USP

Figure 1

Every magazine needs a USP (unique selling point). This makes the magazine worth buying.
For example, Kerrang's USP is that it has posters in every issue, interviews with bands and features artists that are not typically seen in music magazines. By targeting a niche audience and providing free posters, Kerrang's USP allows them to sell copies to regular readers each week and therefore remain successful.

Figure 2 

My magazine is different to Kerrang's as I do not target a niche audience but instead target a large majority of people. My USP is that my magazine doesn't have a specific genre but will change as music does. For example, today the most popular music is pop music, with mainstream hiphop becoming increasingly popular ( as shown in figure 2 with Drake and Fatty Wap within the top 5 most played). However, this is completely different to the 80's where dance and new wave music was the most popular. Therefore in the 80's my magazine would have featured dance music artists, whereas now, my magazine is more likely to feature pop and mainstream hiphop artists.

Therefore my USP is that my magazine changes with the trends. Additionally my magazine will feature a range of music that is popular at the time and so can appeal to everyones individual taste.

What do existing magzine titles connote?

Magazine Logo	Connotations of the Logo and its appearance
	This is the sound an electric guitar makes when it is strung whilst plugged into an amp. This therefore connotes that the magazine is about rock or heavy metal music.     The word itself sounds loud and bash and so connotes that the content of the magazine is aggressive and ‘in your face’. This is supported by the exclamation mark; this connotes the volume of sound and is often associated with shouting.   The logo itself looks smashed. This connotes aggression and implies that the magazine wants to rebel against society.
	Mojo is a word associated with music and dance culture and so clearly indicates that this is a music magazine.   Additionally, mojo is a term often associated with an ‘older’ person gaining their ‘cool’ back. This therefore connotes that this classic rock magazine would make the read feel as if they had their mojo back.
	‘Pop’ is a word associated with sweet things, such as fizzy drinks.  Therefore this connotes that the magazine and its genre is sweet and therefore appeals to younger audiences (especially females)   The word pop derives from the word popular and so clearly shows the type of music featured in the magazine.   The logo itself connotes an informal tone that appeals to young children. The love heart in place of the word ‘love’ creates a modern feel as it imitates ‘text speak’.
	A billboard is a large display. This connotes that the magazine displays the artist and their music in a big and outgoing way.   Billboards usually advertise current brands. This indicates that billboard magazine publicises current trends and artist.     The variety of colours connotes the variety of musical artist featured in the magazine; it also shows how the trends of music are always changing and that there is no set trend.
	Vibe refers to the atmosphere and ambience. This links the title to music and connotes that the hip-hop music featured in the magazine creates a certain atmosphere or vibe.   The word vibe is now the slang word for atmosphere. This connotes that the genre has an informal attitude. Slang is also associated with the ‘streets’ which is where R&B and hip-hop originates from.

 

Title of my magazine

While researching existing magazine I noticed that all of their names are words associated with music. For example, Q (or cue) represents the action used to place a needle onto the record and 'KERNING!' represents the sound of an electric guitar. 

When considering ideas I found that it was difficult to think of original and catchy titles that were associated with music and also gave an indication to the the genre of my music magazine. Therefore I decided to focus more on titles that connoted the genre of my music magazine rather than deriving from musical dialect.  Taking this into account I have formulated some ideas for the name of my own magazine. 

Praised - derives from the word popular; this is therefore relevant to my magazine as it is a popular and in trend music magazine. It is also used to describe one's respect and gratitude towards something, especially in song, this therefore shows that my magazine not only focuses of the gossip of artists but also the quality of the music itself. 

Craze - "an enthusiasm for a particular activity to object which appears suddenly and archives widespread but short-lived popularity" As my magazine is about trends, which can also be referred to as a craze, it clearly describes my magazine. It also creates a sense of excitement and so encourages the readers to buy the magazines to keep up with the 'craze'.  

Mania - "an excessive enthusiasm or desire; an obsession."  This also does not refer to music, although it does describes the feeling that my magazine would give you. It represents the obsession that society has with modern, chart music and how we can become so involved in it, just like my magazine.    

Fix - this suggests addiction. It implies that my magazine will be the 'fix' to people's music addiction. 

Air - Charts music is around us everyday, even if we don't consciously seek it out. Popular music plays in shops and on the radio all the time. Therefore Air suggests that my magazine focuses on the music that is everywhere (just like air) and evokes the idea that it is an essential part of your life. 

Novelty - 'the quality of being new, original, or unusual'. For this I decided to focus on the 'new' definition of the word. Chart music is always changing. What is popular depends of the social attitudes at the time. Therefore Novelty connotes that my magazine focuses on what's new, and suggest that it is essential if you want to keep up with the current trends. 

Questionnaire #2

Once I had established the preferences of a wide variety of people, I decided to ask further questions to my focused target audience.

I composed a questionnaire and distributed it around the school (through a notice box) to students between the ages of 14 and 17.


My results were as follows:

On average people who listened to chart music preferred an uncluttered cover.

People tended not to like having bold ways of drawing attention to information on the cover. However it is likely that I will include subtle ways of doing so as this is a successful music magazine convention.

