EVALUATION PART 4: AUDIENCE IDENTIFICATION & APPEAL

1. AUDIENCE
IDENTIFICATION
AND APPEAL
JOSEPH WRIGHT

2. SOCIO DEMOGRAPHIC
GROUPING
My target audience would
fit into the ABC1
demographic, due to the
fact they have a higher
disposable income and
therefore more able to
pay the premium price
which I offer for my
magazine.
Statistics have shown
there has been a steady
increase in the number of
adults that fall into the
ABC1 demographic,
therefore opening my
media product to a wider
audience.

3. SOCIAL GROUPING &
MEDIA GROUPING
Graham Burton formulated this theory, which involves
classifying audiences by their social and media
grouping:
• The social grouping of my target audience would be
individuals of both genders and aged 16-29 years
old. They will mostly be British due to this being
the area my magazine would be distributed, however
other ethnicities would be interested in my magazine
due to the vast range of models represented within
the magazine (e.g. both an British and Asian model
are used).
• The media grouping of my target audience would be
music enthusiasts (particularly indie music) and
fashion lovers, which would therefore mean they
would be interested in magazines including Elle and
Q.

4. BLUMER & KATZ USES &
GRATIFICATIONS THEORY
- The need to be INFORMED and EDUCATED about the world in which they live.
- The need to IDENTIFY personally with the characters and situations in
order to learn more about themselves.
- The need to be ENTERTAINED by a range and variety of well constructed
texts.
- The need to use the media as a talking point for SOCIAL INTERACTION.
- The need to ESCAPE from their ‘daily grind’ into other worlds and
situations.
Therefore I produced my music magazine with these needs in mind. I have
informed and educated my consumers through the detailed article I have used
on my double page spread. I have featured a diverse range of artists in the
contents of my magazine, therefore meaning that my audience can identify
personally with at least one artist. I have entertained my audience through
the articles I have advertised on my contents page, which allows them to
escape their ‘daily grind’ through reading them. Lastly, I have given my
audience the magazine’s social media links, which encourages social
interaction.
Blumer and Katz’s 'Uses and Gratifications Theory' tries to represent
the different reasons that the audience have for consuming certain media
texts. Media consumers choose media texts that fulfill one or more of these
needs:

5. RICHARD DYER’S UTOPIAN
SOLUTIONS THEORY
Richard Dyer states that people will respond to a media text if it offers
them compensation for the inadequacies in their own lives. Through the media,
audiences can vicariously live their lives and fulfill their needs & wants,
leading them to strive to a utopian life:
Those who have an inadequacy of feeling isolated can turn to my magazine as a
form of comfort and can communicate with the community of readers through the
social media links I have provided on my contents page. Synthetic
personlisation within my magazine allows those isolated to feel as though
they are being aimed at individually through inclusive language usage. I have
provided a solution for the confusion inadequacy through providing detailed
and informative information throughout my copy. Lastly, the boredom factor
has been dismissed through providing exciting material throughout my
magazine, for example an interesting article on Azealia Florence.

6. MASLOW’S HIERARCHY OF
NEED
Abraham Maslow stated that we
all have the same eight basic
needs. Therefore, if your
production targets these, you
will have a greater chance of
success. The top five needs
are:
I have tried to meet esteem
needs through using models that
appear confident and successful
so that my audience can aspire
to achieve this. Secondly, I
have provided respect towards my
magazine consumers through use
of a formal mode of address.
Love/belonging has been targeted
through using synthetic
personlisation within my
magazine, I have used inclusive
language so my target audience
feel involved and and feel they
have formed a relationship with
the magazine editor.

7. PRE PRODUCTION
RESEARCH: FOCUS GROUP
My focus group gave me in-depth qualitative
information about the needs and wants of my
target audience. I followed the majority of
advice they gave me so I knew I was offering the
appropriate set of gratifications. For example
they stated a simplistic front cover with
relevant but not too much information and a
mature red, white and black colour scheme would
be effective, and I followed this advice when
creating my magazine. Secondly, they gave me
advice on the cost of the magazine and stated
that a price too low would discourage consumers
due to appearing too cheap for a premium magazine
– one individual in particular suggested I use
tactical pricing and I followed this through
charging £4.99 instead of £5 to appear slightly
cheaper.

8. PRE PRODUCTION
RESEARCH: QUESTIONNAIRE
The questionnaire I created helped me to
identify the content I needed to include to
attract my target audience. The majority of
respondents (64.29%) stated they enjoyed
indie/alternative music the most and
particularly liked reading ‘Q’ magazine, this
encouraged me to produce an indie music
magazine and analyse ‘Q’ magazine to learn
their conventions so I could include them in
my magazine to meet gratifications fully. The
respondents overwhelmingly stated they prefer
a formal mode of address and therefore I
decided follow this by writing with
descriptive and sophisticated language
(particularly for my double page spread
article).

9. PRE PRODUCTION RESEARCH:
SOCIAL MEDIA FEEDBACK
Social media feedback showed that my
target audience are attracted to a music
magazine through the artist featured on
the front cover and also if promotional
offers are advertised. I therefore decided
to follow this feedback through using a
relevant artist in the music industry on
my front cover and offering the promotion
of ‘Free 10 tracks from our top 100
chart’, this allowed me to effectively
attract my target audience.