My Ideal Consumer

My ideal consumer

Laura is my ideal consumer. She is 13 years old and is interested in the typical and modern pop music. She likes artists such as Katy Perry, One Direction, Little Mix, Justin Beiber and Arianna Grande. She relies on he parents to buy her the things she wants such as music magazines. Her parents, sister and herself all live together in a 5 bedroomed detached house. Both her parents work in different offices and earn average wages. Her sister has gone to university o she rarely sees her, and both her parents work full time. She goes to a state school and is in year 8 . 

She is very good with modern technology and listens to music a lot on her phone so she downloads many of her favourite songs, however she has some collections of certain cd’s which she listens to using her cd player at home. 

She enjoys reading- her favourite books are the hunger games, the twilight series and the Fault In Our Stars. She enjoys going out with her friends or to their houses at weekends. She also likes many reality TV shows like Big Brother, Keeping Up with the Kardashians, and the Xfactor. 

She uses magazines as a way to socialize with her friends, read gossip about her favourite celebrities and as a way to get latest trends (e.g. fashion, books, music, etc.). She looks up to the artists on her magazine as people she wants to aspire to be as she is very insecure within herself.

deconstruction of a pop magazine image

The image looks very wholesome and pure which makes it very good for a pop magazine. She is wearing very bright, pastel colours, which create the feeling of femininity and delicacy. She also has very bright hair, which creates a very uplifting mood for the magazine as bright colours usually create this feeling. The artist is standing in a way that isn’t very provocative- she is covering herself with the jacket and is pulling it closer together, almost as if to hide any of her sexual assets, which is a good look for a pop magazine as they are aimed at young girls. This means that the girls will try to imitate the artists look, so by having an artist that doesn’t look very provocative it means that even young children can wear similar outfits and still look appropriate for their age. The artist is wearing very minimal makeup, but she has very bright red lips that are shaped into a smile. This type of look can, in some ways, look almost inappropriate for the age group, but as the artists is smiling, it takes away this thought and makes the image seem much more child friendly.  She is standing in front of a fairly plain salmon coloured background that is brightly colours, which helps to make the artist stand out as well as creating a very good contrast between the background colour and the colour of the clothes the artist wears.

Contents page Analysis

I did a short analysis of the main features of a contents page so that i can use these when creating my final magazine. The contents page uses lots of small images to make the whole magazine attractive to the audience. They address the audience directly with letters from the editor, and clearly give page numbers to each part of the magazine which makes it simple to navigate through. The page has a fairly linear layout and is not too overcrowded which creates a smart and more professional look which appeals to the older age group. The font choices are very clear and large, but it does use slang words to try and attract teen audiences who commonly use this language. This contents page uses different shades of the same colour, however this is fairly uncommon and may not appeal to the younger age group of their target audience. Overall I think that the contents page looks very clean, but doesn't necessarily fit into the theme the front page gives, and therefore may appeal less to their whole target audience.

Deconstruction of a double page spread

The heading of the article stands out amongst the picture and rest of the text- mainly because it is in such a large font size in comparison to other features of the page. This implies this is the most important part of the page. The heading is written in block capital letters, which again makes it the key feature of the page. The text colour of the heading is a mix of pastel, girly colours, which sticks with the themes of the typical teen magazine as these colours appeal to girls and creates a summer feel to the magazine too. The heading ‘Shake It Up’ is fairly modern phrase, which helps to appeal to the magazine's target audience of teen girls. The word ‘Shake’ itself is reinforced by the image of the boys as they are also holding ‘shakes’, which helps to link the article heading to the image.

The coloured strip underneath the heading attracts the eye to look at the information- which gives more detail as to what the interview may include. The turquoise colour of the strip is very unusual in a teen magazine, as it is not very bright or pastel, however the colour itself is one which promotes communication, so perhaps can encourage this element into the interview. The colour fits into the typical American style theme created with ‘shakes’ in the picture, using bright colours that create a summer vibe.

