Questionnaire Analysis

Location, Props and Models

Location/props/models

Location
 

I've decided to do my photoshoot in a studio environment at college, this is due to the fact I don't want the background to deter from the model in view. I also wanted it to look professional and after researching fashion magazines most of the pictures they use are also took in a studio this makes the model the main focus on the cover. This also gives the impression of higher quality and a more prestigious implication.

 

Props

Props include stylistic clothing, my model was wearing a black and white jumper this suggests it’s a winter issue but also white and black were the main two colours on trend in the winter of 2013. This signifies that my magazine is a fashion based. She also wore a pink lipstick this is because the main colour on my magazine is pink so it created a sense of unity and professionalism. The choice of prop will intensify the fashion implication within my products as well as it allows the audience to retrieve the implication that my magazine is upper-class.

 

 

 

Models

As for my model, I will only be using one throughout the whole magazine. She will be the representation of the main coverline on the front cover and will further be interviewed for my feature article. I decided to only use one as it intensifies her importance and role within my magazine. Also by using an attractive female model on the front cover this will get the audience to be attracted to it and purchase my magazine because the female audience will want to look like my model and therefore buy the magazine to find out more.

Finished Magazine

Drafts

Original ideas statement

Original ideas statement 

Working title of my magazine is Curve. I came up with this name because woman have curves therefore I thought this would be eye catching to woman that may desire another body or are curios to what Curve may be about. I will also use very feminine colours to show the costumer its targetted at woman. This title suits the target audience I am trying to make my magazine appeal to. I'm targeting this magazine to a female demographics these woman are aged 19-24 years of age. This fits into the ABC1 psychographics. I mainly want it to focus on women's fashion, beauty, health and music. These woman are interested in the music industry and have a great knowledge and understanding. They're interested in Pop and Acoustic genres. My target audience is attracted to upper-class brands such as Starbucks and MAC cosmetics these are brands that are commonly used and consumed by my target audience. This magazine will be about £2-£3, being that it will be slightly aimed at a upper class market this is a perfect price for woman that are quickly rushing to get a magazine for work to read on their lunch break! Survey monkey helped me a lot when it came to deciding what I wanted to do my magazine about after getting feedback from others I realised that fashion in a magazine is very desired and that's where I got my ideas from. I also looked at other fashion magazines such as Vogue and Elle, these are the magazines that expired the layout of my magazine and fonts used.

Overview of Industry

Overview of Magazine Industry

There are more than 8000 titles published in Britain which can be categorised as follows the consumer sold in new agents and available online, business/trade/professional for people at work, customer magazines that organisations to give to their customers as a form of marketing, staff magazine to inform staff about their company, newspaper supplements these come free as part of daily or Sunday paper, part works this is a set number of issues that builds up into an ‘encyclopaedia’ on a specific topic, and finally academic journals these are for university-level discussions. Consumer magazines make up the bulk of the titles for sale in newsagents. These may be general titles that aim to entertain and inform for example, Loaded, Elle, and Radio Times or there also are consumer specialist titles that are aimed at a specific interest or hobby such as Car, Total Film, and Gardeners world.

The biggest consumer magazine publishers (by 2008 salves revenue in newsagents):

Bauer publishing 25%

IPC Media 20%

BBC 7.8%

National magazine company 7.3%

However Immediate Media bought out BBC Magazine in October 2011.

 Today in the UK there is over 3,200 different consumer titles in 1980 there were 1,383 this is a massive difference and it tells us the Media is growing rapidly. 1.4 billion Magazines are sold each year whereas in 1970 2.1 billion where sold and in 1992 1.2 billion were sold this therefore shows that people don’t by as many magazines anymore because you can get them online and on the news. 85% of the population reads a magazine this is still quite a high percentage. Advertisers spent £745 million in magazines in 2008 and consumers spend £2 billion on magazines annually. An average of 500 new magazines has been launched every year in the past decade. But only 3 in 10 titles survive for more than 4 years in the media industry.

The top five women’s monthly magazines in 2013 are Glamour, Cosmopolitan, Yours, Woman & Home and Good housekeeping. The top five children’s and teen magazines were Moshi Monsters Magazine, Fun to learn – Peppa pig, Fun to learn – Friends, CBebbies Art and Top of the Pops. Whereas the top four male lifestyle magazines are Men’s Health, Nuts, FHM and GQ.

Construction schedule

Two weeks December - front cover
Two weeks January - contents
Two weeks January - feature article
One week February - finish off/improvement

Feature article

feature articlenew, a photo by carolinablog23 on Flickr.

Contents page

contents page, a photo by carolinablog23 on Flickr.

Magazine cover

magazinecover, a photo by carolinablog23 on Flickr.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

I started by using Google to research the conventions and format of existing magazines. I also used Google to research what media institutions would best fit my magazine. Google also helped me gather images for different uses such as developing my mood board.

Photoshop was the main program I used. I used it to create my magazine, I also used Photoshop to create my preliminary task while doing that it taught me the basis so when I produced my music magazine I knew roughly how to use it. I learnt how to use ‘rulers’ effectively to format my pages, this was especially useful for my feature article when I had to put the columns in. I also learnt how important having separate layers is when you want to move things separately without moving the whole page.

