Targeting Teen Girls: Q4 Audience for Pop Magazine
1. Q4. Who would be the audience
for your media product?
It was important that I did research into what target audience I wanted to aim my
magazine at because I needed to know what I needed to do to meet the needs of my
specific target audience, by doing this I could also see what the conventions where
to meet these needs.
2. Existing reader profiles
I looked at reader profiles for existing pop magazines so that I could extract the relevant information that
would help me to find out what target audience I should aim at.
• Mostly male
readers
• 15-24 biggest
age group
• 68%
college
graduates
• Average
household
income
$212k
Studying these reader profiles allowed
me to make one based on what I would
expect my reader to be.
3. Reader ProfileI put images of existing pop
magazines on my reader profile
as a representation of the pop
genre and show what the
readers of my magazine would
want.
I used the image of the
iPhone and the
twitter, Instagram, YouTub
e, Facebook and iTunes
logos to show that my
audience are mostly
interested in digital
products and social
networking. This allows me
to know that I need to
incorporate these things
into my magazine to meet
the needs of my target
audience.
I chose to put the logos of
MTV and the official chart
because my target audience are
very interested in the latest
music and by using these I can
make sure that my magazine is
as up to date and therefore as
appealing to my target
audience as possible.
The pictures of big pop artists like
Taylor Swift and Beyonce show that
the audience of my magazine are
interested in the big artists, by using
big artists in my magazine I can meet
the needs of my target audience.
I used pictures of these fragrances to
show that my target audience is
girls, and by doing this I am clearly
stating that this is the target audience
of my magazine to rule out any
confusion.
These shops are shops that my
audience are most familiar
with, they also sell a lot of
mainstream clothes that fits in well
with my product because pop is
very mainstream. By looking at the
clothes from these shops and using
them as inspiration I can make sure
that the costumes in my magazine
will be as appealing to my target
audience as possible.
4. To research my audience and what they would want from my
magazine I did an initial video and asked them questions about
what they would expect to see from a magazine. It was from
this video that I changed my mind as to my target audience, I
was originally going to aim my magazine at an older audience,
but in the end decided to go with a younger audience.
5. I put the following questions to a selection of people from my
target audience to gain some audience feedback. I asked 5 people
that where between 16-17 and both boys and girls to gain some
feedback.
Questions:
• What gender are you?
• Would you say that my reader profile accurately portrays your
interests?
• What types of technology do you use in relation to music?
• Where do you most like to buy music?
• Would you rather see designer or high street shops advertised?
• What hobbies do you like to participate in?
6. From these audience feedback questions I learned that I had been accurate
with my reader profile and had accurately portrayed the interests of my
target audience. Most of the people I asked where girls, this is good as my
target audience was teenage girls, so by asking them I was gaining useful
feedback. The people asked said that they would prefer to see high street
shops advertised because this is more within their price range and that is
where they most commonly shop (shops such as River Island, New Look and
Peacocks). In relation to technology the people of my target audience said
they tend to use their iPhones to listen to music and use iTunes a lot to
purchase their music, they said that they also use Spotify a lot. Most of the
people I asked said that they don’t really have any hobbies aside from
listening to music and shopping. From these answers I can make decisions as
to what to advertise in my magazine.
7. Demographics
It is common for magazines to look at demographics when deciding who to aim their magazine at. To choose my
audience I had to decide which social class I was going to aim my magazine at. To understand demographics I looked at
the demographics table.
I decided that my target audience would be in band C1. I chose this band as the people in this
band have more money than in lower bands which would mean they could spend more on a
magazine which would give freedom to pay for the bigger names to appear in my magazine. It
could be argued that a bigger market is amongst band D&E however I think I could make my
magazine very appealing to people in band C1. By looking at this table I could also decide how
much to charge my audience, because I went for a more affluent band I can choose to charge
more for my magazine.
8. Target age group
The age group I have decided to aim my magazine at is 16-19
year olds, this is because I think I have more insight into this age
group. Also a lot of media is targeted at this age group, such as
television channels like MTV and 4music, which meant that I
could do a lot of research into what these where doing to aim at
this audience. Initially I was going to aim my magazine at an
older audience, however after thinking about it I realised that
this would be difficult as there are not a lot of existing products
aiming at this age group so market research would be hard to
do.
9. How could I have made my target
audience more obvious?
I think I made the target audience of my magazine quite obvious but there could
have been a few things changed to make it more appealing. The colour scheme
of my magazine could be slightly confusing. Because my target audience is
females, I should have used a more female associated colours such as pinks and
purples rather than black and red which suggests the product is aimed at both
sexes. Also I tried to fill my magazine with as many artists as possible, however I
think this could have come at a detriment because it could create confusion as
to the genre of my magazine. For example, Disclosure are electronic/dance
music. Furthermore, I decided to price my magazine at £4.50, looking back I
think this may have been slightly too expensive. Although I did research into
other magazines prices and looked at a demographics table to decide which
social class I would aim my magazine at, further audience feedback has said that
my magazine could be too expensive. Overall however I think I did a good job
and created a product that attracts the right audience and I think it is quite
obvious what the target audience of my magazine is.