Research

The first thing I had to when starting the preparation and planning for the magazine was to decide what genre to do. I started this by firstly looking at already existing products and how each genre is portrayed through colour schemes, layouts etc. For example when looking at NME, it shows a clear identity, of bold colours with a busy in your face layout, linking to what their target audience would want to see on a magazine of their choice.

In contrast looking at another genre, Indie, shows a simpler, yet just as effective cover, with obvious statement photography. Comparing the two my personal preference is definitely a more effectively simple Indie genre to be a intriguing and unique cover. I also feel that as I would know more about the style of indie and what sort of audience an indie magazine is aiming at, it would be more of an advantage to work within that area. This is My favourite genre, and would feel most confident representing them.

I did also consider doing a country pop magazine looking at covers, such as the one shown below, and their personal style portrayed. This was also the style of magazine that i would preferably buy, however had a final decision of, Indie-Pop was decided after the results of my questionnaire also showing a larger interest in that specific genre and area.

By also looking at Pop, I discovered the knowledge of not just using one genre but by taking two and forming an even bigger tareget audience meaning more sales, as it combines two genres for either Pop or eg Rock fans or Pop-Rock fans. The stereotypical look for the Pop magazine is brightly colours, and busy with an engaging large cover images.

This then led me on to comparing two magazines, to get an insight into what iconic codes and conventions are used within different types of Genre of Magazine, and how the different types develop it to suit their target market/audience. And how this creates a strong magazine which flows and has a clear style (House style), for a successful magazine.

NME is a weekly magazine, aiming at a young male or female target audience however not being age specific but genre specific. This means the people who would additionally be attracted to the magazine would be people whom listen or enjoy that type of music more so than how old they are. Similarly Grazia also don’t aim at a specific age audience, however aim at fashion conscious young woman ranging from teens to middle aged. Who may also have a interest in the latest celebrity gossip.

This therefore links into Grazia using an extremely famous on trend super model (Kate Moss), which would draw in that kind of audience. Also using her gives the magazine an advantage hinting at her being a fashion icon therefore the magazine being a fashionable thing to refer to when buying. This is also done with NME for the same reasons with them using The Wombats as there main cover attracting their target audience, portraying that Indi scene with a what it shown to be a wild photo in which people can idolise.

The magazine layouts are also very similar both using typical magazine layout styles including a Mast head, Main headline/story etc. There main logo of the name of the magazines also show to be a considered part to the cover in which NMEs is bright and bold, crabbing the attention of the buyer, yet Grazia’s showing to be already a famous and recognised brand therefore not even needing the whole name to be shown (Kate Moss’ head covering the Z). Leading onto the specific colour pallets chosen, with Grazia using girly fashionable colours linking to their target audience and to give an initial view as to if the magazine may be slightly gender specific. NME however as said before chooses bright, in your face colours showing the magazine with attitude and how they want to be portrayed to their target audience. Also by using this colour scheme repeatedly, creates it as a famous part to each issue and automatically recognisable.

The photography of each main image on the cover differs in that Grazia’s being a ‘snatched’ photo of the celebrity most likely from paparazzi, where as NME being a posed and planned shot.

The font also links to the layout and how the magazine wants to create its representational image, with Grazia using a sophisticated mature font, and using a clear theme of similar fonts  throughout the cover, whereas NME having a more clashing approach with many different written fonts and bold letters to create a fashionable messy look hinting at a laid back approach linking to the Indi aimed target audience. Also the mode of address in the language used both show  a similar tone when speaking to the audience.

This shows to conclude that both magazines portray a completely different representation of themselves through their front covers, yet use the same techniques and skills to do so.

This is also essentially, increasing my knowledge within all the elements of a magazine, and widening my ideas and thoughts within my Own magazine i am going to create. Therefore being another beneficial way of researching, before the start of the production process.

The questionnaire I also made to contribute to the research within the type of magazine I want to create, and how I will portray the magazine was made and given to people of a variety of ages, with both genders to get small yet wider insight into just general popularity, then again to the people I would focus on to be my target audience for the magazine. This then gave me a wider knowledge of what to focus on within my music magazine giving me an advantage to create the what could be viewed  as, as the perfect magazine for the buyer in which they see fit as to why they purchased my personal brand. It also gave me an insight in what my initial ideas could be improved upon and even creating a unique selling point in which could separate me from the other existing magazines in this genre, in sales.

Here shows my final questionnaire ready to be used in research.

I handed out my questionnaire to 16 people, of a wide variety of age groups and styles. This was to get a wider view of research, and to emphasise the target audience I will choose and how to appeal to them. The feedback from my questionnaire also gave me an insight into how to represent the specific chosen Genre best, which showed to be very beneficial. It also lured me more into the age range of what i wanted to focus on most and how there answers reflected on my decisions within the Magazine.

I analysed all the responses and created a bar chart in the Microsoft Programme Ed excel.

 

The Pie Chart below shows the statistical answers, represented in a Pie Chart, to the question 'How you would purchase the magazine?'. It shows that purchasing a magazine from a shop is the most popular choice, and possibly one of the easiest options. Therefore when making my magazine I need to take into account what people would want most, and how I would Distribute my Magazine as a key element to successful sales. There was also a correlation between the age of the individual completed the questionnaire to who chose to purchase it from a shop. It was not so much a younger teen but more older, reaching into the lower 20's. This I should also consider when choosing my target audience, to make sure, what was most popular from that age group is what I portray into my Magazine.

 

The next Pie chart I created was again to record the statistical answers to the question 'What appeals most to you on a magazine cover?'. Again it shows an obvious most popular answer being Value for money. The was also a correlation between the age of the people that filled in the questionnaire to who chose the price option. It showed that the more younger age grouped would rather a lower price, therefore if I chose to aim my product at a younger age range I should take this into account.

I found creating the questionnaire was very beneficial, it gave me a clear idea of where I want to go next within the creation of my magazine. For example showing that most of the people that completed the questionnaire showed that they aren't subscribes to any magazines. I could therefore also use this as an opportunity to manipulate this into my magazine, and include a subscription opportunity, to create its popularity and also engage the younger audience to become more familiar with it.I also found the question 'What improvements to the cover/contents page of your most purchased magazine would you make?'. This was the perfect opportunity to manipulate their favourite magazine in what they already find suitable and develop their faults to create that persons perfect magazine, increasing the sales and popularity of my magazine within similar opinions come from the same targeted people due to age/style/interest in music etc.

Here shows a Completed Questionnaire and how this added to the development of my research.

Other research I did included, buying other magazines and simply reading through them, increasing my knowledge and terminology of existing magazines and the usual codes and conventions they include, to make my magazine as realistic as possible. Also looking online at Secondary research, and to look into more depth at possible Genres I would want to chose to represent, ensuring if I do, I do successful.

For this I used search engines such as:

After researching into the types of genres of music magazine, carrying out in depth comparisons between two magazines to highlight the changes of iconic codes and conventions within different Genres, creating a questionnaire to get an insight into the most popular and best choices in which I should take when creating my magazine to create the best possible magazine for sales and distribution and finally looking through search engines to increase my knowledge within the creation of a good successful magazine eg appearances, types of distribution, and iconic codes and conventions I feel confident to go on to the next step of making a final decision on my Genre

I  would like to represent and go on to the production process of my magazine.