AUDIENCE IDENTIFICATION AND APPEAL

JOSEPH WRIGHT

SOCIO DEMOGRAPHIC GROUPING

My target audience would fit into the ABC1 demographic, due to the fact they have a higher disposable income and therefore more able to pay the premium price which I offer for my magazine.

Statistics have shown there has been a steady increase in the number of adults that fall into the ABC1 demographic, therefore opening my media product to a wider audience.

SOCIAL GROUPING & MEDIA GROUPING

Graham Burton formulated this theory, which involves classifying audiences by their social and media grouping:

• The social grouping of my target audience would be individuals of both genders and aged 16-29 years old. They will mostly be British due to this being the area my magazine would be distributed, however other ethnicities would be interested in my magazine due to the vast range of models represented within the magazine (e.g. both an British and Asian model are used).

• The media grouping of my target audience would be music enthusiasts (particularly indie music) and fashion lovers, which would therefore mean they would be interested in magazines including Elle and Q.

BLUMER & KATZ USES & GRATIFICATIONS THEORY

- The need to be INFORMED and EDUCATED about the world in which they live.- The need to IDENTIFY personally with the characters and situations in

order to learn more about themselves.- The need to be ENTERTAINED by a range and variety of well constructed

texts.- The need to use the media as a talking point for SOCIAL INTERACTION.- The need to ESCAPE from their ‘daily grind’ into other worlds and

situations.

Therefore I produced my music magazine with these needs in mind. I have informed and educated my consumers through the detailed article I have used on my double page spread. I have featured a diverse range of artists in the contents of my magazine, therefore meaning that my audience can identify personally with at least one artist. I have entertained my audience through the articles I have advertised on my contents page, which allows them to escape their ‘daily grind’ through reading them. Lastly, I have given my audience the magazine’s social media links, which encourages social interaction.

Blumer and Katz’s 'Uses and Gratifications Theory' tries to represent the different reasons that the audience have for consuming certain media texts. Media consumers choose media texts that fulfill one or more of these needs: 

RICHARD DYER’S UTOPIAN SOLUTIONS THEORY

Richard Dyer states that people will respond to a media text if it offers them compensation for the inadequacies in their own lives. Through the media, audiences can vicariously live their lives and fulfill their needs & wants, leading them to strive to a utopian life:

Those who have an inadequacy of feeling isolated can turn to my magazine as a form of comfort and can communicate with the community of readers through the social media links I have provided on my contents page. Synthetic personlisation within my magazine allows those isolated to feel as though they are being aimed at individually through inclusive language usage. I have provided a solution for the confusion inadequacy through providing detailed and informative information throughout my copy. Lastly, the boredom factor has been dismissed through providing exciting material throughout my magazine, for example an interesting article on Azealia Florence.

MASLOW’S HIERARCHY OF NEED

Abraham Maslow stated that we all have the same eight basic needs. Therefore, if your production targets these, you will have a greater chance of success. The top five needs are:

I have tried to meet esteem needs through using models that appear confident and successful so that my audience can aspire to achieve this. Secondly, I have provided respect towards my magazine consumers through use of a formal mode of address.

Love/belonging has been targeted through using synthetic personlisation within my magazine, I have used inclusive language so my target audience feel involved and and feel they have formed a relationship with the magazine editor.

PRE PRODUCTION RESEARCH: FOCUS GROUP

My focus group gave me in-depth qualitative information about the needs and wants of my target audience. I followed the majority of advice they gave me so I knew I was offering the appropriate set of gratifications. For example they stated a simplistic front cover with relevant but not too much information and a mature red, white and black colour scheme would be effective, and I followed this advice when creating my magazine. Secondly, they gave me advice on the cost of the magazine and stated that a price too low would discourage consumers due to appearing too cheap for a premium magazine – one individual in particular suggested I use tactical pricing and I followed this through charging £4.99 instead of £5 to appear slightly cheaper.

PRE PRODUCTION RESEARCH: QUESTIONNAIRE

The questionnaire I created helped me to identify the content I needed to include to attract my target audience. The majority of respondents (64.29%) stated they enjoyed indie/alternative music the most and particularly liked reading ‘Q’ magazine, this encouraged me to produce an indie music magazine and analyse ‘Q’ magazine to learn their conventions so I could include them in my magazine to meet gratifications fully. The respondents overwhelmingly stated they prefer a formal mode of address and therefore I decided follow this by writing with descriptive and sophisticated language (particularly for my double page spread article).

PRE PRODUCTION RESEARCH: SOCIAL MEDIA FEEDBACK

Social media feedback showed that my target audience are attracted to a music magazine through the artist featured on the front cover and also if promotional offers are advertised. I therefore decided to follow this feedback through using a relevant artist in the music industry on my front cover and offering the promotion of ‘Free 10 tracks from our top 100 chart’, this allowed me to effectively attract my target audience.