Target Audience Moodboard

Adding to my target audience analysis, here i've produced a mood board to express the overall ambience reflecting my target audience of mainly females aged 16-24 with males also included in small amounts.

I created this by looking through magazines also directed at a similar target audience, and took images which had been used to attract them. From these, i created a collage which portrays my ideal buyer and therefore i can gain more of an idea into how to attract my potential audience.

Uses and Gratifications theory

The uses and gratifications theory is a popular idea which portrays the idea that the audience of any media product are highly interactive and have choices whilst viewing the product, rather than the media influencing them entirely, allowing no chance for interpretation.
This theory focuses mostly on the audience of a product (who are essentially the most important factor in ensuring that a product is successful - by a large audience buying the creation) and how they interpret media into their own lives each and every day. From this idea, audiences would be shown to choose particular media products depending on their own personal interests and favourites. For example, an 18 year old alternative female interested in electro music would choose a music magazine based on it's bright colours, "pop-art" style fonts, fun looking images and models dressed in elaborate make-up/bright clothing due to these all being aspects that would interest her, and which portray the music genre she is most fascinated with.
Overall, this approach expresses how individuals use media products to gain their own personal enjoyment as well as fulfilling specific gratifications. This theory would also imply that the media business compete against other information sources in order to create the best products possible for their intended audience.

Audience demographics

Audience demographics of the media outlet are hugely important and essential in ensuring the success of a product, and therefore i need to look into this to create the best product possible.
In order to determine the audience demographics many features need to be looked into, and in particular socio-economic factors. These could include the age, gender, area of living, income and occupation (among other factors) of a person, and are all very important in determining how to construct a product in order to attract a target audience. By knowing these factors, production teams can gain a better insight into the types of people that will be buying their product and therefore construct features around their audience in ways which would attract them the most. By gaining a larger target audience through using features that would attract the most people, this will essentially end up achieving more sales, creating more money and therefore being highly successful.

Maslow's hierachy of needs

Maslow's hierachy of needs is a theory founded in psychology, firstly proposed by Abraham Maslow. His theories link to the idea of human development and stages of growth whilst this particular theory is said to describe what people wish from their job.
At the base of the diagram, the basic aspects a human needs to survive are shown, before working upward towards the luxuries in life which are not necessities yet people enjoy having them.
This theory can be applied to the institution of media, especially in marketing. Throughout marketing, this theory shows that industries have spent time looking into the historical definitions of how people rank in "needing" things. Magazine's would be placed near the top of the pyramid, being a luxury which isn't necessarily vital to living, yet causes a lot of enjoyment for a person who acquires one.  My product would run parallel to this idea, being a luxury and not an essential, therefore i need to make sure it is of the highest quality to keep my target audience willing to purchase it.

My Target Audience

This is a group of girls who stereotypically portray the target audience i am aiming my magazine at. My target audience is mostly aimed at 16-24 year old girls however males would take up around 30/40% of the entire audience.
In detail i will look at Beth who’s 18 years old and lives in Central London in the midst of all the nightlife. She is a typical representation of the target audience I am aiming my magazine at and therefore by looking into her interests, this can help me understand which features to include, to attract the audience in the most effective way possible.

Beth is a student, also working part time in fashion retail. From this, she has made lots of friends similar to her in both personality and appearance. She has been to many festivals over the years including reading, v and sonisphere due to her interest in rock, indie and alternative music. As well as festivals, she frequently goes to live gigs of an evening with her friends, seeing both small artists and more widely known acts. After being hugely influenced by the “underground” music scene surrounding her in London, her favourite music artists include Florence and the Machine, The Kings of Leon and The Script. All of these stem from the rock genre, having an edgy ambience and creating an incredible atmosphere when performing live. After spending time at gigs, Beth would typically progress onto a nightclub before heading home in the early hours of the morning.

As well as her passion for music, she is also hugely interested in photography and fashion, frequently participating in photoshoots (both as a model and photographer) and spending time shopping for new clothes in both high street and vintage stores. By doing this, she has a very unique style and stands out from the typical crowd. She typically follows the styles of Alexa Chung and Fearne Cotton and aspires to be similar to them.

When grading my target audience within the ACORN classification system, I have placed Beth to be living within the "Comfortably Off" grade,  within "Settled Suburbia" - 34. Lower Income Semis. This is due to her still living with her parents who meet this criteria.
Within the NRS classification, Beth's lifestyle would be quoted as within the "skilled working class" grade.

Other magazine analysis

Other Magazine Covers

Music Magazine Analysis

Music Mag Analysis As well as researching a variety of other music magazines in order to gain ideas for my own product, i will also be able to see what my competitors are creating and whether a niche is present in the market for me to enter. By looking at these rival magazine conventions i can understand what typical audiences of music magazines expect from the product and what is seen to be popular.