, are you male and female, this was designed to get a better idea of who my target demographic is and find what appeals to certain genders when it comes to music magazines. The vast majority of the people who answered my questionnaire were male (13 male compared to only 2 female) this is important as it means that it could be better for my magazine to create a more masculine feel if my buyers are predominantly male.

Q2: How old are you?

My second question was “How old are you” once again this is designed to get better insight to which type of people who are most interested in buying music magazines so that i can cater my magazine to appeal to them in order to sell more copies. The majority of the people asked fitted into the 16-21 age bracket. This tells me that I should try to aim my magazine at the late teens/young adults audience. This could mean change the tone of my interviews to be more informal and relaxed to suit the stereotypical attitude to life that the younger attitude holds and to make the bands closer to their fans.

Q3: How many music magazines do you regulary buy?

My next question was “How many music magazines do you regulary buy?” Surprisingly a vast majority of the people who took part in my survey, don’t regulary buy music magazines, whilst this might be off-putting to most people, it shows a gap for my magazine to enter, if I can create a product which appeals to my target demographic, I won’t be competing with any magazines they already buy as they don’t buy any exsisting magazines.

Q4: Are you currently employed

My next question is “are you currently employed?” 13 of the 15 people who answered this question said that they weren’t. Considering the age ranges of the people who took the survey, (as seen in an earlier question) they are most likely either still studying either at college or university, or have just finished and so are probably in full time education.

Q5: How much would you be willing to spend on a music magazine?

I also asked in my survey “How much would you be willing to spend on a magazine?” Price is probably one of if not the most important factor when choosing wether or not to buy a product or not. It is vital to charge the right price for a product, high enough to make a profit but not so high that it prevents your target demographic from buying it. Most people thought that the £3 to £5 range was the most reasonable price for the magazine, however nearly half weren’t willing to pay this much so to make it easily for these people I’ve chosen to price my product at the lower end of the £3 to £5 bracket.

Q6: Do you regularly listen to rock music?

In order to find out wether my choice of aiming my music at the rock genre was the right decision, I chose to ask “Do you regularly listen to rock music?” if the majority said no, I would be forced to re-think my original ideas, thankfully most people said they regulary listen to music, with the rest saying they listen to the genre “occasionally” this shows the spread of the rock genre and it’s large following through-out all the various sub-genres that I will try and cover in my magazine.

Q7: Do you play a musical instrument?

My seventh question was “Do you play a musical instrument?” this not only gave me an insight into the interests of my target demographic, but also tells me the amount of technical language I can use in my magazine, if my readers play instruments chances are they will understand more of the technical language used in the music world. Most of the people who answered said they did play an instrument, this means that I can use technical language in my magazine without the fear my readers won’t understand.

Q8: What would you prefer to see on a magazine interview?

My last question was asked to find out what my target demographic preferred when it came to interviews. Some people don’t like reading a lot of writing and prefer to see pictures of the bands they love. Others prefer to read long interviews. I asked this question to find out what the majority prefer so as not to put buyers off of my magazine. The majority said that they would prefer and equal amount of text and pictures, so this is what I will put in my magazine.

Q9: What would put you off from buying a music magazine?

Question 9 was an open question, so there is no graph for me to show. The most common things that people said would put them off buying a magazine would be the price of the product, which I have addressed in an earlier question, and a dull cover. This tells me my target demographic are looking for something exciting and catch their eye. I will try and make my cover as eye-catching as possible, setting it apart from rival products on the shelf.

Q10: What sort of features would you like to see in the magazine?

Question 10 was an open question, so there is no graph for me to show. Most people didn’t seem to care too much about what the magazine contained, many asked for interesting interviews, and some people had interesting ideas such as features on unsigned bands and interactive features such as competitions. I will take some of these ideas and incorporate them into my designs.

Demographic Research

Today I created an online survey using the website "http://www.surveymonkey.com/" this survey will allow me to get a better idea of a demographic profile for my target audience when combined with my exsisting product research.

You can find my survey below;
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/XZL7JBL

Market Research Continued

As part of my Market Research, I have decided to look through and analyse existing magazines, in this post, I will be analysing a front cover, a contents page and a double page spread from NME Magazine.

