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.