The main body of text is a mixture of colours and formatting styles. The different colours of font help make each part to the interview clear for the reader. To help the audiences understanding of the answers, each band members answer is shown by their name next to it in bold formatting. The colour of the question is pink, which connotes the image of femininity, but can also create an image of slight immaturity as it is associated with such young girls. This adds a playful tone to the interview, which is again emphasised by the play on words in the heading. The main body of text is in a black colour, which is slightly more formal and boring, but appeals to the older age of the target audience for the magazine.

The main image on the double page spread covers a whole page, and has some information placed over it, which covers the dead space on the image. The picture features all boys of the band, which tries to appeal to females as the males are part of a famous pop band. The boys look very attractive in the photo, while wearing summer outfits. The outfits are fairly laid back, which is typical of summer magazines as the clothing is usually comfortable and cool. Most of the clothing worn is bright, summer themed colours, with pastel shades and typical open shirts and long shirts styles that were seen in America during the 50’s/60’s. This historical aspect creates a cheerful sense to the picture and implies that the magazine is very lively itself. However, one member of the band is not wearing such typical styles,and instead wears a polo shirt with part of a tattoo showing. This implies that he may not follow typical trends, and may represent the aspect of individuality in the magazine which the young girls can try to achieve. The boys are all sitting down and seem very open with their posture, which create the impression that they are very relaxed and calm. It makes the reader feel more relateable to them as it creates realism. The posture may also imply that the boys are being open for all discussion and are not restricting anything, which is something readers would look for. They all look fairly happy and 3 of them are smiling, which gives a positive representation and makes the seem friendly and inviting.

One member is not smiling and seems to be looking straight at the audience, which makes him seem fairly attractive, particularly to teenage girls who tend to have ‘crushes’ and male celebrities. He seems a lot older than other members, which gives him the sense of importance over the others.

All the boys are holding differently coloured milkshakes, which creates the impression that there are differences between the,, however they are all holding things of the same theme, which ties them together as a band. Milkshakes are a common visual representation of summertime, and so creates this sense again. It also helps to tie together and link all aspects of the page from the Heading to overall 1950’s/60’s style.

The double page spread uses a variety of techniques which create an overall sense of fun and the feeling of a warm summer. They use many historical conventions such as the clothing style and milkshakes which are symbolic to the 1950’s/60’s time period. Each aspect of the spread is linked by the heading through colour schemes and historical symbolism. Overall I feel that this page is very attractive to young teen audiences as it combines historical fashions with the modern era, linking to the fashion that is common now. It also is a very attractive page as it is eye catching and colourful with an overall positive feel to it.

Examples of Teen Magazine Front Pages

 

 

 

 

Deconstruction of a teen magazine front page

The masthead for this magazine is very clear and stands out compared to the rest of the text; it is in a separate box and is located at the top of the page, in larger writing than a majority of the text. At the top of the page there is a coloured strip, this helps to add extra colour and fills in white space as well as helping to attract reader’s attention to information located in the strip. The information within the strip isn't the most eye catching pieces but it is part of the magazine that some readers may find appealing. The colour of the strip itself is a light turquoise colour, which is appealing to the target age range of the magazine as they are very light and girly colours. 