The colour scheme of the front cover in NME incorporates the typical rock music cover scheme colours of red, white and black. The background is white, with the masthead and main headlines in red text. This is designed to attract readers as the bright colours catch people’s eyes.

There is only one photo on this front cover, it is a posed studio photo shoot, it has also been taken in monochrome which has probably done to make the photo fit in even more with the white, red and black colour scheme of the cover. It also associates the person who is in the photograph with the colour scheme and everything that it stands for.

There is quite a lot of writing on the front cover, but because of the way that it is set out, it doesn’t look quite as crowded as Kerrang! The formal layout and font suggests that this magazine is targeted at a slightly older audience. It is similar in appearance to the front cover of the Q magazine that I also analysed earlier in my market research.  Overall, the cover of NME magazine has quite a formal look to it; it’s not as clean looking as Q but has the same colour scheme and the same idea of having just one photograph of their main artist from this edition on the cover. This slightly more formal layout suggests that the magazine is meant to appeal to a wider audience than something like Kerrang! Magazine.

 The colour scheme of the contents page is carried over from the front cover,  with the white, red and black being the only colours used, The black is used more than the red on this page, compared to the opposite way round on the cover.

There are two photographs on the contents page; they are of colour live performances, which is stereotypically more associated with the rock genre of music they do not take up much of the page. The photos are dominated by the text and this is the first magazine that I’ve researched that has an article on its contents page. They also have a few lines of description under all of their headings, this attention to detail and amount of writing suggests that NME magazine is designed for slightly older target audiences as they would be more likely to enjoy reading more information about music than looking at pictures.

The contents page has a lot of information on it, far more than any of the other magazines that I have researched, this might suggest that NME could be targeting a wider audience than any of their rivals, and are trying to get more information into the same amount of space. The fonts are very simple, and are very generic; this again ties with the idea of NME being a magazine that covers most of all the musical genres.

The colour scheme for the double page is still the white, black and red that has been used on the cover and the contents page. Again unlike the front cover there is more black used than red. The red has been used to highlight a word from an extract from the interview and to act as a background for a small extract in the lower centre of the first page in the spread

There is one photograph on the double page spread; it is a posed studio photo shoot. Unlike the cover the picture is in colour, although the person’s costume matches with the colour scheme of the magazine, wearing black. This is again especially when combined with the sunglasses, another connotation for rock music. The idea of rock music and rock being rebellious is also backed up by the swearing in the quote that has been extracted at the top of the first page. The fact that it hasn’t been censored also suggests that NME magazine is designed for a older audience. Overall the double page spread looks quite clean, the white background means that there is no distractions away from the interview and it looks like the magazine is trying to cater for a wide audience with an even distribution of text and pictures, however the writing style and format suggests that primarily it is directed at an older audience.

NME magazine is published by IPC Media, who are a subsidiary of Time Inc. Who are in turn a subsidiary of Time Warner Inc. IPC Media also publish over sixty over magazines which cover a wide range of topics and genres. NME also has a website, a radio station and TV channel.

Market Research - Continued

As part of my Market Research, I have decided to look through and analyse existing magazines, in this post, I will be analysing a front cover, a contents page and a double page spread from Kerrang! Magazine.

The colour scheme of the front cover has a white or grey background with a red masthead; there are hints of black and some blue. The colour scheme mostly follows the stereotypical punk or rock colour scheme of red white and black. The blue however suggests that this magazine has something different about in an attempt to stand out; this could mean it’s targeted at teenagers or young adults who want to “rebel” which are connotations around the punk rock genre.

There are many photographs on the cover; the main photo is a man with long hair holding a guitar, dressed in black, this is a stereotypical symbol of the rock or metal genre, the fact that he is screaming with his hand reaching out also suggests that he is angry which again is an emotion often connected with punk or metal genres. The other photos are much smaller and the bottom two are of people who feature in smaller parts of the magazine, this differs to my first magazine I analysed “Q” where only the main band featured where photographed on the front cover.  This gives the magazine a slightly more personal feel to it as the readers are seeing more of the people they are reading about, rather than just the magazines main story.

