Primary Audience Research - Questionnaire & Analysis

Primary Audience Research – Questionnaire & Results Analysis

The Questionnaire

    1)     What age are you?

__________

   2)     What is your gender?

___________________

   3)     How often do you purchase magazines?

[   ]                   [   ]                    [   ]                    [   ]

Always      Most of the time      Occasionally      Never

   4)     What magazine genre do you usually purchase?

Celebrity	TV	Health	Sports	Cars	Science	Technology	Music	Other

   5)     If you were to buy a music magazine, what genre of music would you want to be featured?

Rock	Metal	Classical	Hip-Hop	Rap	Charts Music	Pop	Alternative	Other

   6)     What topics would you be interested in reading about in a music magazine (not considering the music genre)?

Gigs/Tours Information	News	Band Gossip	Interviews	Merchandise (clothes, jewellery, etc).	Music Reviews	New & Upcoming Bands

   7)     What do you consider a reasonable price for a magazine?

£0.00-£1.20	£1.21-£2.00	£2.01-£3.20	£3.21+

   8)     What features or topics would you want to see in a new music magazine?

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

   9)     How often do you purchase a magazine solely because of the celebrity/band/actor/actress featured on the cover in the main image?

   [   ]                      [   ]                      [   ]               [   ]

Always      Most of the time      Occasionally      Never

   10)  What kind of adverts would you be interested in seeing in a music magazine? (for example: band      merchandise, fashion, upcoming albums, etc)

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

   11)  How likely are you to subscribe to a magazine?

             [   ]                   [   ]                [   ]              [   ]

Almost definitely       Likely to       Possibly       Never

   12)  How likely are you to enter competitions you see in a magazine?

             [   ]                   [   ]                [   ]              [   ]

Almost definitely       Likely to       Possibly       Never

13)  How often do discounts, offers, free or exclusive items influence your choice when buying a magazine?

   [   ]                   [   ]                        [   ]                [   ]

Always      Most of the time      Occasionally      Never

The Results:

I conducted my survey in-person and asked 16 people of varying ages, but mostly people of my own age group and slightly above as my target audience is ages 15-25. The median age from the data I gathered was 18. I surveyed 7 males and 9 females. My results were:

1) Age:  Median age: 18

2) Gender: Male - 7
                  Female - 9

3) How often do you purchase magazines?
    Always: 5

    Most of the time: 4

    Occasionally: 6

    Never: 2

4) What magazine genre do you usually purchase?

     Celebrity - 2
     TV - 3
     Health - 0
     Sports - 2
     Cars - 3
     Science - 1  
     Technology - 1    
     Music - 4    
     Other - 0

5) If you were to buy a music magazine, what genre of music would you want to be featured?

    Rock - 3
    Metal - 3
    Classical - 1 
    Hip-Hop - 1
    Rap - 2
    Charts Music - 4
    Pop - 2 
    Alternative - 0
    Other - 0

6) What topics would you be interested in reading about in a music magazine (not considering the            music genre)?
   
     Gigs/Tours Information - 2
     News - 3
     Band Gossip - 1
     Interviews - 4
     Merchandise (clothes, jewellery, etc) - 2
     Music Reviews - 1
     New & Upcoming Bands - 3

7) What do you consider a reasonable price for a magazine?
    £0.00-£1.20  - 2
    £1.21-£2.00  - 7
    £2.01-£3.20  - 5
    £3.21+ -  1

8) What features or topics would you want to see in a new music magazine?
     Most Common/Interesting Answers:
     Advice column – advice given by music artists

     Concert reviews, album reviews

     
9) How often do you purchase a magazine solely because of the celebrity/band/actor/actress featured       on the cover in the main image?

    Always: 2

    Most of the time: 5

    Occasionally: 6

    Never: 3

10) What kind of adverts would you be interested in seeing in a music magazine? (for example: band                      merchandise, fashion, upcoming albums, etc)

             Most Common Answers: Merchandise, fashion, upcoming albums

      

      11) How likely are you to subscribe to a magazine?

            

             Almost definitely: 3

       Likely to: 2

       Possibly: 7

       Never: 4

12) How likely are you to enter competitions you see in a magazine?

