Harry Mills

MS2

Pre-production

My task was to create a magazine, the genre I have chosen to focus on is a travel magazine aimed at a demographic of A-C1. My primary target audience is ages 20-35 and predominantly young couples who have disposable income to spend on “luxurious holidays, predominantly for relaxation as opposed to adventure. My secondary audience is ages from 35 to 50 who still want to travel the world and want to go on holidays for the experience. “55% of Lonely Planet's audience is female, 45% male. The bulk of the audience fall between the ages of 18 and 34, though over 24 year olds make up a majority of that number. A whopping 91% of lonely planet's travelers frequently use the Internet as a source of information before or during their travels.” Source: Webtrends, Lonely Planet Travellers Pulse Survey 2005, www.lonelyplanet.comDue to this research I have learnt that I need to add weblinks in my magazine as 91% of Lonely Planets customers us the Internet as a source of information therefore there needs to be references between the magazine and the website throughout the articles. Successful examples of this genre of magazine include “Get Lost”, “Lonely Planet Traveller” and “Budget travel”; these three successful magazines have formed the basis of my research.

There are many reasons why young couples in the demographic of A-C1 are attracted to this type of product. Firstly, if we consider the “uses and gratifications” theory introduced in 1974 (Blumler & Katz), the magazine appeals to them because of their personal identity and what they want to convey to other people. The magazine also offers education and the opportunity to learn about other cultures and destinations. My primary audience want to show their class therefore this falls into Maslow’s “Hierarchy of needs”, I will be aiming for the top of the pyramid, “Self actualisation”, this is to fulfil ones potential which is what I will be aiming for, to fulfil the potential of the higher demographic and what they can achieve with their disposable income and within society.

As well as this, the genre may also offer audiences a sense of adventure to start saving money for a trip therefore I will need to make my magazine pictures aspiring and persuasive to be alluring to a new audience who maybe don’t have the disposable income but could save up for the holiday which is my tertiary audience from demographic C2-D. Therefore I will be using Gillian Dyer’s theory of “Lines of appeal”, this is a type of advertising where the it’s purpose is to products by persuading the audience that they need it. The lines of appeal I will be exploring is “Rich, luxurious lifestyles” and “Glamorous places”. The adverts inside my magazine will contain these two lines of appeal as they match the genre and house style of a travel product.

Harry Mills

“get lost” is an adventure travel magazine originated in Australia and first published in 2004, it is a primary example of a magazine aimed at a higher class demographic, thus advertising more expensive holidays. The establishing shot on the front cover is a clever connection with the title, and creates an illusion of getting far away to a peaceful place. The strapline “Win a luxury trip for two to New York and Los Angeles” also appeals customers as they can get a holiday for free which attracts a lower demographic that want to go on holiday but can’t afford it. The use of numbers and a countdown of the best 20 beaches is also another factor that the audience maybe interested, the use of the word “stunning” and “secret” forms a descriptive alliteration of the beaches, also by using “secret” forms a sense of adventure and relaxation

for reader to get away and escape. The list of countries along the footer is also a good way to inform the audience what countries the magazine will be covering. The use of the barcode with the luggage symbol also gives the magazine a distinctive look, this creates the brand identity.

The “Lonely Planet Traveller” founded in 1972 and similarly to “get lost”, it is an Australian company that aims at the higher demographic A-C1. This example of their front cover is the genre I would like to create as it shows Thailand, not only the culture but also the beautiful scenery with the tropical warm colours. This magazine also has a contents long the footer of the places its going to cover inside the magazine which is useful for the reader to know when looking at this magazine on the shelf therefore I will use this for my product. Also they have used a tag line for the three top countries they will cover, which is useful. The way in which they have used lower case letters in the title, which is, the same for “get lost”, creates a cheaper look in my opinion, therefore, for my product I would like to change that to make it look more expensive for the A-C1 demographic I will be aiming for.

