Question 2 - How does your product engage with an audience and how would it be distributed as real media text?
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Script To ensure that my product would correctly engage with my audience I first looked at Audience Profiling. This is where both the demographic group and psychographic group are examined. The demographic group for my magazine is typically young to middle aged female adults, more specifically 18-35 age range, and social groups A, B, C1 (who range from the upper middle class down to the lower middle class). This is because typically this age group is most interested in fashion and lifestyle trends. My magazine appeals to these groups as they tend to enjoy the enlightened insight that it offers, whereas the psychographic group are people who share a common interest in lifestyle and fashion. It would most strongly appeal to people in the mainstream category, (as my magazine would offer the security for people who may be insecure about their fashion or lifestyle choices) and the aspirer category (as my magazine would appeal to those who are image and style orientated). As a secondary audience my magazine may also apply to the success category, as it is a high end fashion and lifestyle magazine.
The next stage was to look at targeting my audience, which I did by researching, analysing and deconstructing magazines with a similar genre to my own, such as Vogue. By doing this I was able to single out the typical codes and conventions which would entice my audience, for example, the 'house style' of the magazine. Many of these codes and conventions that I learnt about in this process, I went on to incorporate in my own magazine, throughout the cover page, contents page and the article page.
After this, I looked at how the audience are positioned and how they respond to the media text. I looked at the 'Uses and Gratifications' theory (Blumler and Katz). I believe that my magazine would fit into the 'Informed and Education' category, as the aim of my magazine is to inform and educate its readers on the latest lifestyle and fashion trends. 'Entertainment' is another category that my magazine would be in. My magazine would inform and educate my readers, but it would do so in an entertaining way, which makes the audience far more likely to read it. 'Identity' would be the third category in which my magazine would also be placed. I believe this to be the case, as my readers would identify with the people who are featured on the magazine, namely strong and independent women, who are interested in high fashion and quality of lifestyle.
Another theory that I thought it was important to understand was audience response (devised by Stuart Hall). The theory looks at the three different ways in which the audience respond to the text. There is Dominant reading, Negotiated reading, and Oppositional reading. The main audience will have the dominant approach. In order to gain these dominant readers, I followed many of the typical codes and conventions of a magazine cover, contents page and article. For example, on my cover page my masthead is at the top in simple, bold and easy to read text, which fits in with the norm of a masthead. This means that they would correctly decode my magazine, as well as agreeing with it. My secondary audience may have a Negotiated reading, meaning that they would partially agree with what they are reading.
In order to gain an idea of how and where I would sell my own magazine, I researched the methods used to sell and promote other magazines of a similar genre. Once again I focused my research on Vogue, however this time looking at the marketing and promotional side. I deepened my research to include the ABC (Audit Bureau of Circulations) site, in order to gain the most reliable data possible, as to how many copies were sold. I broke that down further into Digital and Print copies.
My own magazine, Elegance, would be based in the UK; however it would also be online in digital format from anywhere in the world. The magazine could be bought from the shelf of any shop that sells magazines. When designing my magazine, I planned for the off the shelf sale, by placing the majority of my sell lines on the left hand side. However, when I came to make my magazine I realised that this would not be feasible, and consequently scrapped the idea.
If the customer already had a subscription then there would be a subscribers' edition. This is where you don't put any of the sell lines on the magazine because there is simply no point, you have already sold the magazine. Another reason for not putting the sell lines on is that not having the sell lines makes the cover much more aesthetically pleasing to look at, consequently the annual subscribers prefer not to have the sell lines.
My magazine would have a lot of cross media integrated throughout. For example, it would team up with fashion companies which would be featured on the cover. This would increase brand awareness throughout the general public. There would also be all the social media, such as Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat and Instagram etc… accounts that come with any major company. The main online hub would be the website, which would let the reader access everything about my magazine. Adding on to the social media presence, there would be apps for both Android and Apple devices, ensuring that wherever you are, you would be able to access the e-magazine.