Planning- Audience Profile!
I have gathered a group of individuals who are rap/hip hop fanatics. Their input and ideas will help me in the production of my magazine, as I will gain knowledge from them regarding what interests them in a music magazine. As well as asking 10 college students, I will also use the social network site Facebook, in order to find a more varied audience. Overall, their input will allow me to judge what techniques to use for the presentation of my magazine.
I showed 'VIBE' and 'XXL' magazines to 10 individuals who share a keen interest in rap and hip hop. After they studied the cover, contents, and a double page spread, I asked them for their input of what they would like to see featured on a magazine cover, what a contents page layout should look like, and how they would prefer to see a double page spread.
Here are some of the people that I have conducted my audience research on:
<----- Ksenia. She says that 'a rap/hip hop magazine must be visually attractive, and the main image must be relevant to the music genre.' She believes that a front cover with bright font, large headings and rap/hip hop artists as the main images would be the most attractive, and encourage her to purchase the magazine in a shop. Regarding contents pages, she said she would 'like to see a clean layout, which is easy to read, and features only a few small images that are related to the musical genre. She went on further to say that she would like a double page spread to contain both images and text, with the amounts being in proportion, as to not over-do it with too many images/text. She would not like to see women being belittled and seen as sex symbols.
<--------- Hannah. She believes that a rap/hip hop magazine ought to be bright, containing large headings and a large masthead. She also thinks that scattering images on the front cover would draw more attraction when in a shop. She likes clean layouts featuring no bleeds of imagery or captions. Hannah also believes that women should be portrayed respectfully, as the objectification of women in rap/hip hop magazines is degrading.
<-------- Ola. She believes that in order to create a successful rap/hip hop magazine, I need to ensure that the colours match, in order to look tasteful and not down market. She also thinks that scattering imagery and text will look effective. She also believes that there should be an equal amount of images for women and men within the genre, not completely one-gender focused.
<------- Seb. He thinks that a magazine featuring a running head of rap/hip hop artists would attract him most to a magazine. He also thinks that using black, white and yellow would be most appropriate, as they contrast and are eye catching.
Other people who I asked gave ideas that were similar to the ones mentioned above. They included:
. Clean layout.
. Contrasting colours.
. Bold font.
. Running head.
. Scattered images.
. Plain font.
The input I received from my ten volunteers have given me ideas and techniques to utilise in my magazine that will be perfectly suitable for my target audience, thus being females and males, aged between 14 and 30. I would rate my likely audience on the Jicnar Scale as D, C1 and C2, as the content of the magazine will be informal and will be unlikely to attract interest from professionals and businessmen.
