Focus group analysisWhen I asked my first question I was delighted that the participants unanimously said it was a pop magazine. This showed that my magazine followed the codes and conventions of music magazines and also the colours I used signalled it was the pop genre. I didn’t want there to be any doubt with regards to the genre of my magazine as this confuses consumers and they then have to search through the magazine to get an idea of the genre. My focus group consisted of boys and girls and everyone said that it was a pop magazine, my front cover went against the usual pink you would see on most pop magazines so I had to find other ways to clearly state it was a pop magazine. This includes having an acoustic guitar and pop microphone as props for my main image. Question two focused on getting the opinions of my focus group on my front page, contents page and double page spread. It was all positive but one thing that was suggested was possibly adding a background to my front cover. In the making of my front cover I added a background but I felt it looked better without. Nevertheless I will accept the feedback and take it on board. I recognised the importance of making my front cover eye-catching because this is the first issue and I want consumers to know about my magazine and see it amongst rival magazines. Therefore question 3 was to ask the participants of my focus group whether it captures their attentions. They all felt it did especially due to the colourful masthead.

The main image needs to indicate what genre of music the magazine is so I wanted to know if my magazine did this and also if the other aspects of my magazine did the same. It was clear according to the group that this was a pop magazine mainly due to the use of props. I borrowed a pop microphone to accompany the acoustic guitar as these are key features of pop music. The props were really important as it also made my model look like a real life musician. They also felt the cover lines were appropriate to this genre of music. The masthead also clearly belonged to the pop genre because the font chosen and all the colours would not be used for a different genre of music. The next question was one I was apprehensive to receive feedback on because one of my main targets before I began construction was to produce a pop magazine that not only appealed to girls but boys as well because I feel they are often overlooked. My focus group unanimously felt it would appeal to both colours and I was pleased that they felt the colours I used were not gender specific because I put a lot of thought into the colours. There were several boys who participated in my study so the feedback meant even more.

I asked my focus group if they felt my target audience of 13-19 year old male and females was realistic. They felt the age range was slightly incorrect in their opinions as 19 may have been a little too high and possibly 13 could be lowered. The group were split later on though when they looked closer at the articles on my contents page and due to features like festival reviews they felt that 19 year olds could buy my magazine. The penultimate question asked the participants if the front cover made them want to purchase my magazine. They all said it was inviting and this was good to hear because these people represent my target audience so this was promising for my magazine. The final question was about whether the article on my double page spread and the articles featured on my contents page were appealing and they said they would be interested to read some of these features and this was good because I thought very carefully about what features to include.