Evaluation 4

Who would be the audience for your media product?

My target audience research was vital in my magazine planning. From the start, I knew that I wanted my target audience to be fans of my music genre, which was a mod genre. I had to aim my magazine at my target audiences so that they could enjoy and be interested in my music magazine. My main target audience is for young teenagers, male and female, aged 18-30. However, the content of my magazine could appeal to people aged 45+ who wanted to relive their mod days and find out more about the mod culture.

In my magazine planning, I created a mood board which had various images of the type of clothing my target audience would wear, the type of music they would listen to and their interests - you can find this mood board on my planning pages. Here is some more images of the type of bands my target audience would be interested in. I specifically chose 'The Who' and 'The Purple Hearts' as these are two bands stereotypically known and associated with the mod genre, they are the type of band that if people were asked to thing of the mod genre, these are the type they would think of.
I didn't need to research the type of bands that my target audience may listen to as I myself have an interest in this type of music and knew these bands already.

Although my magazine is a music magazine, I have broadened my ideas and thought about more tastes of my audience - such as what kind of clothing they like, their general interests and the type of television programmes etc. that they might be interested in. One item of clothing that I thought of straight away was the parka coat. This is a common item of clothing that I myself have seen members of my target audience wearing, it is a popular fashion statement for people interested in my music magazine genre and is commonly associated with mods. As well as this, I knew another popular clothing item was loafer shoes. Although these type of shoes are more traditionally mod and not as popular in todays age, I feel they represent and are symbolic of my target audience well as they clearly express the genre of my magazine.
As a result of knowing the types of clothing my audience may like, I was able to establish some shops that they may be inclined to purchase from. I thought of shops such as Officers Club and H&M as well as vintage shops. The reason for thinking of these shops is because there are many similarities between the stock of these shops and what the population of my target audience might be interested in.

Not only have I thought about music and clothing tastes for my target audience, I have thought about the type of television programme they may watch. This was a more difficult concept to think about as there are so many television programmes and this is not as such related to a music genre and therefore, it is more difficult to think about stereotypical tastes of a television programme.  Overcoming this, the type of programme that I thought my audience may be interested in is shows such as Skins and The Inbetweeners as well as music channels and documentaries. I have narrowed my thoughts down to these few programmes as they don't neccessarily relate to my music genre however, they relate to the teenage male and female target audience. I know from my own experience that these are a few shows that teens might be interested in as they are youthful and humorous.

As well as these common aspects and interests, I wanted to attract my target audience through the use of my images. The image shown here is how I would expect a stereotypical audience reader to look. The hair of my model is trendy however, resembles a mod style with the slight quiff going on. My model is wearing a Harrington jacket which is a casual piece of traditional mod clothing, however, it is not as well known as the parka coat as the Harrington isn't as established but it is still significant of my genre. The general body language of my artist is relaxed and calm, this is the type of person I want to read my magazine as they can relax and feel a part of it if they are able to relate to the artists featured. In my second imag, the model looks quite intelligent and youthful as he plays the guitar. One of the interests I expect to have of my target audience is playing guitar or some form of instrument; particularly as the guitar is a symbolic icon of the music mod genre. I wanted both my images to represent my target audience and I feel I have successfully done this as they appear on the same scale as who I want my target audience to be and as a result of this, this will hopefully encourange them to purchase my magazine.

This typical audience member is likely to buy my magazine as it contains a lot of music information on the known 'mod' bands and artists. This will interest the reader as not many magazines specialise in this genre and therefore this stereotypical member is likely to buy the magazine as it is focusing on their music interests. Also, they are likely to buy the magazine as the magazine is cheap; the target age group of the magazine is quite young and the youth may not be able to afford high prices for a magazine so will be inclined to buy cheaper most cost effective magazine.