I have always had an interest in photography but lacked the knowledge and capability to achieve the shots I wanted. Due to this being a magazine I knew I needed to achieve high end shots for the type of magazine I wanted to produce and the target audience I was aiming at. To get ideas on what kind of shots I should take I looked at Vogue and Elle to see what their front covers are like and how women in them pose I then showed the girl I was photographing some ideas so she had she knew what I was trying to aim for and I think by the end I achieved the upper class look I was aiming for.

Web spaces played a major role during this project. To begin with blogger was used to keep all my work. I also used Flickr to upload analyses; it allowed quick and direct annotation to be attained. A disadvantage I found with Flickr was that I had to write everything out on a word document before putting annotating the picture this was time consuming. It prevented me from having a long/detailed analysis due to the constriction of space. I also used survey monkey, I used this website to get feedback from the audience to see what they would like to see in my magazine. This helped me decide what I want my target audience to be and what I want my magazine to include. After getting some response I realised the audience wanted a music magazine that included some fashion bits, I also realised that my magazine would therefore be aimed at women. This website played a major role when it came to me producing my final magazine.

In conclusion I now have a great knowledge and understanding of how to use Photoshop, Flickr, blogger, issuu, survey monkey and other programs and websites I have used while producing my magazine, these have helped me produce my finish product to be exactly like I wanted it to be. 

How did you attract/adress your audience?

How did you attract/address your audience?

The use of a young woman being the main focus of this magazine from the very first glance that the audience will see it showed that the magazine is highly female based. Also with the majority of the stories on the outside being about women and very woman orientated this expresses the audience from the get go. I also used a sophisticated feminine colour scheme using different tone of pinks, greys and blacks. All of this is shown on my front cover page as this is the first page the audience will see. I find that my front cover also attracts a female gaze because the female I used is attractive there my female reader will desire to look like her and therefore buy the magazine I also wanted the audience to feel they could relate to the person on the cover and relate to their lifestyle or way of dressing to their own lives.

I also put a barcode in my front cover this is to show that it’s a real magazine and you can purchase it. Also by using the codes and conventions of a magazine in the music industry, it helped me learn where to place certain things to make my magazine look more interesting and professional.

Other way that I tried to attract my audience was by using bright colours to help the magazine stand out from others on the shelf. I also used colours that attract woman. The use of colour opposition creates drama on my cover, yet harmonise nicely with all the colours used. Therefore this creates a very desirable visual. Also the richness of colour gives it a regal element; this therefore tailors itself to the upper-class feminine market I’m aiming to attract.  The masthead also plays a great part in attracting the audience for example the masthead is detonated in capitals and in regards to semantics this is processed quicker by our brain and taken in at a faster pace by the target audience this also attracts them quicker to my magazine. The general meaning of the Masthead is sophistication as well as representing a stylistic type. This is very much fantasized by my target audience because they commonly browse through the internet and get attracted to look at stores windows. 

I have also used formal language throughout my magazine this is because my magazine is aimed at sophisticated woman that are successful in life. These are wealthy woman that will like reading into stories and not just gossip about celebrities.

Also the use of direct mode of address can be considered an attraction to the target audience. The reader will buy my magazine because they want the life style my magazine is trying to promote this relates to uses and gratifications theory, my target audience may only be using this text purely to gratify their needs. My magazine represents powerful woman this entails the idea that this is what my target audience have power and values already or it may be achieved by reading the magazine. My target audience are definitely searching for ways to be ‘perfect’ therefore they are attracted to this magazine.

My magazine would be sold in places like WHSmith, ASDA, Boots and news agents due to the number of my target audience that visit these places. It could potentially also make a breakthrough in shops like Topshop and Urban Outfitters, creating a complete niche and breakthrough in the fashion market, by advertising the magazine in places of high prestige on the high street these are places that my target audience will enjoy browsing.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

 

Many commercial shops that young women will go into may distribute my media product as this is where the customer is interested in my magazine will go to get products that could compliment what is within m magazine. My magazine is based on music but it also looks at the fashion and cooking side. Although clothing stores are not where music magazines are primarily sold it is a new and seeming to be more effective strategy used by magazine empires over the last few years. It also allows readers that are used to a certain way to allow themselves to be opened up to some variety in the most unexpected places. More conventional places for the magazine to be distributed would be shops like HMV. Small music distributors would also be good because it doesn’t have a specific genre of music so it allows more of a variety of markets instead of a niche market who like a specific type of genre.

Bauer media is one of the UK’s leading companies which explore and is involved in such as magazines, music channels, radio and TV. Bauer media is involved with 4music, smashhits, heat radio, magic, kiss, box television, Kerrang and the hits radio. These reflect the type of audience I want to see my magazine and I think this type of media organisation would distribute my product well due to its high profile within the media. Also Bauer has a lot of woman magazines already such as Heat, More and POP. However these are more gossip magazines rather than a knowledgeable women’s magazine like mine. Therefore this could be good for Bauer as they can attract a different woman’s audience.

IPC media produces over 60 iconic media brands, with print alone reaching almost two thirds of UK women and 42% of the UK men. This company has the mass printing of women’s magazines with women being my demographic and major market of my magazine. This is why my magazine is preliminary based on what young women want to read within a music magazine but also involves fashion and cooking.

In conclusion I think IPC media would be the best organisation to go with because it has a broad market instead a niche market. They also sell to both sexes this might become an advantage.

 

How does your product represent particular social groups?