Questionnaire Results. By Lucy.

Aims and Purpose. My aim was to gain more insight into my target audience so that my magazine will be more appropriate and people will want to buy it. To improve my magazines quality so that it’s suitable to the audience.

Methodology. I thought a questionnaire would be the best way to gather primary evidence as it would allow me to talk to my target audience and find out more about them. I didn’t do a focus group and I thought that would only be appropriate to use if I had two final pieces and wanted opinions on both. When asking my questions I used some open ended questions, but most of them were closed for convenience and speed.

Audience Profile. Half the people I asked were women and the other half were men. I think this gives me an equal view of what each sex would like to see in a magazine allowing me to use the information to make both sexes happy with the final result. Also making it a multi-sex magazine, not being aimed at a specific sex.

Income/ Outcome. Half of the people I questioned were students, which means they are in my target audience. As only 30% were employed this would effect my price as you can see in the graph. As some of my audience members may be employed and studying this means they will have some disposable income, which will appeal to potential advertisers who will be the main source of funding for my magazine. A suitable price would be somewhere between £1.50 and £2. This is an affordable price for my target audience.

Audience’s Free Time. As many people that I questioned liked music, gigs and films, I feel featuring these in my magazine would be good as the audience would then be interested in the features. My audience do not read magazines everyday, so my magazine has to be an easy read but stay interesting.

Inside The Magazine. This was a very important question in my questionnaire as it would show what my audience really want to see in my magazine. Although my results were very similar I now know that Interviews and Music News would be liked and also photos as this gives the audience an easier read if they only wanted to flick through.

Magazine details. From this we can see that my audience would prefer CD’s which shows an interest in new music, this could be featured in my magazine as a section. After that my audience have mixed preferences, which makes it easy to pick or give a variety. My audience would rather see one single artist on the front of the magazine which means I can chose a picture that will be of better quality and more detail.

Shops & Marketing. This shows my magazine should be good enough to be bought in a shop, and look appealing to stand out from the rest on the shelf.

Favourite cover? After showing 5 front covers, I asked the people to pick their favourite. NME was the favourite. They then explained why. The audience of these magazines are highly influenced on the colour and layout of the magazine, which means I have to make sure my front cover is eye catching and laid out well. This tells me, this is where I should gain information from.

Title Ideas. I thought of 4 title ideas which would suit this genre of magazine. I have an equal vote for Addicted and Album. I will decide on my title when I have designed the magazine. I asked for a font preference so that when I’m constructing my magazine I know what type of font my audience would like to read and look at.

Conclusions. I feel my questionnaire was successful as I have found out all the relevant information that I was looking for. From my questionnaire I have learnt what features I need to use inside my magazine, this will be Music news, Band interviews and photographs. This shows how successful my questionnaire was as I have all the information I needed, and will not have to do such a broad questionnaire again. If I need more information I will do a more specific one, with more open ended questions.

Proposals. I have now got an idea of what my front cover needs to consist of, this will be a single artist, with a good colour scheme and some clear fonts. I can then expand upon these choices to make my magazine stand out from the rest in this genre. For example, I could use colours such as red, black & white. I have also got a style model that my audience like, this will allow me to make my magazine as fitting as possible. And will also give me ideas for colour and layout. With my questionnaire finished I can continue to make my magazine and create the final pieces to fit the preferences of my audience.