I have targeted my target audience at both males and females bewteen the ages of 14 and 30 as this was was the most common age range that appeared in my initial questionnaire. The majority of people who purchase magazines are of a lower working class, there for my price had to reflect this. When looking at other existing magazines, the prices ranged from £2.50 - £3.99. I placed the price of my magazine at £2.95, hopefully enticing the public to buy it as it is at the cheaper end of the scale. Audience Research enabled me to gain feedback on my product. By collecting the information in different forms, it allows me to recieve varieties of answers. These reponses allow me to edit my product making it better for my audience.In both my interview and the voice recording, before I began recording I simply asked the students to say what they initially thought of my product, then I began recording.
INTERVIEW
VOICE RECORDING
For those who were not included in the audio part of my research, I handed out questionnaires. Some recieved an open questionnaire and some recieved a closed questionnaire. Closed questionnaires allow you to gain specific simple answers, adn open questionnaires allow you to gain more detailed answers.
Here are a selection of the results I collected:
Further down in my blog, I have constructed some character profiles based on who my magazine is aimed for. Here is a link: www.oliviaaadixon.blogspot.com/2011/02/target-audience.html
In 1980, Majorie Ferguson identified 4 different types of facial expressions used on magazine front covers. My magazine is a varient on her theory of "super-smiler." It projects an agressive mood and is demanding. I am also exploiting the theory of uses and gratifications from BLUMLER and KATZ (1974) and I have also exploited Naomi Wolf's (1990) theory of insecurities of women and how erotic images of them are used to sell products to women because we are conditioned by a patriarchal society. The model I have used is of a similar age to my target audience, therefore appealing more.
I also added part of my front cover whilst it was being developed onto facebook so that all of my friends could see it. Facebook has become extrememly popular in recent years and this is a perfect way of gaining audience feedback. Here is a link: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1882093532670.113599.1251276483