The magazine is aimed at younger teens as it has a fun feel to it, and the language used is directed towards this age range. Most of the text is written in brightly coloured text boxes, in a clear bold text. This helps the text to stand out, with the main stories in much larger fonts to the others, for example ‘BATTLE OF THE FITTEST’. This text is also in capital letters, again suggesting that this is the main feature of the magazine. This story headline is written in contrasting colours, pink and yellow, which are both bright and eye catching. The pink is used to attract the young teens, while the yellow makes this story stand out. The front page looks fairly crowded and messy, which could be seen as a modern way to layout the magazine, or can be because the publishers wanted to put a lot of information on the front page to attract a wide variety of teen girls.
The boys on the main image are wearing similar clothing, both wearing a hoodie, which suggests that they are every similar to each other, possibly because the bands themselves are in the same music market or because they are individually similar. One boy is wearing very light clothing, a white hoodie, while the other is wearing a dark purple. This could suggest that even though they are wearing similar clothing, they still want to be separated and seen as two people. The boys are both smiling in the image, which suggests that, the pose and the ‘battle’ is only a joke and a way to attract the magazine’s audience and that they don’t really believe that it is a fight between them. Other images are a lot smaller, and are all surrounding by a frame, which helps to make the image stand out against the text on the page. Borders are typically used to keep attention in straight lines, so by using them on a fairly messy front page it breaks convention of border usage.


The main image on the front page is of two boys standing back to back with their arms folded. This pose suggests that the boys are on the defence and are posed for a fight. The crossed arms represent a person who is very closed and on edge, this, combined with them standing back to back creates the sense of tension between them and like they are preparing for a fight. This portrayal is further enhanced by the headline over the image ‘BATTLE OF THE FITTEST’ which continues to explain the image by telling us they are from rival boy bands. 

Overall the front page of this magazine works well to attract young teen girls. It uses bright colours and highlights important information that al help attract the attention of the girls. By having the two boys on the front it will also attract girls as they can be seen as good looking, so a large number of girls will want to read the magazine because of this. Other images show more famous faces, and the information used in the texts is specific to young teen girls, saying things about beauty and fashion, which is 2 of the things that young teen girls will want to know about.

Font Choice

I asked some members of my target audience which font type and colours they would like to see as the masthead for my magazine. They decided that they liked they Alba Super font type, but with bright blue and pink as the colours.

Target Audience Questionnaire- Analysis of results

My Questionnaire was completed by females between the ages of 9-17, which is similar to the demographic of my target audience, This means that the results gained from this will be a fairly accurate representation of the demographic.

I found that half of all respondents would pay £2.50 for a magazine, and some would pay both more and less. Based on these results I am going to price my magazine at £2.50, which was the price with the highest respondent number.

To see what to include in my magazine i asked respondents to rate different features in order of preference. I found that half of respondents didn't mind seeing gossip but it wasn't their favoured choice. Interviews had a fairly mixed view, but the biggest response was that they would love to see them included. Most respondents would either like to or wouldn't mind seeing reviews included in a magazine. Recent facts/news had similar responses to gossip, with half of respondents not minding seeing this. Most respondents answered that they wouldn't mind seeing product suggestions, but this category did have responses in all categories. Half of respondents said they would like to see fashion and beauty advice. Other comments included suggestions such as funny stories, alternative new artists and you tube recommendations. From these results i will promote beauty.fashion advice in my magazine, along with including interviews, review and product suggestions.

Most respondents said they would like to see the colours pink and blue equally. These two colours were followed in order of preference by green, purple, yellow, red then other. Based on these results i will use pink and blue in my magazine, but incorporate other colours into it too.

Most responses for which gender to include in my magazine were for both genders, however the remaining 2 responses said they would want only females. From these results i will include both genders, but probably orientated towards females more.

Target Audience Questionnaire- results

different types of shots

Live shots

• on stage 

Posed shots

• cameraman directs talent
• can use props
• mise-en-scene(everything in the shot of scene)-lighting, body position, facial expression, clothes, makeup and props, proxemics, camera angles

Advantages:

• can be manipulated
• guarantee of high quality

Disadvantages:

• Can look too forced
• Time consuming
• Expensive
• Need lots of equipment-props, makeup, cameras, etc

Impromptu shots

• unplanned shots

Advantages:

• more personality/feeling from image
• live action- you can always get the unexpected

Disadvantages:

• can’t be directed

Socio-Demographic Indicators

Socio-demographic indicators:

 By looking at these indicators I am able to create a better understanding of my target audience and where they belong within these indicators. 