“Budget Travel” is a travel magazine first published in 1999. I decided to choose this magazine to analyse as it is different to the magazines above, this is aimed at the lower demographic of C1 down as it is primarily aimed at the market segment who have a lower disposable income. This is conveyed by the big bold white writing of “Budget travel”, the “budget” in this masthead connotes cheap holidays for the target audience to be drawn to when the product is seen on the shelf. The establishing shot on the front cover is a long shot of cliffs, which adds to the blue and white colour scheme as the cliffs add green and a sense of ‘earth’ and ‘sea’ combining. Compared to the other magazines, this front cover doesn’t have as much text on it, advertising what’s inside; this could be because of the “budget” house style.The contents pages of the magazines I have researched have a very consistent house style depending on the season it is selling,

Harry Mills

it has enigma codes linked to the countries it is covering, teasing you into reading more. Majority of them also have small scenic photos of the countries, which is visually appealing. My aim is to add appropriate pictures that will relate top the articles, which will lure my target audience to read more into the separate articles. Another key feature of a travel magazine contents page is the split segments and listing of page numbers, it is a very simple layout and it is precise. This typical style is due to the informative genre which is part of the “Uses and Gratifications” theory.

For my market research I have held a focus group with seven adults who are interested in traveling. They said that the front-page photo needs to be the most teasing to create an appeal for that type of holiday. They also mentioned that this photo needs to look “tranquil”, “peaceful” and “almost hypnotic” with soft colours such as blue and white. The focus group did also did state that the text on the front cover needs to be “visually appealing”, “aesthetically pleasing” and “cleverly worded” to get to the point and being precise however still being persuasive and using enigma codes.

In evaluation, I believe that my production of “Seasoned Traveller” meets the criteria by using colours such as blue and white and having a tranquil and peaceful looking photo as a background. I asked a sample of my focus group for their opinion on the final production, they said, “I love the linear order of the information on the front cover down the right hand side as it is easily readable and very precise with facts and figures. The barcode is very clever, even a small feature like this sets it alike from others creating a USP. By having a mini contents of all the countries you are going to cover inside the magazine helps customers know what they are going to read about and also introduces new customers to the magazine if they are looking to read about a certain country. The orange, blue and white colour scheme throughout the front cover and double page spread is clever as it forms a certain distinctiveness to the magazine so customers can recognise this, creating a house style. The text in the double page spread is useful with all the facts and figures of Thailand however there could be information about hotels and where to stay in Thailand as this is a big element of travelling.”

To compare my production to a professional production on the market I have chosen “get lost”, a magazine I analysed as a part of my initial research. In comparison my production is quite busy compared to this front cover however apart from the picture and “20 best beaches” there isn’t anything appealing to read about whereas my front cover with lots of “top 10’s” and “top tips”, there is almost an instinct to know what those “top travelling tips” therefore almost teasing my customers. The colour scheme in this front cover is very similar to my production as I felt this is customary to this genre of magazine. In a travel magazine I feel the most effective feature is the photography and I feel that this was a strong point in my magazine with the angled shot of a long tail boat in my pre production to the long shot of a peaceful pool in a hotel in my production.

Some technical issues I faced was the editing of the photos, I wanted to edit the photos to make them look even more appealing however still making them look realistic, by

Harry Mills

adding filters it added an appealing effect but some filters added too much contrast which made it not true-to-life. Another technical difficulty was the amount of information on my double page spread, my initial thoughts were to have an introduction of Thailand then a few diary entries and an example itinerary however I realised there wasn’t enough space on a double page spread for all of that information plus some appealing photos therefore I had to limit and filter the most important information.

To improve my production I could make it more personal to the customer by having three types of travellers and having different itineraries for each for example, the higher class traveller, the family traveller and the backpacker. I think this would have had a nice touch on my magazine forming a new USP and creating a wider target audience. Another way I could improve my magazine is create partnerships with different companies that could benefit the customers of my magazine. For example, linking with British Airways, therefore they could advertise their flight prices inside the magazine and in the country articles there could be “Prices from £599 to Thailand in courtesy of British Airways”. This could add multiple USP’s to my magazine causing more sales, as I have realised over the course of this research that the travelling magazine market is saturated therefore its what makes your magazine different that will sell.