I distributed a poll alongside my blog in order to gain an insight into what people were interested about in music magazines in general. This was mostly targeted at those in my target audience (aged 16-25) but open to anyone who wished to voice their opinion. After advertising my poll on various social networking sites i gained a sufficient amount of votes in order to come to conclusions which would help me with my own media product.
In total most answers gained 18 votes, yet some questions had been missed by some participants and therefore only have 17.
1. By finding that an equal number of male and females voted and were interested in music magazines, this clearly shows that i should target my product at both. This contrasts to my original idea of aiming my magazine mostly at females and i will now target my product at both sexes equally.
2. Here, the majority of those that answered were in my anticipated target audience group of 16-25. By understand that mostly the younger end of this age bracket are those most interested would suggest to me to add features which would appeal more to 16-20 age group. This could include more exciting images and colours for example rather than being entirely sophisticated.
By finding out the ages of my target audience this gives me more of an insight into who will be answering my other questions and has made me feel as though my polls will be useful due to them being taken by those who i would be aiming my final product at (my target audience).
3. Most people voted for the indie/alternative music scene here which has encouraged me even more to use this as the main genre for my magazine like my initial thoughts. Therefore i need to aim most of the features with the thought in mind to attract someone interested in indie music.
Due to the next highest choices being rock and other, i will try to include elements which could attract to these people as well in order to be versatile and entice a larger audience.
4. Here the highest percentage of votes went to a monthly issuing. From finding this out, i'd need to make sure my magazine is exciting and has appealing features in order to attract the audience and keep their interest for a long time due to a gap before the next issue would be released. I would need to include lots of articles and give a price which isn't too high due to them needing to pay for it each month. By giving a free gift with the magazine could prove to be effective as this would be something the reader could keep and experience for the entire month before the next issue and constantly be linked with my music magazine throughout the time period.
5. With a result of 83% expressing that they would prefer a magazine which also offers a free gift, this encourages me to create a free item alongside my magazine product. This could be in the shape of a CD, free ticket to a gig or accessory related in some way to the magazine or music genre. By giving a free gift this adds an extra to my magazine, and could prove to be effective when attempting to stand out against other competitors within the music magazine industry.
6. Most people here voted for between £2.00 and £3.99 which was expected due to the audience being in the "student" age group who would be on a budget and not have a lot of money to spend on "luxuries" (linked to maslow's hierachy of needs) in which a magazine would be placed. I will need to take this into consideration and make sure my product is reasonably priced in order for my audience to wish to spend their money on it.
7. Here the votes were more evenly spread, proving that the images, models and storylines used are the main things which attract an audience looking at the front cover of a magazine. These attributes are very visual, a need to be aesthetically pleasing in order gain the audience's attention. In response to this answer, i will make sure the images used are unique and stand out from other competitor magazines. The models will need to be interesting and distinctive looking as this will create the cover to be memorable and hopefully encourage the advertisement through "word of mouth" between friends and promote the magazine within my target audience. As well as the imagery, the storylines and therefore content will need to be of a high quality to give actual substance to the magazine.
8. With the high amount of people voting to read fashion magazines, this makes me feel as though this is an important aspect which needs to be addressed despite the magazine being mostly focused on music. I will do this subtly by styling the models in up-to-date fashion which is also relevant to the indie music scene. This will influence those reading the magazine and make them feel comfortable due being familiar with the "indie ambience" given by the bands through the clothing. I could also include small fashion articles to add extra aspects which will appeal to my audience. As well as "fashion", "other" was also a highly rated answer. Due to this answer being so broad and unspecific i need to add lots of different elements within the product. This could be within new items which have been unseen before or just a large variety of articles and style of conversation which can appeal to the widest variety of people.
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