Social grade	Social status	Occupation
A	Upper middle class	Higher managerial, administrative or professional
B	Middle class	Intermediate managerial, administrative or professional
C1	Lower middle class	Supervisory or clerical, junior managerial, administrative or professional
C2	Skilled working class	Skilled manual workers
D	Working class	Semi and unskilled manual workers
E	Those at lowest level of subsistence	State pensioners or widows(no other earner), casual or lowest grade workers

Magazine Decline

In times of economic pressure people start to stop spending money on luxuries such as magazines. From the last half of 2013 UK magazine sales dropped by 6.3%.

Waitrose kitchen magazine has had an increase of sales of 85.1% in the last 6 months of 2013. This may have been because the magazine was free, which means that more people will pick up the magazine.  Also, from looking at other supermarket magazines, it could also be because more people are going to Waitrose rather than the others, therefore meaning that they will pick up the free magazine.

The national Geographic magazine has had a fall in sales by -13.1 % within the last half of 2013. This could be because the information found in this magazine can also be found via other sources such as the internet for free. Also, people may have found other magazines that have the same content for a cheaper price as you have to pay a high price for this magazine (94.1% of the magazine is paid for).

(Source- Press Gazette)

mainstream vs niche magazines

Mainstream

One that appeals to lots of people

Examples: NME, Q, Ok, Bella, Chat, kerrang!

Advantages

• Hope for large sales
• More profit
• More appeal to advertisers
• Wide target audience 

Disadvantages

• Lots of competition- flooded market → proliferation of similar product types
• No specific targeting of any one group
• Mainstream magazines are usually owned by multimedia corporations, with links to record labels → manipulate record sales
• Wary of contents in magazine → can’t offend mainstream
• Can lack credibility

Niche

Intended for a small, specific and dedicated audience

Examples: Terroriser, pitchfork, fangoria

Advantages-

• Information will be credible and accurate
• Writers can be expressive(say what they want) →don’t have to be to censor
• Consumer is more dedicated → definite sales will occur
• No advertisers to pressure
• Can use technical terms and jargon

Disadvantages-

• Isn’t as well-known → less sales
• Large amounts of competition with mainstream magazines
• Smaller profits → not as many people buy, so less sales = less profit
• Expensive→ no money given from large companies so have to increase price
• Aesthetic quality can be lower→ less money to pay staff

After looking at both the advantages and disadvantages of mainstream and niche magazines I have decided that my magazine will be categorised as mainstream. By deciding this it will help me to decide on my genre and target audience.

Research for my Preliminary magazine

Teacher

Colour schemes- simple, consistent

Articles- current, area links (not just school based), Articles on students (results, outside school), changes in school, students writing them

Images- detailed of focus, bright, colourful, and interesting

Front page- articles inside not on front

Problem page

Anonymous

Articles- reading (persuading people to read), students writing them, school departments, student work, current news events outside of school

Colour schemes- bright, eye catching (for students)

Tone-not too formal but Standard English (no slang), friendly/chatty

Images- not celebrities

Layout- titles on front not with articles, more professional looking (smarter, for staff, could intimidate readers)

Teacher

Colour scheme- school colours

Articles- book recommendations, Success stories, written by students, students work

Competitions

Tone- formal with an informal section (aimed at year 7’s)

Front cover- typical school magazine, students design front cover each time

Images- school results, competitions, students work

Sixth form

Articles- changes in school, after school (UCAS points), university open days, interviews, examiner interviews (how to get marks, what they look for), written by students (more personal)

Colour scheme- colder colours for more professional look, school colours, consistent

Front cover- students, traditional school magazine

Year 10

Articles-puzzles/quizzes, prizes for trips you can go to (Rockingham, Alton towers), gossip(what’s going on in the school), student contribution, letter from the principal

Colour scheme- school colours, bright and colourful

Tone- chatty