Results From My Questionnaire

I handed my magazine out to twenty of my peers, to create an understanding of what would make a successful magazine for that target audience. I asked a mixture of girls and boys, from different social groups, to make the feedback applicable for all the members of my intended audience.

 The most popular genre of music magazine was Pop Music, 62% . A general music magazine was also seen as a favourable choice, with 30% of people choosing that genre. From these results I can see that main-stream music was more favourable, than niche music types like Indie (Only got 8%). In order create a successful magazine, I need to choice a music type with the biggest support, in order to get as many copies sold as possible.

The next question I asked concerned the presentation of the cover image. I asked people whether they prefer a  solid colour background, or a photograph covering the front of the magazine. The feedback was a lot more split with this question with: 54% of people saying they wanted a photograph cover, and 46% said they preferred a colour background. I think this reflects that people appreciate well planned photographs, however the simplicity of using a plain background is also well supported. When it comes to actually making my magazine I will choose a background that fits best with the model, and styling.

I also asked about the presentation of the logo: whether the artist should be layered over the logo or  the logo layered over the artist. There was an overwhelming majority, with 69% of people deciding they prefer the artist layered over the logo. I think people choose this as they like the way the main feature has a relationship to the magazine. This technique also avoids blockiness, as layering makes the magazine look fluid.

The fourth question I asked was about colour schemes. I thought of colours of a range of colour that covered both the main cover image styling and possible text colours. My target audience was allowed to choice a maximum of 3 colours, so the percentages add up differently, however the results still show me the levels of popularity. The most popular colours were red (54%), blue (52%) and black (52%). Red and blue are primary colours, so I think people prefer the simplicity of these colours. Red is a colour that is used often in magazines, for example in Q, so I should consider trying to incorporate this colour into my magazine. Black (52%) and white (29%) were also popular selections, I will be using these colours for the cover story text on my magazine. I think the colours pink, purple, and blue are also colours to consider - they might be useful in reflecting a more feminine / passive mood. Yellow and green were unpopular colours for my audience, I think they make for difficult text reading and are rarely associated were music / branding of products.

I asked people what shot they liked most for a front cover picture too. The most popular response was a whole body shot, 54%. I think people favour the detail and level of professionalism a whole body shot has, and there is more variety of poses with this shot. Mid shots were also well supported, with 38%. I noticed that professionally this was a popular shot, because although there might be less detail - you can still create relevance to cover line stories.

Drawing of Key Figures

My next question concerned the contents of the magazine, I asked my target audience what stories they would like to see featured. Again I gave multiple choice for this question. The most popular choices were upcoming events (68%), interviews (65%), charts (50%) and celebrity gossip (43%). I think the nature of pop music is that the songs are generally disposable, and new songs are always being released, so I think this has been reflected in the 'what's in' type of articles. Articles which were less popular were: reviews, music gadgets and editorial. I think these articles are considered as 'additional', and not particularly convincing to a potential custumer when they first see the magazine.

Lastly I asked about whether my target audience would be interested in a slogan. 54% of my target audience said no, whilst 46% said yes. One of the member of my target audience commented that 'Slogans are cheesy' before writing no. Because of that, it it is evident from attitudes and figures, slogans are not a popular choice for my target audience.