How Research will Inform Planning

 In this section I will be sharing some of the things I have learned from the research I have done, and how the research will influence aspects of the magazine I am planning. 

Questionnaire;

In my questionnaire I was able to find out specifics from a variety of people who were both in and outside of my target market, such as what genres were listened to and read by different ages, and what current magazines are most popular with readers at the moment. It was also very useful to see how many people connect with music on a daily basis, which has encouraged me to go for a trendier magazine that regularly informs the readers about current events in the music industry. Also, by seeing the most popular magazines I have been able to find common aspects that make them successful in their markets through the magazine analysis. Overall, the responses from my questionnaire were extremely influential on what sort of magazine I was going to create in terms of genre and style.

Magazine analysis;

After using the questionnaire to identify what magazines were popular with readers, I analysed both Q and Billboard magazine to see what features they had on their covers, contents pages and double page spreads. The main point I took from the two magazines is that they were both quite similar in style, colour and language despite being in slightly different markets. This will greatly influence how I plan my magazine as I would like to try and emulate that sort of style which has made Q and Billboard favourites in their respective genres. I will also make sure to use the codes, conventions and features of music magazines that I have learnt about in order to keep my design realistic and appealing.

Product Placement;

In my product placement section, I looked at what sort of audience I wanted to target my magazine at, and ways in which I could create and market it to generate the most interest and sales. By finding out my target market, I can start to design my magazine with them in mind; for example I will use many bold, bright colours and large images of artists. I also researched into the major owners and distributors of current music magazines and what other media outlets they owned. By choosing Bauer Media, I can try to design my magazine in a way that compliments the rest of their magazine portfolio. Finally, I have used my research to identify a gap in the UK market that I can fill. To do this, when I design my magazine I must give it a strong brand and company image so that my magazine takes that section of the market and has a strong enough brand and selling point to prevent any competition.