Primary Research Feedback

Jessica Goldsmith

Focus GroupI have decided the genre of my magazine is going to be alternative music as this is the music I am most interested in myself and therefore I would be able to apply the demands of my target audience as I could relate to them. From my feedback they like the genre as it is very popular as many people within my target audience listen to alternative artists.

I had two choices for my music magazine name, one was LOUD and one was SOUND WAVE. From my feedback I discovered that they preferred the name SOUND WAVE as it was more suited to the alternative genre/theme of the magazine. They also liked the physics side of the name. They really like the idea of having a pop art styled theme. They said that this would give the magazine a unique and edgy look. On the FC I am going to have an extreme close up of my sister with pop art style make-up (e.g. Red Lipstick, 60’s eyes and big blond hair). This would appeal more to the male audience, therefore, although my magazine is unisex. I am going to aim it more to males as this is what NME and METAL HAMMER have chosen their target audience to be. From my research I have discovered that males read music magazines more often than females. However, from my online questionnaire, more females completed my questionnaire. This is why I have made my magazine unisex as my data is more influenced by females than males.

They liked the idea of my double page spread being about how she was discovered as it is very suited to a double page spread because they are usually to do with the artists background history and how they ‘made it’.

Online Questionnaire1. The majority of the people who answered the questionnaire were 17, as you can see on the pie chart. However, I only asked AS students, therefore, it is very unlikely to see anyone above the age of 18. However, I have decided to target my magazine at 17-30 males. From previous research I discovered that most music magazines, such as, NME and Metal Hammer target their audience around the same age range. This is because males generally read music magazines more than females.

2. The majority of people who answered my questionnaire were female (75%). Therefore, my research could be highly influenced by females making it less accurate for males. Because of this I have to rely on my secondary research to see what attracts the male audience.

3. As you can see from the graph, alternative and hip hop music are the most popular choice. I have chosen the genre of my magazine to be alternative. This is positive data as it shows that I would have a large target audience who are interested in alternative music, therefore, more people would be interested in buying an alternative genre magazine.

4. Surprisingly all of the students would pay more than £1 for the magazine. This is positive and this would allow the magazine to make a profit. The most popular choice was £1.20, therefore I am going to price my magazine at £1.20.

5. From this graph I have noticed that many of the students don't read music magazines very often. This means that I would have to make my magazine really attractive and make it stand out from the rest to encourage my target audience to buy the magazine. I would do this by making the magazine unique and bold and perhaps put freebies in the magazine as from my colleagues research I have noticed that this attracts people to buy magazines.

6. I am glad that most of the students who answered my magazine preferred the bold colours theme with a relaxes/informal tone. This will help make my magazine unique and stand out from the rest o the shelf. The relaxed theme may also make the magazine more relatable to the consumers of my magazine. I have chosen to have a pop art theme as this is unique and edgy I haven't seen a magazine with this theme before.

7. This clearly shows that my target audience are interested in festivals and probably attend regularly. Therefore, I will have articles about festivals. For my double page spread, I may do it on the new and upcoming artists first time at a festival and what their experience was like.

8. The top three articles that the students preferred were Upcoming Bands/New artists, Festivals and Tours and Gigs. Therefore this will be the main content in my magazine and I will use them as plugs on my FC to attract my target audience as this seems to be what they are most interested in.

9. This question is quite similar to the previous question (Q.5). So, again, I need to make my magazine stand out from the rest with a unique and edgy look. I think that a pop art theme would work as from the feedback from the Focus Group they seemed to really like the idea.

10. From the question you can see that they would all prefer an informal way of addressing the audience. This would make my magazine more fun and relatable to the consumers of my music magazine.