My specific target audience was 15-19 year old girls who had an interest in mainstream pop/r’n’b music. I used colour, layout, fonts, pictures and the actual topics in the magazine to appeal to them.
Front cover:
My front cover had to be the most appealing thing because it is the first thing a reader sees and is usually the thing that makes the reader decide whether a magazine is worth buying or not. to do this I used bright colours and attractive pictures to get the reader interested.
I placed my main image all over the front cover this was so that the reader had to look at it, it also is relevant to the genre as it has someone wearing clothes associated with the genre and an electric guitar as a prop which is typical of someone in the music industry. I also used two other images which were relevant to the cover lines. I used bright colours such as pinks, purples and blues to attract the reader, as they are bright colours the reader will be more attracted to them instead of dull colours. I used a white font for my masthead because it stood out from the rest of the colours on my front cover and it looks professional because it’s in a different font from the rest of my cover lines. I used an ordered layout with cover lines down the side and one main image Everything used on my front cover looks fairly ‘grown-up’ and not ‘childish’ which helps appeal to my teenage- early adult audience. The topics I have talked about will appeal to my target audience because they are about current artists and the latest gigs which is something that would interest them.
Contents page:
The contents page is the second thing the reader sees and is also important as it helps shows what is in your whole magazine and could therefore help the reader decide whether to buy it based on what is in it. This means it has be appealing by using bright colours and readable fonts. The layout also has be fairly organised so the reader can read what is in it easily and not get confused.
For the contents page I use the same types of font and same colours, this way the reader will find it familiar to what they have seen and will associate the two together. By keeping most things the same I have created a theme through my magazine and will keep the audience interested by keeping things familiar. I have used images of ‘girls next door’ the girl band from the front cover again in the contents page, this is also so it keeps some familiarity from the front cover. I have used a column of page titles so it is organised, this will appeal the target audience because it is easier to read and clearer.
Double page spread:
The double page spread is an important feature in my product because it is the main article and is on both the front cover and contents page. An interesting layout must be used to attract my audience so that it interests them. I decided to dedicate one page to photos and one page to the interview so that it was laid out in an interesting way. This would appeal to my target audience because it isn’t cluttered and it’s organised easily.
I laid my text out in columns so that it was organised and easy to read, i used different coloured fonts for questions and answers so that the target audience could easily identify the difference. The layout of the text is conventional for most magazines. I placed a pull quote on the picture page, this is so the target audience could read it and then be interested in what the article is about by reading it. I have used a similar colour scheme on my double page spread as to my front cover and contents page this was to keep it familiar to the reader, this would appeal to my target audience because it makes it easier for them to follow.
The model wore quite black, white and denim clothing, against a white background, this is so she stood out.
Questionnaire results: I got a very good representative sample of my target audience’s opinion of my magazine. I know this because most of the people who took my survey were girls aged 15-19. From this I can therefore get a fair representative from my target audience of what worked well and what didn’t.
Overall, I received very positive views from my target audience. This gives me the general idea that they liked my magazine and it appealed to them. When asked about the front cover, they replied with answers like:
Most of the comments i received were positive about the colours used, giving me the impression that they found it eye catching and colourful which is what attracted them to my cover. They also commented on the professionalism of the pictures which is important for my magazine as i wanted it to look professional as it would appeal to the target audience by using quality photos. From the responses i got it seems like my audience overall really liked my front cover. When I asked for what i could do to improve my magazine, i got very vague responses and a few people put ‘nothing’ this means my target audience liked my front cover. The only thing people commented on was maybe that some of the fonts were too small to read. Overall I think my front cover was very effective in appealing to my target audience as they put mostly positive answers to my questions.
On my contents page my target audience commented on how the layout was easy to read and very conventional. This is important as my layout had to be simple and easy to follow. They also enjoyed the photos. A criticism people had of my contents page was the same for my front cover with some of the fonts being hard to read.
For my double page spread, most people were quite vague about their answers, but although the answers were vague mostly all of the comments were positive and people said that it was ‘good’
Most people said that I couldn’t improve it but the one thing people did comment on was that some of the fonts were hard to read and didn’t stand out that much but there were more positive comments than negative.
From the responses that my target audience have provided in my questionnaire, i think i have successfully appealed to my target audience through my use of different layouts, pictures, fonts and colours.
This way, I had a much better chance of getting the opinions of my chosen target audience on my magazine.
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