Most people liked bold colours for a magazine cover, these include; black and white, red, yellow and orange. This range of colours gives me room to experiment and establish what looks best while still giving me the advantage of appealing to my target audience.

As for fonts, people preferred sans serif style fonts. This also connotes to me that people prefer more modern and crisp styles, therefore giving me a further indication of how to set out my magazine. Additionally, this crisp style is supported by a preference of an uncluttered cover.

Finally I gave the students different title ideas. This was very useful as it allowed me to judge which would be the best for my magazine. Out of all of the titles I gave, the most popular were; Craze, Novelty, Praised and Fix.



My questionnaire gave me results that I can use when composing my magazine, however, by distributing them through a notice box I found that not all questionnaires were completed. This indicates to me that for any further research I should adopt a different method. For example, I could go and ask in person, gather a focus group or send out an email to a larger number of people to ensure that even if not every person completes the questionnaire I will still be able to collect a substantial amount of results.

Another issue with my method of collecting research is that I only used school students. This meant that I was only able to collect data from females and so my results do not give an accurate representation of my complete target audience. On the other hand, this allows me to focus my target audience onto girls between the ages of 14 and 17 which will allow my magazine to appeal directly to this group.

Carson, the new convention?

Figure 1

David Carson, an American graphic designers, is best known, as the art director of 'Ray Gun' magazine, for his unique and innovative magazine covers.  He challenged the conventions of magazine layouts and designs, even if sometimes he wasn't so successful.

Every single cover of Ray Gun was extremely different. The house style was never the same, neither was the logo or even the positioning of the bar code.

Although David Carson's covers are now collectable items, at the time his covers only appealed to a niche audience. This is because people like familiarity. By experimenting with conventions Carson's non-conformist approach made it difficult for audience to easily understand the cover or grasp Carson's concepts and was therefore not always successfully popular. 

Figure 2

It is undeniable that every cover is interesting and unusual. However, not all of his covers are eligible. For example, figure 3 uses a font that makes the artists featured in the magazine extremely hard to read. It was Ray Gun's unique and bizarre style which was not only its greatest strength but also its largest weakness. 

For me, some Ray Gun issues are very attractive and are defiantly appealing, whereas other issues do not attract me at all and would possibly deter me from purchasing the magazine. My personal opinion is likely to also be that of others. 

Figure 3

  The lack of convention make most covers appear more like posters than     magazines; this therefore indicates how essential conventions are.

By attempting to break convention Ray Gun became a relatively short loved magazine, releasing only 74 unique covers.  By using conventions, a magazine creates a sense of familiarity; this is important as audience need to be able to astatine the desired information is a short space of time. A magazine that uses a consistent logo is easier to spot on a cluttered newsstand than a magazine that is different every issue. The average population don't like change, therefore experimenting with any product risks loosing your target audience. 

The '50 quid bloke' and the survival of music magazines...

The 50 quid bloke is a term coined by David Hempworth in 2003. It is used to describe a certain group of music consumers.

"This is the guy we've all seen in the record stores on a Friday afternoon, possibly after a drink or two, tie slightly undone, buying two CDs, a DVD and maybe a book - fifty quid's worth - and frantically computing how he's going to convince his partner that this is a really, really worthwhile investment. He is likely to be a big user of the web and probably owns an iPod and is an avid radio listener." 

Accordning to data from the BPI, 40-49 year olds now purchase a higher percentage of albums than 12- 19 year olds.

This group of people can be explained due to their ages. When the '50 quid bloke' was in his youth, music was a central part of life. Now, he attempts to maintain his cool status and keep track with current trends by purchasing albums, records and music magazines.

The '50 quid bloke' is, now, more likely to be targeted by record companies because they are easy to appeal to. Company members are able to target the '50 quid bloke' as they see themselves as similar. Additionally, the '50 quid bloke' provides reliable sales that record companies thrive for.

The question now asked is; are music magazines dying out? Are the younger generations being sucked into newer and faster music through the internet? Is the only targetable audience now the '50 quid bloke'?

Is this the end?

Personally, I agree that music has developed. Magazines are dying out. The younger generations, who tend to be more interested in music, are moving on from magazines and CD to newer methods such as internet streaming.

Patterns of music consumption have changed. People no longer purchase CD's but instead stream music through the internet using iTunes, Spotify and Youtube. Steaming has become so 'normal' that in 2013 HMV (one of the UK's most popular music stores) closed 37 stores and was at risk of bankruptcy.

This change in youth culture has lead to questions about how we, as a population, now access music. While magazines and CDs still exist their popularity has dramatically decreased. As a consequence this change has effected the industry significantly. In 2013, the closure of 37 HMV stores lead to the unemployment of almost 500 people. This only intensifies the new methods of accessing music; why pay, when you can stream it for free? 

While living in this futuristic society can music magazines survive?

Perhaps the fact of the matter is that music magazines have reached the end of their popularity, only to preserved by the '50 quid bloke'.

Target Audience Profile.

When creating a product the target audience must be taken into account. This is very important as the product must appeal to an audience in order to be successful.

