Audience Research

Open publication - Free publishing

In order to gather ideas and information about what needs to be included in a magazine to attract an audience of people, research needs to be completed. There are several different ways to research information that you need. One of the best ways to do this is a survey. There are many different types of surveys and you can ask an audience of people whatever you like in order to gather the information you need. This way the audience will get what they want, and are therefore more likely to buy your product. The two main types of research in the music magazine industry are called qualitative and quantitative research. Qualitative research focuses on specifics such as interests and hobbies, whilst quantitative research focuses on statistics such as age and frequencies. The aim of my survey is to collect both demographic and psycho-graphic profiles about students in general.

For the research of my music magazine I put together a basic survey and e-mailed a web-link to some of my class mates. These were people in the age range 16-20, a possible range of a target audience for my magazine. Despite similar ages, all 8 students had different individual views.

The results of my survey reveal some important information to me. To begin, 5/8 of students were female. I do not believe this will have a significant effect on my magazine however - my survey only asked a small sample of students for their gender. I know on the whole the gender ratio amongst British students tends to be around 50/50. This question is therefore one of the least relevant.

Secondly, I asked for the age of the students. Whilst 7 of them were aged 16/17, one was aged 20. From this I learn that the content of my magazine needs to be tailored for people aged under 18, although I do not think that there will be many issues in terms of age limitations and content in my magazine.

My next question continued to survey the demographic profiles of my students and asked for their race. Although not in all cases, being part of a particular race or culture can mean having different ideas and beliefs than people from different races. Although the results to this question do not show in my publication; all 8 students told me that they were White British. Some of the content that goes into my magazine, in particular adverts, can be tailored to the results of this particular survey question.

Now I have a basic understanding of the demographic profiles of my selected target audience; I continued to gather information regarding psycho-graphics (for example subculture groups etc). My next question asked for the favourite colour of my survey participants. This information could give me an understanding of what theme colours I should maybe use in my magazine. Some colours are also linked to particular fashions, for example pink tends to be linked to very feminine things. Whilst the colour blue had 5 responses, pink had 0 and neither did grey. Blue is a popular male colour however only 3/8 of my respondents were male. Grey is a very dull colour and is not associated with any 'stand out' subculture so I did not expect this to be a favourite. The lack of pink selections tells me I should most probably avoid anything that is greatly feminine on my magazine. The other colours all had average numbers of responses and with most of them being neutral colours they would probably be more than acceptable to use.

The next question is probably one of the most important for my research, with the consideration that my magazine will be based upon music. I received an incredibly vast range of responses for this question, leaving me unable to select a favourite music genre among my target audience. 50% of my respondents voted both Hip-Hop and R'n'B as a music genre choice of theirs. The least popular genres were Asian and Ska, as were the music genres highlighted in the 'other' section. The results to this question allows me a much wider target audience for my music magazine.

I then asked another music related question; do they attend music festivals and if so how often. 6/8 of students said that they do in fact attend music festivals, all of them then going on to say that they attend them once a year. Taking into consideration student budget, which will limit students to how many festivals they are able to attend, the results to this survey question tell me that most students are enthusiastic about music in general. Of the students who answered my survey who do not attend festivals; it could very well be a budget issue as could it be that their type of genre doesn't play at festivals.

I followed my questions about music festivals up with a question that attended to finding out favourite artists of my target audience. This, very much like my music genre responses and predictably so, showed a range of different responses. No artist was mentioned twice and the artists were from a range of different genres. Responses included Ghetts, Joy Division and Adele. This question again gives my magazine a much wider target audience. Although it might be possible to tailor my magazine to a large genre of music taste such as an era, it will be difficult to have a sub-genre focus and have a successful magazine at the same time (according to research results).

Only 3 of the respondents currently buy music magazines. There is a possible gap in the market here, with a lack of interest from music fans with current magazines, my magazine could be more to their taste.

Another reason why a lot of students do not buy music magazines could be to do with cost, as much as it could be to do with Web 2.0 and ongoing revolutionizing technology.

My final question asks students what attracts them to and what makes them buy magazines. Featured personnel and graphics were the most popular responses to this question, only marginally to colours and content however. The responses to this question highlight the importance of every part of the magazine and how each part is key to attract the chosen target audience and perhaps more people.