Reader Profile

Hello!
Based on the questionnaire results I can now create a reader profile. I believe the reader profile will be the foundation to my project as it would provide me with the objectives that I have to accomplish. Also with this detailed reader profile, if i stick to it then I believe that my magazine would become successful as it would relate to the personalities of the public. Below I shall now show all of you the completed reader profile for my magazine.
Reader Profile

Chantelle is a sixteen year old girl that attends a public college as she feels more of herself there. She loves music so with this in mind she plays the violin and sings with in the college band. However she usually listens to R & B and Hip Hop as she feels the lyrics usually associated in this genre are fun and entertaining to sing. She aslo believes that R & B amns Hip Hop is more easier to sing so therefore doesn't feel under pressure to push her voice much.

Baring this is mind if she were to buy a magazine then it would be a R & B/ Hip Hop/ Rap magazine as she feels the stories within the magazine would be to her taste and she would enjoy them more. The stories included within a magazine is the best part for her as she can sometimes relate to the articles and finds them intriguing to reader.

Her favourite artists include Beyonce, Nicki Minaj, Usher, Drake and Lil Wayne as she feels these artists particulary express their emotions through the music they sing, are amazing in live concerts and put a large amount of passion in the work they do. The price on a magazine would deter her from buying a magazine because she doesn't receive much income so having a magazine that is too costly would put her off from buying a music magazine. Taking this into account the prepared amount Chantelle would pay for a music magazine would be in the range of £1.01-£2.99 since she doesn't buy magazine regularly  but she believes that if the content of the magazine was to her taste then this would be the desired amount for her to pay.
From her experiences of buying music magazines in the past she feels that there could be more freebies as she feel as if they are a nice added touch to magazines and believes that people of her generation would buy magazines more if they consisted of freebies. The freebies that would attract her the most would be a free CD however if freebie is not a CD then this wouldn't be a problem at all. She believes that bold colours would attract her to a magazine which could consist of colours like black, blue red and purple as she's a sort of person that believes bold colours could possibly make the magazine look more entertaining and interesting. For her having a magazine that included more articles about a specific topic rather than loads of pictures of celebrities would not be off putting as she likes reading the articles presented in magazines. Her hobbies include singing, dancing, socialising which consists of going out with friends which she does on a regular basis. Her interests include photography and sociology.

Market Research

Hi!
This specific post is the main beginning for my magazine task, so for it, I was asked to create a questionnaire so that I could learn the opinions of the people I'm aiming my magazine at. This was a tricky task to do because I needed to learn information from my target audience to form the base of my magazine. From the results I could design a magazine, contents and double page spread that my target audience would enjoy. I already decided before the market research that my magazine will be aimed towards 16-25 years old as it would be the easiest to do since I'm in that age range so I could enforce my ideas as well as receive improvements and new ideas from this age range. Nevertheless I created a questionnaire that asks appropriate and necessary questions that would help me to create my magazine.


Here are the results from the questionnaire:
1. What would attract you to buy a music magazine from a shop?

These results show that stories included is the most popular choice. I'm not surprised that this is the most popular choice because it would have been the choice I would have chosen as well. I believe people picked this choice because the stories are the most interesting part of the magazine as it informs the reader about a specific topic which then the reader can indulge in. This information will help me for my magazine because it'll make me think of what's important within the magazine and what would stories would be the most interesting, and all in all suit my magazine more. 


2. What is your favourite part of a magazine?

These results show that the stories included within the magazine are the most favourite part. However the other choices in comparison to one another look equal which I found intriguing. The choice picked for other was 'what clothes are out and freebies' which I believe is still valid for my research because it's still an opinion. This will help me in the decisions I make for my magazine because it will make me think of what it's important and again what stories to choose as it has been voted as the most important thing readers look out for.


3. What is your favourite genre of music?

I was hoping that the readers would pick R & B/ Hip Hop/ Rap because this was my initial idea so I'm thrilled that it has come up as the most popular choice. It confirmed my suspicions that my target audience would prefer this type of genre because there is so much of it in our society today. This information will help me in the decisions I make for my magazine because I need to focus the magazine on this genre but if this is not possible then maybe I could intertwine Street/Grime or Pop within the magazine so that there is a more variety. The risk of this doing this however is that the genre aim will be become confusing and this could make my magazine task harder to do.


4. How much are you prepared to pay for a music magazine?

This result shows that the most popular choice was '£1.01-£2.99' which is appropriate because this would be the amount I would be prepared to pay for a magazine also. I think this was the most dominated choice because magazines of today are dying out as more and more people are deciding not to buy magazines as the same articles and headlines could be seen on the internet. However if my magazine is to be successful then it would need dedicated fans and so this price range is appropriate because the average teenager gets around £8 worth of pocket money per week. This information will help me in the decisions I will make for my magazine because I need to get the price just right so that not only would the content and cover attract the reader but the price too.


