Question 5

How did you attract/address your audience?

Following on from my last answer, as my magazine is aimed at such a niche group of people it was crucial that my magazine was well planned, using a range of techniques to appeal to my specific audience. I used a range of techniques which were used in other music magazines or as a generalization. I Achieved this through the use of images, language, logo/mastheads, colour etc.

House-theme:

In my house theme I have used soft and feminine colours, such as light blue,white and purple. These colours are very feminine and soft but are not too girly or young and are slightly more mature colours. I did not want to use red ,white or green as I saw these as much more masculine colours and this would not attract the right target audience. The colors were also quite fresh and young and neutral which is also a reflection of my target audience.

Logo:

My logo is a direct example of attracting my particular target market. The logo is singlehanddly the most important thing in the identity of a brand. Purple is a colour of royalty, this gives the logo a sense of superiority and influence. It is a mysterious colour, which is associated with both nobility and spirituality. The opposites of hot red and cool blue combine to create colour. It is believed that a purple room can boost a child's imagination or an artist's creativity which is a reflection on the kind of audience I am trying to attract- young aspiring artistic types. Deep or bright purples suggest riches while lighter purples are more romantic and delicate. Use redder purples for a warmer colour scheme or the bluer purples to cool down. I have used a medium tone of purple as it is fairly delicate and will appeal to females but I have not made it too much of a warm purple as I do not want to isolate those who are perhaps not "girlie girls". My magazine is aimed at a more cultured generation of women who are more spiritually and socially aware and who are interested in more than just superficiality.

Language: Another key way of attracting and enticing my audience was through the language on the front cover. I have used a variation of language techniques to engage and interest my readers for example:

I have used alliteration of the sound "ix" this makes the caption a little bit fun a more memorable. It would be too boring to read just one big long essay about what would be inside. This makes the information easier to digest, is more appealing to the reader and is a technique used through not just music magazines.

The use of imperatives also engages and attracted my audience such as "the best" "the quickest" "exclusive" "greatest" this corresponds to the audience that the magazine is the best, the quickest, the most exclusive and creates the magazine to be superior making people want to share in this and be the first to know and to have the best magazine. These words appeal to my market as they also aspire to achieve the best, the first etc.

In my interview I adopted a very colloquial, relaxed mode of address enabling my magazine to appear friendly which automatically draws in and appeals to my audience. As my target market is aimed at an niche of aspiring females I did not feel it was appropriate to use any swearing or vulgar language. I wanted to give my interview a more sophisticated style but which was still relaxed and casual. This again was in direct response to my target market who would perceive themselves as slightly more educated and respectable.

Images:

Another way that I have attracted my audience is, of course, through my images. From my research I found that the picture is perhaps the most important part of initially attracting an audience to a magazine. The image must have direct eye contact to engage the reader and must be unique and different in some way to make it stand out whether that be lighting, angle, or the pose or clothing.

In the photos my model is wearing simple but bold colours to ensure that she is the main subject of the magazine but is understated rather than "in your face". I put her in white to convey an idea of purity which is also reflected in her character through the interview. I created a likeable, friendly character who was very "girl next door type". This kind of character would appeal well to my target audience as she is easy to relate to. Women as a generalisation do not warm towards females who are too sexual or "out there" -they find them threatening. I wanted to create a character that would appeal to a broader range of people ,as men could also find this character endearing if they were to read the magazine.

Although I created this likeable character in my interview, I wanted to give her an idea of attitude to reflect the genre of music. The music genre of my magazine is indie/ alternative music and Charlotte's character music is an alternative form of electro- pop. Notoriously associated with this genre is Lady Gaga. Lady Gaga is reknowned for her wacky and quirky sense of style

and is part of the reason the media are so fasicnated by her. Her clothes and poses on mgazine covers, such as Rolling Stones relect the eccentric nature in Lady Gaga, which I also aimed to achieve in my magazine. I wanted her to have her own idenity not just a copy cat.

In order to achieve this I chose to dress Charlotte in a lace white top. I chose this, as lace is currently the "in thing" to be wearing and although musicans are very often trend setters they also conform to fashion of the moment. This is not the only reason I chose this clothing. Lace is also quite a understatedly sexy material and while it is not so raunchy that it would put my female target market off of her; it portrays an air of effortless sexiness of which many of the target audience would aspire to be. I tried a variation of outfits which were both edgy and feminine .As my target market is "aspirers" the type of icons who appeal to them would be those such as Kate Moss, Madonna, Lady Gaga and other strong independant female figures. They would not idenitfy with characters such as Jordan, WAGS, Kerry Katona who would sterotype these people as "common" and "cheap". The people who buy my magazine aspire to have class yet in a casual, youthful quirky way. To do this I used poses which had strong body language, suggesting attitude and independence and quirky mise en scene.