The writing style differs massively to Q magazine which was very simplistic and professional with its wording, nothing really contrasts with that as much as the section on the left hand side of the cover with white text on a black background. It reads “FEAR! FURY! HEAVY F**KING METAL!” the use of swearing on the front cover of the magazine yet another sign of rebellion from the magazine as the use of swear language is often seen as disrespectful and not something you word expect to see on a front cover of a music magazine.

The cover itself looks very crowded and looks like the creators of it wanted to try and get as much information onto it as possible. This look makes the magazine look less professional but gives the reader the impression that there’s a lot more going on in this magazine than the others around it on the shelves which might make them want to buy it more. The crowded look also paints a picture about what type of music magazine this is, as the a front cover that is crowded with lots of things could also be thought of as lots of noises colliding on a single page, which would suggest a heavier music genre.

The number and size of photos on the front cover outweigh the amount of text, this hints at a slightly younger audience who stereotypically more interested in looking at pictures than reading longer interviews. The fonts have a much more industrial look to them, with the masthead of the magazine in a font that makes it look broken, the band name “Machine Head” is a font that looks like it has been scratched into the magazine using a knife.  Again these are very anti-establishment themes which support the magazine’s target audience, people who listen to punk, rock and metal music.

The colour scheme of this contents page is similar to the front cover, with a white background, with black backgrounds for headings with yellow text. The light blue from the cover and runs along the top of the page as a background for the main heading. The colours of blue and yellow are often thought of as the colours of electricity, this might have been used by the magazine to give it an electric feel and to appeal more to people who like more electric guitar based music.

There are three photographs on the contents page, the main one being a man performing live, the other two simply show a couple of the double page spreads that the magazine contains, photos of live performances are typically found more in the rock genre music magazines.

The writing style of the contents page isn’t quite as “anti-establishment” as the front cover, all the writing for the headings and contents is in capital letters, this is quite simple and would maybe appeal to a slightly younger target audience, there is less information about what each story is about than in Q magazine again hinting that Q magazine has a slightly older target audience than Kerrang!.

The overall look of the contents pages is a lot more organised than the front cover, this might suggest that the whilst the cover is attempting to be this loud, flamboyant and rebellious magazine, inside it reads just like any of the other magazine on the market. It contains the same type of information it is just pitched at a different target audience. The pictures take up most of the page, mainly because this is a contents page and doesn’t have any articles on it, it is only there to inform the reader on what page the stories are on and to look attractive to the reader, therefore it can get away with having most of its space being dedicated to pictures as the writing is not essential.

The colour scheme for the double page spread sees a return to the typical punk rock metal, colour scheme of white, black and red. The text is on a white backgroung but has lots of extracts and sentences that are highlighted in red, the font for the main part of the interview is very simple to make it easy to read, however the other fonts used give the impression that they have been painted onto the page by hand, again this look is designed to represent rebellious ideas of the genre.

The photographs are posed close-ups of the band, in a studio, this conflicts with the stereotypical rock or metal photoshoots which are often simply photos taken from recent live performances. However you can tell by the mise en scene of the bands costume that they are more likely to be a metal or punk band due to the amount of dark clothing they are wearing and the expressions on their faces.

The article in this double page spread of Kerrang! is smaller than the article in Q magazine, which suggests that it is perhaps targeted at a slightly younger audience when compared to Q magazine, this also couples with the picture to text ration, as the pictures are given mush more page on the double page spread than the actual article is given.

Kerrang! magazine is published by the Bauer Media Group who also publishes Q Music magazine, they also have radio stations for both Q and Kerrang! As well as TV channels for both. They also own other magazines on a variety of topics as well as multiple radio stations.

Market Research

 As part of my Market Research, I decided to look at and analyse a front cover, contents page and a double page spread from Q magazine, a popular music magazine which covers most of the musical genres.

The colour scheme used for Q magazine’s front cover mainly consists of the colours white and red. It is a simple yet effective creating a clean professional look. The colours are stereotypically associated with rock and punk genres but the lack of black suggests that the magazine is less “rebellious” this is true because Q magazine is pitched to a wider audience and covers many other different genres of music.