       

       Almost definitely: 4

       Likely to: 5

       Possibly: 6

       Never: 1

13) How often do discounts, offers, free or exclusive items influence your choice when buying a               magazine?

      Almost definitely: 6

      Likely to: 5

      Possibly: 3

      Never: 2

Analysis

From these results, I found out some very valuable information from my target audience, although I did ask quite a few people slightly above this range, but I think this was a good decision because it guaranteed a wider variety of opinions. In my questionnaire I tried to be specific and made sure to include questions that would get me both quantitative and qualitative answers, such as questions that asked for data such as what genre of magazine they usually purchase along with questions that asked for more opinionated answers, such as what features they may look for in a new magazine. These types of questions especially will be the ones to help me to decide on key features and articles in my magazine so that I can maximize my potential reach.

The key information I found were the similarities I saw in answers, even though there was difference in age, as this will help me to narrow down the interests of the majority of the target audience. For example, from question 13 I found that discounts, offers, and free or exclusive items, for the most part, do influence a potential buyer's choice when purchasing a magazine, as 14 out of 16 answered either: 'almost definitely', 'likely to', or 'possibly', meaning only 2 people said it would never influence their choice, and can therefore be disregarded from the majority. From this I can see that free exclusives, or freebies, can most often tempt a reader in their decisions when buying a magazine, and my product would probably benefit from advertising one. For this reason, I will be including on my front cover an exclusive such as a free CD or other perk, exclusive to readers of my product only.

Other findings that will influence my magazine product include the answers for question 8, where I asked what features my audience would look for in a new music magazine. The most interesting answers I got for this question were: 'Advice column – advice given by music artists'. I find this interesting because after my studies in existing music magazines, I don't think it is a very common feature, and there is therefore an opportunity for me to break a convention and make my product more unique. I will definitely keep this in mind when designing my product. The other common answers I got to this question were 'concert and album reviews'. I will make sure to include these in my designing and production stages, as they were most requested.

Overall, this questionnaire has helped me a lot in getting to know my target audience first-hand by collecting my own primary data, and I think it will influence my choices in the design and production process a lot as I can now tailor my magazine to their interests more precisely.

Masthead Research

Q Magazine’s masthead is a single letter rather than a name that may connote a genre, which is quite unconventional compared to magazines such as Rocksound or Kerrang!. However, it is still similar as it is simple but eye-catching. The masthead is in bold white font against a red background, with the catch line “Discover great music” in capitals underneath. This implies that the magazine features a lot of new bands or bands that aren’t very mainstream, making the shade of red chosen in this sense look quite sophisticated and classic.

Having a single letter rather than a word may work in their favour as it most likely won’t have any main images that overlap onto it, meaning that their masthead will be easy to spot and will stand out against everything else on the page. It would also be easy for the audience to see and recognise, helping them create a more iconic brand identity amongst all the others.


NME’s masthead is similar to Q’s in how it is quite short, and the colours black, red and white are typical of these types of magazines. The masthead is in bold capital letters with a white outline to help it stand out on the page against other fonts or images.

There isn’t much to communicate the genre to the audience other than the colours, although when said phonetically “N-M-E” sounds like the word “enemy”, which sounds quite aggressive and these kinds of words are often used by magazines to connote genres such as rock/metal. This may or may not be NME’s intention, but I still find it quite significant in seeing how magazines use different codes and conventions to convey themes.

Kerrang!’s masthead is in a bold white font against a black background, with little letter spacing. I think they may have chose white for their masthead as this means it is easily changeable if they want a certain colour scheme for that issue without readers thinking much of it, and it won’t contrast too much with the rest of the page or main images used. It is in capital letters, which seems to be common for this genre of magazine. There is an addition of scratch/crack lines going through it, which could be to represent the genre of rock/metal music, but also makes Kerrang!’s logo more their own and different from others.

 

Rocksound’s logo is in a bold white font and capital letters. Their logo also has what looks like a stamp mark on the R, with the text “Rocksound TV” around it. I think that like Kerrang!, Rocksound have used an extra graphic here to give them more of a brand identity and to make it more unique. The name itself, Rocksound, connotes immediately the genre of music the magazine features to the target audience.