Demographics and Social Grades

Reader Profile Research

Reader profiles are made by magazines so that they can find out information about the types of people who read their magazine allowing them to adjust it around the reader. Magazines do this research because it helps them to understand the types of people that read there magazine and what these people would like to see more of in the magazine. They generally give information about the persons gender, average age, working status but they also look at main interests. The more personal information (gender, average age and working status) gives us information about the key demographic allowing the magazine to make a stereotypical judgement of what this demographic would like to see. For example if the magazine has mainly a male audience then it may choose to feature things such as cars and video games so that they can maintain their interest. Whereas the information about main interests, etc. gives the magazine a clear idea of what the demographic like and want to be featured in the magazine. For example if the magazine has an audience that use technology a lot they may decide to do a feature covering technology so they hold their interest and maybe attract other technology fans. Reader profiles therefore also help in the making process as they help the magazine to alter things so that all general readers are happy and continue to buy it.

This is a reader profile from NME magazine. Like all reader profiles it gives key information about the readers of the magazine, such as their gender, average age and working status. In this particular example we can see that 69% of readers are male compared to only 31% female readers. This tells us that NME magazine has more of a male audience suggesting that the content of the magazine needs to be more male orientated. We can see that the magazine have done this through the pictures on the top of the page which display a car, a Jack Daniels bottle, a converse shoe and an X-box controller. These are all things that are marketed at a male audience and so they appeal to the magazines main audience. The average age is also 24, therefore telling us that the content needs to appeal to a younger age group, which we can again see has been done through the use of video games, phones and other technologies being displayed at the top of the page. This is because these are the things that young people tend to use the most whereas an older age group would most likely be less interested in these things. This shows me that NME magazine is very focused on the main target audience and is careful with what things it features in it's magazine.The profile also tells us that 52% of people are working full time, 7% of people are working part time and 29% of people are still studying. This is quite a range of people, which tells us that there's no specific correlation between the reader of NME magazine and their working status, readers are linked through another demographic. The reader profile also informs us that the main interests that the readers all hold are based around technology (DVD's, the internet, consoles and games). This is helpful to the magazine as it lets them know that this is what readers want to see featured in the magazine for them to continue reading it. We can see that the pictures featured on this page appeal to the main audience which tells us that the magazine pays attention to readers and considers their views/interests.

By researching reader profiles I know have a better understanding of the type of demographic that I will be aiming my magazine at. The reader profile that I looked at is taken from NME magazine which is a magazine of the same genre to mine and so I will be aiming my magazine at a similar demographic. The average age span being 16-28 and the average social class being middle class. However my magazine will be more female orientated than male which is the opposite of NME magazine. Researching reader profiles also gave me an idea of the price that I should advertise my magazine at.

My Response to the Focus Group

Focus group response:

The focus group video was very useful to me because it allowed me to see what fans of the Indie Rock genre are generally interested in so I have an idea of the content that I should include in my magazine, such as having a feature on Leeds festival. My focus group also used a 16 year old female which is very useful to me because students from the age of 16 will be my target audience and so I now have a greater understanding of what they expect from a magazine and what they would like to see.
The focus group video has helped me to make many decisions, such as the artists that will feature on the front cover and the plug that I might use. The person featured in my video said that her 3 favourite bands/artists were Arctic Monkeys, Kasabian and The Stone Roses, so I will try to feature a couple of these on my front cover however I feel that some other artists may reflect the Indie Rock genre better and so I may include these as well. From asking other Indie Rock fans I have found that the most popular artists of this genre seemed to be Arctic Monkeys, Foals and Arcade Fire so I will try to include all of these on my front cover. My video also helped me to decide on the plug that I might use on my front cover which is 'First 10 Leeds fest acts released!'. I think that this is suitable plug because the person featured in my video said that she had been to Leeds fest the previous year and was thinking about going again the next year and so I believed that this was something that many Indie Rock fans would be interested in due to it being one of the largest festivals for this genre of music.
All of the responses that I received were what I expected to get from the focus group. When I created the questions I had an idea of what the answers would be and they were very similar to the ones received. I expected that the featured person would have been to a few concerts during the year because many music fans like to do this, especially fans of the Indie Rock genre. I also suspected that she would either have been to or planned on going to Leeds festival due to it being such a massive success. The only response I was a little surprised by was that 'The Stone Roses' was one of her favourite bands as it is more of a Rock band whereas she stated her favourite genre of music was Indie Rock. Therefore I maybe won't feature this band in my magazine.
From the responses that I received to my questions I now know that students around the age of 16 who are Indie Rock music fans go to around 2 concerts a year and are interested in going to Leeds festival at some time in their life. This information will help me when creating my magazine to decide on the features and content of my magazine. I also know that there are certain artists that are popular in the Indie Rock genre which I should mention to attract my intended audiences interest. These are Arctic Monkeys and Kasabian.
The response I received didn't change any of my initial ideas but helped to reinforce them and allowed me to make a definite decision over certain choices. The response also gave me some new ideas such as including Leeds festival in a feature or on a plug.

Focus Group: Question and Answer

To continue with the planning process I decided to create a video of myself asking questions to an individual interested in the Indie Rock genre so that I could find out more information about the type of person that will be interested in my magazine. I created 6 questions which may help me to find out more about who my target audience will be and the types of things that they're interested in. The answers given will allow me to understand what people my age expect from a magazine and what they are interested in, allowing me to adjust the content to suit them. This will hopefully allow me to make my magazine appealing to my target audience.

The questions that I asked were:

1. How old are you?

2. What is your favourite genre of music?

3. Who are your 3 favourite bands/artists?

4. How many gigs/concerts have you been to this year?

5.Which festivals have you been to this year?

6.Do you plan on going to another one next year?

LIIAR Analysis of Magazine Front Cover, Contents Page and Double Page Spread

L.i.i.a.r analysis of q magazine from emily_rhian18

Conventions Analysis of Magazine Front Cover, Contents Page and Double Page Spread

Google Mock-ups