The photograph on the front cover has been taken in a studio and isn’t very natural, the person in the photograph is posed with his mouth wide open, but has been modified with a smaller picture of an explosion and the band performing inside his mouth. This says something about the band pictured as explosions are very “anti-establishment” and more associated with rock or punk genres.

As this is the front cover, there is nowhere enough writing as there would be on a double page spread; however the front cover does the job of attracting the reader, so the writing style here is bigger, in a simpler font and is just made up of short headings.  The simple font makes the magazine look professional and makes it appeal to everybody, this ties in with Q’s reputation as a music magazine that covers pretty much all of the mainstream genres.

The use of the words, “Free, Exclusive and Unheard” are used to advertise that some of the extra content that the magazine contains. “Free” implies that the reader will be getting something beneficial from the magazine without any extra cost, “Exclusive and Unheard” tells the reader that the content they will be getting will not be available anywhere else at the current time.

The overall look of the cover is very clean, with simple text and colours giving the magazine a “professional” look, the basic design of the front cover has been used so that the magazine can appeal to a wider audience, by keeping the design to the basics of what is happening in the magazine on a plain background it doesn’t discriminate readers on what type of genres of music they listen to.

The cover is made up of one large picture with writing over the top of it, therefore there is only one picture but it takes up the majority of the page, with the text over the top of it. With the text being over the top of the picture you could make the assumption that the magazine is ranking the text as more important as the pictures, which could suggest a slightly older target audience.  

The colour scheme from the front cover is carried on in here, the predominantly white background with mastheads and sub headings all having either black or red backgrounds. There is significantly less red and black on the contents page then there is in the cover, this suggests that the magazine isn’t heavily based on the punk/rock genres. The colour white is often associated with purity which could appeal to readers and it suggests that the music is purely about the music and is not trying to press other issues onto the reader.

There are two photos on this contents page both of them have been taken on an outside location and are posed. This again goes away from the stereotypical rock type photos which are often taken from live performances by the band or singer.  The outside photos might suggest that the interview or features have a very natural or relaxed feel to them as they take place away from the music industry.

Since this is a contents page, there are no articles, instead it contains headings and a couple of lines of text about what each page of the magazine contains, the headings use the same headings as the title, however the text underneath the headings is in a font called “Times New Roman” it makes the page feel a little more formal which again hints towards a slightly older target audience.

The overall look of the page is a lot more cluttered than the front cover but contains a lot more information about what the magazine contains, however the idea of Q being a magazine with a professional, clean and tidy look is continued here due to the text being in columns or rectangular boxes, there are no jagged edges to promote instability or rebellion found in more punk or rocky based magazines. Since there is no real substance to the text, as the page is only a guide to what the  magazine contains, the pictures dominate the page.

  

The colour scheme for the double page spread is white, however in the centre of the second page in the spread there is an extract from the article enlarged and put in red font, this signifies it’s importance in context to the article, the very formal font and the layout of text, in columns like a newspaper suggest an older target audience.

This is also supported by the length of the article, the article takes up a whole page and is in a very small font, and stereotypically longer articles with more information would not appeal as much to younger audiences who perhaps are not as interested in some of the finer details of the music industry.  The photographs on the first page are a mixture of live performances and studio close-ups of the band members, the studio shots outnumber the live performances. The studio pictures carries on the theme from the cover and contents page however the liver performances suggest that the band the article is on are perhaps part of a more rocky or punk genre. It adds a bit of personality to the spread which says more about the band.

There is quite a lot of text in the article compared to some other music magazines which once again hints at a slightly older audience who would stereotypically be more interested in the interview, compared to younger readers who may just want to see photos of their favourite bands.

Q magazine is published by the Bauer Media Group who also publishes Kerrang! music magazine, they also have radio stations for both Q and Kerrang! as well as TV channels for both. They also own other magazines on a variety of topics as well as multiple radio stations. I will also be looking over and analysing some more magazines in order to help my market research 

 

Steve Gillies

My first post on my new blog!