Focus Group

AnalysisI started my focus group of by saying.. Hi, my name is Shauna Mullen, I am an AS mediastudies student, I have a few representatives who fit my ideal target audience who areanswering questions in order to help me establish what content to put in my ownmagazine.

The two representatives were year 9 students, therefore they are roughly 13/14 yearsold.

Before I started asking my representatives their opinions on twofront covers, two contents pages, and two double page spreads. Iasked them two questions in order to find out more about them.

The first question I asked them was... “how do you spend your

free time?” one girl replied saying that she spends her free time“listening to music” and then the other girl agreed. This reassuresme that 13/14 year old girls do in fact listen to music when theyare not occupied.

The second question I asked them was... “who are your favourite

pop artists?” Only one of them answered this, and she said thather favourite was The Vamps, this is interesting for me as it showsthat young girls do prefer boy bands. The other girl said that shecouldn’t chose a favourite.

Front Cover QuestionsI asked six questions regarding the two girls opinions on two differentfront covers.

The first question I asked was “what do you like about these front

covers?” the first thing one of the girls said was “One Direction”, thisshows that the artist(s) who are the main image are the one of, if not themost important part of a front cover. Another thing mentioned was thecolours used as the are bright and “stand out”.

The next question I asked was “do you like the colour scheme?” whichthey both said they liked as they are bright and attention grabbing. This isa convention of pop magazines in itself, and the two girls illustrated thatbright colours are popular with young girls and this should be taken intoconsideration when creating my own music magazine.

The third question I asked was “what other artists would you expect to

see?” The artist names I got back was Cherly Cole, Jessie J and JustinBieber – in the video of my focus group this section cut out slightly withthe sound but these are the responses I received from the girls. Thisshows that the expect to see a mixed genre on the front of a magazineand should keep this in mind when taking my photos.

Front Cover

The firth question I asked was “which one is your favourite?” onegirl said Top of the Pops because of One Direction, and the other girlsaid the We Love Pop as it is less packed . This part of my focus groupalso blurred slightly throughout this question but these was theresponses I got. This gives me an idea of what type of cover mytarget audience like and the layout and the main image were bothmentioned by the two girls so I should seriously consider these whenmaking my own front cover.

The last question I ask regarding these two front covers were “which

one would you be more inclined to buy?” one girl said she wouldprefer to buy the Katy Perry one. This shows that the layout isimportant on a front cover, as it can’t be two crowded or it woulddeter people from buying it – such as the Top of the Pops magazine.

The forth I asked was “how would you improve them?” one girl saidthat she would put less writing and more images, in order to see whois going to be inside of the magazine, rather than just writing theartist names.

Contents Page Analysis

I asked four questions regarding these two contents pages, asking the

two girls their opinions.

The first question I asked about these two contents pages was “what

do you like about these content pages?” the response I got what that

they have loads of pictures - which is a convention of them as they

should be 50% text and 50% image.

The second question I asked was “what layout do you prefer?” There

was a split decision on this - as they both chose opposing contents

pages. One girl said they liked the We Love Pop one (one on the top)

as she liked the “inside this month” part because the content was clear

and the numbers were large and there was plenty of pictures.

The third question I asked was “how would you improve them?” the

answer I got from this one was the text size underneath the pictures,

they both agreed they would be more likely to read the articles relating

to the feature article photos if they could read more clearly what the

caption says. This is interesting for me and I could take this into

consideration when creating my own contents page.

And lastly I asked “which one is your favourite?” there decisions were

still split when it came to answering the question - informing me that

perhaps either style will be success if I use something similar with my

own contents page.

This was the first double page spread I showed the girls, I asked them three questions related to this double page

specifically.

The first question I asked was “what do you think about this double page spread?” comments such as “it is a good layout”

were made, stating that they prefered a question and answer layout rather than an article layout as they believe they are

connecting to the artists more - and they believe these are the artists actual words - unlike in an article.

The second question I asked was “what do you like about it?” the girls mainly liked the layout of the article.

The third question I asked was “do you think the colours of this represent the pop genre?” they both said that they believed

the colours should be more colourful, like the front cover of a pop magazine. Despite the article being based on a boy

band. I should also take this into consideration as my main artist is a male.

Double Page Spread Analysis

Double Page Spread Analysis

This is the second double page spread I showed the girls, I asked them two questions relating to this

double page spread specifically.

The first question I asked them was “what do you think about this double page spread?” they liked

the headlines because they think they are relatable. One girl also said that it made her feel sorry for

Harry because it is a real story. They did mention that they prefered the Mindless Behaviour double

page spread layout.

The second question I asked was “what do you like about it?” they said that they like the fact it was

Harry and Zayn because they both like One Direction. This tells me that people tend to prefer articles

that there favourite artists are in.

Double Page Analysis

I then asked three general questions about both double page spreads.

The first question I asked was “what artists would you rather read about?” the girls

mentioned three other artists: Olly Murs, Jessie J and the Vamps.

When I asked the girls “what one out of the two would you be more inclined to read?”

they didn’t give a direct answer and agreed that they would probably read both.

The final question I asked was “what layout do you prefer?” they both agreed the

question and answer layout as its more personal, and that it is actually the words of the

artists. This was good feedback for me as I can take it into consideration on my own

double page spread.

Overall Conclusion

By conducting a focus group I will able to retrieve vital information of of my ideal

target audience. This was important for me as I can take on board their feedback

and apply it to my own work.