How did you attract/address your audience?

The media product that I created, which was a music magazine needed to be able to attract and address the audience. The target audience for my

magazine is 16 to 25 year old females from all social classes. I decided upon this target audience through the help of my market research where I asked

participants to fill out a questionnaire on their opinions of current music magazines. When I completed the front cover, contents page and double

page spread for my music magazine, I created a focus group on Facebook of 8 people who fit the description of my target audience to comment upon

each of the pages and what they thought of each pages content, genre, photographs, colours, fonts and overall success of the

pages.

The focus group evaluated the content of each of the pages of my magazine. All of the focus group agreed that the content on the front of the magazine (cover lines)

confirmed the type of genre of music this magazine is publishing because they are all big stars in the pop world; this makes it easy to attract the audience. For the contents page, most people agreed that contents were clear to read and it was still showing the

type of genre the magazine is all about. Again on the double page spread, all of the focus group agreed that the content is simple and easy to follow meaning it’s more appealing to the target audience, and the genre of music is definitely shown and is

consistent throughout the magazine.

The focus group evaluated the photography used on each of the pages of my magazine. For the front cover, the focus group said that they loved the key image

on the page and that it was very eye catching and clear and that it looked professional. They also said it reflects the genre of the magazine which means it will attract the target audience. One person also said that the use of the whole

picture as the background for my cover looks very professional rather than having block pictures scattered around. This would attract my target audience as

it would instigate that the magazine knows what it’s talking about. For the contents page, I used images that had the artist looking directly at the camera to give off direct mode of address, some people thought this was good and would attract audiences, but some thought that the shots could be varied, I think this was a good point as varied shots might be more eye catching and intriguing for

the readers. For the double page spread, most people agreed that the image was good and looked professional and fitted the page well. They also said that it once again confirms the genre of the magazine with the help of the props used. Quite

a few people though, said that maybe more than one image could be used on the page to make it more varied and interest the reader more, I think this was a good point and maybe images could have been added along the bottom of the

page to give the reader more of an insight into the artist.

The focus group evaluated the house style used on each of the pages of my magazine. Throughout all 3 pages all the focus agreed every time that the house style was

consistent and you could tell the pages were all from the same magazine. They said that the colour scheme (pink, white and black) was consistent throughout and the pink used

showed that the magazine was made to address a more female audience. The colour scheme was also said to complement each other well. The focus group also stated that the text used throughout the magazine was consistent and mostly sans serif font which

would be easier to read and fits in with the laid back informal content of the articles, this also pairs up with the needs of a teenage/young adult audience. Most of

the focus group also picked up on the use of bold fonts for the main heading and cover lines throughout the magazine and said that this catches the reader’s attention and

makes you want to read what is being said. Another thing the focus group picked up on was the colour changes throughout the text to show the importance of certain words or phrases, this was used on both the front cover and double page spread. For example on the cover, ‘KEIRA RYANS’ is in a bold pink to make it stand out and show who is the main

feature of the magazine compared to white text underneath that tells you what the media have dubbed this artist, Another example would be on the double page where the word ‘wait’ in the headline is pink in colour compared to the rest of the headline which is in white. This emphasises this key word and makes it more interesting and

attracts the reader to read the rest of the article.

Different colours used to highlight theimportance of certain words

The focus group evaluated the design and layouts used on each of the pages of my magazine. The focus group said for all three pages that they layout was simple to

understand and follow and isn’t over complicated or confusing, this attracts the target audience as the magazine looks quite sophisticated. This is showing that the axis of

orientation has been thought of. The focus group thought that there was a good balance of pictures and text, so there was informal balance between the pages. This means that

there is something for all the readers. The focus group had plenty of opinions on the design of the content used on each of the three pages in the magazine. For the front cover

many agreed that the simple design would attract readers as it would stand out against over magazines which are over cluttered with information. Many said that they liked the variations in font styles, colour and size of the cover lines and the grunge/urban type of

fonts stood out and shows the style of the magazine, they attract the reader’s eyes to the cover. Some improvements the focus group thought I could make would be to maybe

move the key image up the page to fill in any of the white space left. Another improvement was to maybe add a banner or a badge to the page which could contain a

slogan or selling point of the magazine, just to vary the design up a bit and make it stand out even more.

White Space Different Fonts and Sizes

For the contents page, many of the people in the focus group said they liked the use of bold fonts throughout the page as it makes the text stand out and entices you to read on. Once again the use of different font styles was said to attract the

reader to the page. People also picked up on the boxes surrounding the page numbers and this made them stand out. An improvement the focus group said to make was to maybe add a border around the edge of the page as there is a lot of

white space left unused, I think this is a good point and a border would help to tie the page together and make it look more professional. For the double page

spread, many liked the use of the kicker underneath the main headline which provided a subtle snippet into what the article would be about, and entices the reader to carry on reading. There were different opinions on the use of the grey text boxes used behind the written article. Some thought they worked well and made the text clear to read and understand and made it more eye catching and

bold to the audience. But others thought that they could be changed to a different colour that fitted in better with the magazines house style, like black, as the grey

was traditional and orderly. An improvement that people thought I could make was to maybe add a pull quote into the written article to give the reader and idea of

what is being talked about and makes it stand out more and attract the audience.

Too much white space around the edge

Use a different colour? Maybe add a pull quote?

For the cover page I got inspiration from the Guttenberg principle. I followed the axis of orientation and made sure that important information/text like

the masthead on was in the primary optical area so it attracts the reader to it and imprints the magazine name in their mind, and non-important

information like the barcode was in the terminal area. I feel that all of the above addresses and attracts the audience for my magazine.

Primary Optical Area

Terminal Area