How did you attract/address your audience?

How did you attract/address your audience?

I used a variety of different techniques to attract my audience in a number of different ways.  The use of language was an important factor I wanted to address. By using different language I could relate to the audience on a more personal level of intellect. So I decided to use abbreviation and short hand text to make the text more interesting, casual and personal. I felt by doing this would immediately attract my target audience and would support addressing the social group, and with my target audience being ages 16-24. I feel this connected well with the social status and group. I also felt punctuation was an important factor as part of my use of language by using exclamation marks I created an emphasis on the puffs making a bigger impact on the story line, this draws in all audiences by exaggerating and emphasising the puff’s, pull out quotes and titles.

The font was another important factor I needed to consider. I felt that making a bold, clear font would create a lot more impact from being symbolic, but furthermore I wanted to create an unconventional edge to the font. So by looking at many different types of fonts on ‘Picnik’ and ‘DaFont’ I decided on choosing different types of font for different puffs on the front cover to create more impact. I felt that by using different font types I could achieve a more eye catching effect which would draw attention to the magazine. Colour was a big aspect of the font, as the theme colours throughout the magazine were black, white and grey. I decided to use white text against a grey background, I felt the contrast between white and black is a harsh contrast, giving the effect making it stand out off the page. From looking at my fonts I feel that the white against black was a very good contrast rather than black against white, I feel white against black was a bigger contrast; I’m also very glad the different styles of fonts complimented each other well. Although if I were to do it again I would have added original font such as ‘Arial’ so the magazine impression doesn’t appear too crowded.

The content of the magazine is one of the up most importances. From my audience research I became apparent to the fashion trends, shop’s, music, style, food and everything that involves my target audience and the magazines social group. So the content was at the most critical thing as I needed to contain as much as their interests majority music but also with advertising, discount and competition. So to attract the audience I included as much as their interests as possible, and through surveying discovered which music content such as interviews or festival reviews, which were most popular and critical in the magazine. The content of the double page spread and the contents page, were made full a vibrant with lots of information. I used the pictures as a visual interaction with the audience other than using words. For the contents I used rhetorical questions and statements misleading the audience or intriguing them into wanting to no more, so this navigated them through the rest of the magazine. I also used questions and answers in the interview that would interest the audience and involve them by using words such as ‘us’ and ‘we’, creating a personal connection between the audience and the magazine.

The images I used attracted my audience in I felt by the realism of the photos. I took the photos of the models while they were unconsciously aware they were being taken, I felt this gave a much more realistic approach. This also addressed the audience into the magazine’s genre and social group. The images portrayed the genre and the content of the magazine by taking photos while in movement, creating a realistic – live band effect; this supported the rock and indie genre because of the facial expressions and the costumes. The costumes and props within the images were of the upmost importance as they addressed the genre of the magazine, so by using casual yet fashionable clothing this attracted the reader to the type of magazine. I also used both male and female photography to attract both sexes to the magazine although due to the double page spread of an all cast male band, the magazine seems bias.

The masthead I chose was the main subject of catching the audience’s attention. To attract the reader I needed something that was bold; clear to read, and symbolic. By using a white font against the dark grey background created a contrasting match between colours making it stand out against the page. I also laid the masthead over the image of the model; I felt this made it much clearer to address the audience. The name ‘little stereo’ drew attention to the music magazine by having a masthead name relating to music, this also draws the reader’s attention to the fact it’s a music magazine. The font I found using ‘DaFont’ achieved the style and impression I wanted. ‘Extravaganza’ the font was rock and indie and attracted and addressed both sexes male and female. The masthead style was symbolic bold and all in uppercase creating a symbolic finish, I also felt the texture of masthead background with ‘paint splatters’ created a unique look that most magazines rarely achieve.

The layout of my magazine I wanted to keep conventional. I felt this was important as then the magazine is still unique but follows other magazine trends. The layout for the front cover was symbolic and original with the main image and puffs down the left and right side of the page. I used other features to make the magazine unique as explained before but by keeping to the conventional layout I felt we would have an instant target audience. The layout I created in my flat planning demonstrating different layers of images and text over images throughout the magazine. By creating indifferent layout for throughout the pages and making them all as individually different as possible created a much more interesting magazine to the reader. Although pages that were connected had similar layouts to continue navigating the reader through the magazine. Overall I feel my layout could have been a little less conventional to stand out against the other magazines however the flat planning layout demonstrates the creativity and originality put into the layout making it interesting for the reader.

I targeted my social group and male and female gender by using images, use of font, content, and use of language, layout, masthead and representations; to create a broad unisex magazine and a specific social group young adults and teens. By using both male and female in the images and unisex colour scheme are just some of the examples of how I make this a gender non bias magazine. Although unfortunately due to the double page spread of an all male cast band, all the models are male and can be looked upon as a bias magazine. For the social group representation I used young adults and teens in the pictures, addressing the audience that this magazine is for young people. The use of language was also a good conduct as a use of slang, exclamation marks, and short text addressed the audience in casual spoken language, attracting young people to the magazine. I felt that overall the social group was portrayed mainly by the use of images of other young models; I felt this really helped portray not only the genre but the target audience and the social group. However I do feel that my magazine could have been less bias, as the magazine is approached to seem more towards males, if I could change this I would have added more female images into the contents and front cover.

My research helped me target my audience by researching using the websites ‘FindYourTribe’ and my questionnaire. The research was the main impact on my decisions as I discovered the trends, places, events, music, food and more that young adults and teenagers are interested in. ‘FindYourTribe’ helped me to categorize and discover the potential types of teenagers and young adults for the indie/rock magazine. Doing this gave me an insight into their lifestyles and helped towards the advertising and content of the magazine. With all this included this attracts the target audience and addresses them as they are features of their lifestyle within the magazine; this then creates a more personal connection again between magazine and the reader leading to loyalty and popularity through the continuance of the magazine. This information all contributed to ways to target my audience, the information was integrated throughout the magazine, to relate to the audience and represent the magazines social group.