When deciding on a target audience different things have to be taken into consideration;
- genre
- content
- psychographics
- images/ colour
- layout


I have decided that my target audience will be young people between the age of 15 and 18. This is because this age group are, on average, more interested in current music and social ideas as well as more likely to have a disposable income to buy my magazine. Additionally the NRS results show that 164,000 ABC1 between the age of 15 and 34 purchased Q magazine - a magazine that features current music and trends- this therefore suggests to me that my magazine idea is desirable to my target audience and successful.

I will attempt to use colours appeal to both males and females as this will ensure that my magazine has a larger audience, however, due to there being a female artist on my cover I expect my audience to be primarily female and will therefore consider this when finalising my cover and the rest of my magazine.

I have also considered the lifestyle of my audience. My target audience will be educated young people - and therefore more likely to have a job. This will allow them to purchase my magazine and will dictate what content I can include. My target audience will be ASPIRERS who follow current trends and fashions and so I will feature popular topics in my magazine. By following current trends I will be able to appeal to a wide range of people at any given time.

Because my target audience are aspires I plan to include interviews and information about current trends in my magazine. This will interest this group of people as it allows them to aspire to be more like the artist features and gives them an indication of trends that they might be interested in.

In addition to my content, I will make my magazine uncluttered and crisp as aspirers typically like attractive packaging. This will allow my magazine to initially catch my target audiences attention when on the stands. To add to an uncluttered and attractive cover, I will attempt to recreate high key lighting as this gives the impression of high quality and therefore appeals to aspirers materialistic interests. I may also attempt to use backlighting to create an interesting and artists feel to my magazine.

Questionnaire #1

To grasp a general idea on what people like the most, I completed a questionnnaire on 15 people ranging between the ages of 14 and 28.  Here are my findings:

QUESTIONS 

1) What type of music do you listen to most often?

R&B = 1
Classical =1
Indie = 2
Rock = 2
Charts music = 9

2) Do you prefer magazine covers that are cluttered or uncluttered?

Cluttered = 4

Uncluttered = 11

3) Would you say you a. follow the trends or b. consider yourself unique?

a = 8
b = 7

4) What colours most appeal to you?

Blue = 3
Black and White = 6
Orange = 2
Red = 3
Pink = 1

5) What pages do you look forward to the most in a magazine?

Fashion = 2
New! = 5
Interviews = 8

6)  How often would you buy a magazine?

Every week = 6
Every 2 weeks = 3
Monthly = 6

My results therefore indicate that I should create a magazine :

• based on current chart music,
• with an uncluttered cover, 
• that follows trends and conventions ,
• that consists of the colours black and white and red or blue tones,
• I should do a double paged spread on an interview.

By using a wide range of ages I was able to collect results, however, in the future I will focus the range of ages that I use in order to collect more accurate results that apply to a specific group.

The NRS

I visited the NRS website as part of my research. It allowed to to gain information that I can compare.

The NRS (national readership survey) is useful as it gives information of a range of publications. It can show how many people read specific magazines and what social grade they come from.

The music magazine results (extracted from the NRS readership results)

However, the NRS does not always give perfect information.

• The range of audience that it includes is very large. Between 15 and 34 catagory there is a significantly small cap when compared with its 35+ category. This, therefore gives inaccurate information as there are more people who would fit into the 35+ category and so the results cannot be accurately compared.  A similar issue applies to the social grade range which is also large and therefore doesn't give a clear indication of the exact audience. 
• Additionally, the NRS is not able to collect information from everybody, this means that once magazine could have many more readers that are not included in the results. 

What about me?

Using the results above I can see that more ABC1 purchased magazines. This allows me to conclude that my target audience will be ABC1's, suggesting that they have a disposable income which makes it more likely that they will regularly purchase my magazine. 

These results also allow me to see that, on average, more 15-34 year olds purchased magazines. This tells me that to ensure a higher success rate I should aim my magazine at audiences between 15 and 34. 

The results show that Q and Mojo have higher audience of 35+. Therefore, as an addition to my research, I will compare Q to another magazine with a lower target audience to see what is different. This will allow me to establish the desirable tone and content for my magazine. 

Monthly or not Monthly?

 This is additional information that may be taken into consideration. This could effect my USP.

These statistics shows that more people purchase weekly magazines than monthly ones. However there is a higher percentage of online downloads of the magazine for monthly copies.

I am not considering doing an online magazine; therefore in order to raise my sales a weekly magazine appears to be more appropriate.
However doing a monthly issue would be cheaper and could create a larger 'buzz' than a weekly magazine.

Maslow's hierarchy of needs

Before focusing on my specific target audience I thought it was important to consider what groups are available and why people buy magazines.

My music magazine will be published in the UK, therefore I must consider the views of people in a western culture.

Being a western culture means that my target audience will be attracted by specific things such as technology or a modern design. This can be explained by referring to Maslow's hierarchy of needs.

In 1943 Maslow stated that people were motivated to achieve certain needs. He put his ideas into a hierarchy (as seen above) and said that once one was achieved a person would then aspire to fulfil the next.

In a westernised culture it is more likely that the basic needs have been fulfilled and therefore people aim for those at the top of the triangle. This therefore means that people purchase magazines in an attempt to realise self-actualisation.