5. Based on the magazines you have ever read what would you want more of in a magazine?
There was a variety of responses to this question, this included:

• Freebies
• Public sent things
• Stories on celebrities and interesting facts
• Important articles such as music culture
• Less advertisements and more stories

However the most popular opinion was to have more freebies within in a magazine. Although it's always a nice touch to have freebies then this would mean that the price for my magazine would have to be increased as if I was actually distributing freebies then I would have to pay for the freebies sold meaning this money would come from the amount of magazines been sold. However I will think about adding freebies to my magazine but then I would have to consider what freebies would suit my age range. The most suitable idea that comes to my mind when distributing freebies would be to give out a free CD that is obviously related to my magazine.

6. What would be the main point that would deter you from buying a magazine?

From this result we can see that price would deter people from buying magazines. 'Celebrities', 'Colours', 'Brand' and 'Other' did not receive any results which I found quite surprising because I thought that certain celebrities would deter people from buying magazine but this research proved otherwise. I believe that price was the most popular because people need money, it's essential to survive everyday life so to use it on a magazine that was a ridiculous amount of money would be waste. This would help me on the final decisions I make for magazine because i need to get the price just right so that people would be attracted to buy the magazine even more.


7. Please list your four best colours below:

From this result we can see that black, blue, red and purple were the four main popular choices. I constructed this question by simply asking them to introduce colours and then calculated them all. The problems I have with these four colours are that they are all dominant and bold so to overcome this problem I may have to change the shades of the colours or choose other colours that are not as dominant such as white which is not bold. This information will help me in the decisions I'll make for my music magazine because it will make me think about where I can place the colours chosen such as the masthead, cover lines, backgrounds etc as I need to get this spot on.


8. Would it be off putting if the magazine included more articles about a specific topic rather than loads of pictures of celebrities?

From this result we can see that the option 'No' in response to this question is the most popular. I believe this answer reflects on question 2 where the 'stories included' was the most common choice. I also believe that people like reading the articles as again they gain information from this that they can either report back to friends, family, colleagues etc or just simply hold for themselves. This information will help me with the decisions I make for my magazine because it will help me to concentrate on the stories that will be featured as the public find this intriguing.


9. Is there anything that you would specifically want the magazine to have or do you feel as if a question hasn't been asked that you would really wanted to answer? If that's the case then please write down you thoughts below:


There was no responses for this question.


What did I learn?
I learnt that market research is extremely useful when finding out about what your target audience want in a magazine because you're getting the information from them directly. I started this challenge with an open mind but I've realised that it is really helpful and it's narrowed down my decisions so now I have a foundation for my magazine. From this information I can also create a reader profile which again would be my reminder of what my readers want in a music magazine.

My Presentation

Hello!
Yesterday (25/1/11) my partner and I presented our PowerPoint presentation to the class. All in all I believe that the presentation went well as we worked as a team and we added our own ideas instead of always looking down at our notes or reading the information on the slide. However I also believe that there were some areas that we could have improved on.

When the presentation started I felt really nervous as I am not much of a public speaker. However as the presentation continued I began to feel more comfortable with the situation I was in and began to input my own ideas. Also as the slide show was running I began to not look down at my notes as some of the information I knew off by heart. My partner and I tried to engage with the audience by keeping eye contact so that they would feel included nevertheless it wasn't an easy task to do as this could of potentially distract me from what I was saying. At the end of the presentation I was relieved that my partner and I had got to the end without any major screw ups. Although this wasn't known to us, we were questioned at the end by teachers to be tested on what we knew about the website and I was able to give replies confidently.

To sum up I believe that there were areas in the presentation that had been successful, this includes:

• Introducing new ideas - This was basically the information that was not on the slide and that were introduced suddenly or as a point on our notes. This was a good thing to do as the audience learnt more things this way and it made their focus be on the actual person and not on the slide show all the time
• Answering questions - As fore mentioned there was a sudden task at the end to answer questions that the students or teachers asked. I believe that the questions were answered successfully as there was no counter-questions afterwards.

Although on the whole I thought that the presentation was quite successful I believe that there were things that could have been improved such as:

• Not reading from the paper and the slide show - this was tempting to do and at the end I realised that i had been doing this accidentally. Even though I knew everything on the presentation it was a slight comfort to just read off the paper/slide show as it allowed me to talk faster and to not have to think about what I was going to say next.
• Eye contact - there was times when I knew that eye contact was needed as there was not much of it however I felt anxious to look up and see the audience every now and then as I was afraid that it would have distracted me from the things I was about to say.
• Talking fast - this was something that I did accidentally as it allowed me to remember everything i was suppose to say as I was afraid that if I talked too slow then I wouldn't remember the new point I was about to introduce.

