Target Audiences - Questionnaire Time!

For a magazine cover to be successful, first I must discover my target audience and what the preferred features for a cover are: Without this information, I will not be able to successfully win over the audience because I wouldn't have known what they preferred about magazine covers.

So here is a questionnaire I did:

1.Age – (Tick which group applies)
2.Student/Parent/Grandparent?
3.Do you currently read the magazine?
4.Preferred choice of cover image?
5.Preferred features?
6.Disliked Features?
7.Preferred things to be included on cover?
8.Preferred colours?
9.Preferred textual font style?
10.Preferred amount of time between publications?

From these questions I gathered the information that:

The main age group was between 30-60, with Parents making up the majority of readership. Around 60% of people asked said that they do read the magazine when it is published by the School as it provides good information on the recent academic year and in a lot of Parents cases to see if there are any mentions of their children in the magazine.

A preferred choice of cover image tended to be something that varied on the College main building theme and a notable proportion said that they preferred features on other activities such as sport and house events rather than academic features. No feature was outrightedly disliked but it was felt by a majority that some of the less interesting ones could be trimmed to avoid boredom whilst reading.

75% of participants said that they would've preferred a sporting theme to the cover but with the main building in the background, instead of the usual academic focus on the school.

Preferred colours ranged from greens and reds to blacks and yellows. But no absolute preferred colour was given by a majority of participants.

When asked about a preferred textual font style, most participants gave a quizzical look before explaining that the font style did not bother them that much but that if they had to decide, the Old English Text, would work best for the magazine.

And finally when asked about time between between publications 100% of participants said that they were happy with the current rate.

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From this, I now have a good idea on what to base my cover on and how I should go about the design element of it. This proves the value of questionnaires as I now know how to make my cover seem aesthetically pleasing to the eye.

A Third Example

Life: This is an old December 1970 issue and as such could be considered fairly basic by today's standards. It has the logo LIFE in the top left hand corner; (it should be noted here that in three of the magazine covers I looked at, the magazine logo was placed in the top left hand corner), in a difference to modern magazine covers this one includes only one main picture, that of the blonde woman with the sack of food on her back, giving the cover a very simplistic feel to it and a small caption is written to the left side of the picture. The main features of the magazine are placed in the top right-hand corner in a simple black font and a similar to Times New Roman style. The issue date and price is given in a white font at the bottom right hand corner.

The main things that jump out at me on this cover are the logo and the picture, everything else seems a little plain and boring but was probably considered very good when it was first made.

Another example...

Teen People

From the cover it could be said that the target audience is young adult male because of the inclusion of Shakira on the cover, but the writing on the cover seems to suggest a predominantly female audience.

In a similar fashion to Q magazine, a header is placed at the top of the cover; for this magazine it is: QUIZ: WHAT'S YOUR SEX IQ?

One of the main things that stands out about this magazine cover is the use of different colours for the text. This helps it jump out from other magazines because a boring cover with black and white text wont. On this magazine the main colour font used is a variety of pink and green to emphasise that its target audience are young females. This is because the colour pink is generally associated with feminine ideals and the inclusion of this colour as the font reinforces what the magazine is aiming to.

The Beginning

The beginning of media: Here I am going to look at the conventions of magazine covers to try to find out the general formula used when creating a cover of any magazine.

Q: In this magazine, they have decided to place the magazine logo in the top left hand corner with the main front cover image placed in the centre featuring an overlap on to the logo. On this cover, the logo is part of the magazine's brand and what will most likely sell it, other than the contents provided. It is bold and stands out well amongst other magazines. As Q is a well known magazine it is unsurprising that the logo is what may help sell it. Ask someone about Q magazine and they are more than likely to know what you're talking about. Here again is the importance of branding and making a logo bold and able to stand out "in the crowd."

The main headline is then placed over the image in fairly large font in order to stand out to the target audience. The importance of a main headline that stands out is great in regards to selling magazines: Any magazine that features their main headline in tiny squashed up writing is almost certainly not going to do as well as a magazine with a bold one.

At the top of the cover an explanation of what the magazine is all about is written across it; in this case it is: THE ESSENTIAL MUSIC GUIDE. In a similar fashion a brief aspect of the contents of this particular issue is written at the bottom in this case: All the Month's Albums, Gigs, Films & DVDs Reviewed & Rated.

Around the main cover image other images and headlines are placed, making sure that the target audience realises that the issue is not about one particular subject but that there are other features in the magazine that may stand out to someone interested in buying it. On this issue the main cover features are given as: On Tour With U2, Bloc Party and Made In Hell! In each case a short sentence reveals what that feature is about, for example Made In Hell: The 10 Craziest Rock Couples; this tells us that that feature will be detailing a selection of what the magazine considers to be the 10 craziest rock couples. This information is useful on a cover as the cover is what will sell a magazine in most cases, and a cover with little information or anything that stands out is less likely to be sold than a magazine that does.