As the presentation misses out a few points here is a detailed account of what was said during the presentation:

Main Target Audience and Circulation

The main target audience are 18-34 year old. A reason for this may be because of the graphic used to portray what’s in the magazine and because of how formal the articles are that in the magazine. The audience for this magazine would be R&B, Hip Hop and Rap music because the magazine is mainly focused on them and the celebrities used are mainly for example on the front covers are main stage R&B celebrities. Vibes circulation recent statistics show that in 2007 it was approximately 800,000.

Magazine Analysis

These are three front covers of the magazine vibe. As you can see they all have similar techniques used so that the magazine is easy to recognise. The three dominant colours here are black red and white which in general are quite bold colours so could signify a sense of standing out. The black and white theme of the magazine connotes class and gives the magazine a more high profile look. Putting the red against the running monochrome theme helps important elements stand out to the audience, making conventions such as the masthead and cover lines become more noticeable. The graphic in the middle is layered over the masthead for all three magazines which could signify that the graphic is part of the main article within the magazine. All three celebrities are well known which would attract many readers as they are familiar with them and also the celebrities are dressed the same to match the colour schemes. The shot used for the magazines are a mid shot which since the magazine shows a lot of sex appeal reflects the magazine content. The articles featured and captions are put around the graphic and are quite compressed together so that they can feature as many articles and information within the magazine as possible.

Double Page Spread Analysis

This double page features the celebrity Solange Knowles who is the main focus of the article. This article and the double page spread will be aimed towards her fans and lovers of music. The target audience for this article would be towards eighteen years and over as there is quite a lot of information presented and the pages look quite formal. The graphic in the middle immediately grabs the reader’s attention as it is the only graphic that is in colour. Also having part of the text ‘Solange Knowles’ again grabs the reader’s attention and informs the reader quickly to whom the graphic and the article is about.

Distribution and Selling Areas

Vibe magazine is currently owned by InterMedia Partners which is private equity and was made in 2005 in New York, America. They own other companies such as WAPA-TV (radio station) but they have earner their success through media institutions and our very well known in America. They distribute their magazines though their online website which provides some articles from the magazine. Also the magazines gets distributed to a variety of shops ranging from corner shops to supermarkets

Attract and Satisfy

Covers attract audiences because it shows big music artist such as Brandy, Snoop Dogg, Mariah Carey, Beyoncé, Jennifer Lopez, Keyshia Cole, Janet Jackson, Lil Wayne, The Fugees, Eminem, T.I., R. Kelly, Michael Jackson. The magazine satisfies audiences by including revolutions music reviews, a celebrities gossip column, next profiled up coming artists, also devoted several pages to photo spreads displaying high-end designer clothing as well as sportswear by urban labels such as Rocawear and Fubu. This is because the magazine is mainly focused on them genre’s of music and this age group listens to more of these types of music.

Online version compared to printed copy

The online version has more information than the printed copy. The online version focuses more on individual artists. The online version has more facts and shows key videos linked with a certain article. Online version also has references to artists on social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook.

Technologies

The technologies used to develop their product by:

Having their merchandise across the Internet on websites other than their own (software) which means they will receive more recognition as their product would be on other sites. Create advertisements on television promoting their product which means that again they would receive more recognition within the media industry and the public. Reduce the prices or make catchy sales when they believe the demand for the magazine is decreasing. This means that they may conclude with a loss but it would make their fans happier and attract new consumers. When in shops they had their product placed on the second shelf of the magazine rack next to other music magazines.

What did I learn?
I learnt that presenting PowerPoint's can be quite a scary thing at times as when you speak everyone attention is on you. The audience are listening to you because they want to find out new information about the topic you are presenting. In the future I believe I could become more confident with presenting slide shows if I learnt more information off by heart so that I wouldn't have to keep looking down at the paper or looking at the slide show.

First entry!

Hello all!
This is my official first entry on my new blog! I've created this blog to present everything necessary for my future magazine and to keep you all posted every step of the way, from the beginning which was the research for my future music magazine to the final product.


Recently I was assigned a task with a partner to research a music magazine and present the final PowerPoint Presentation to my fellow students and the teacher. From the 17th January 2011- 21st January 2011 was when the research for the music magazine 'VIBE' was enforced.  'VIBE'  features Hip Hop artists and culture and is aimed towards 18 years to adults. From researching 'VIBE' I discovered many interesting facts such as the company was founded by Quincy Jones in 1993 and in 2007 'VIBE' had a circulation of approximately 800,000. They also have many intriguing articles about artists themselves, some I believe would take the interest of the younger generation as the articles shown are quite humorous.

( If you would like to learn more about 'VIBE' then feel free to click the link shown: http://www.vibe.com/ )

Using the facts and statistics that I had learnt from researching 'VIBE', my partner and I intertwined this information into the final presentation which is shown below:

Vibe magazine

What was learnt at the end?
I learnt that the layout for the front cover for my music magazine will be extremely important. This is because this is what the consumers see first and the cover is what grabs their interest. To be successful with the layout for the cover of my music magazine I may need to include some media conventions such as a central graphic,  bleeds and possible pull quotes.