Research into a Potential Target Audience - Secondary Research

Kerrang! Magazine Reader Profile Research:
The name of the magazine I have researched is Kerrang!. The image on the left is a reader profile I found for the magazine, which gives statistics and general information about what readers of Kerrang! magazine are like, and what values they hold. I got this profile from a slideshare document, as Bauer Media's Kerrang! pack is unavailable, although the slideshare states that it's source is the publisher's website.

From this profile I found that the magazine has readers of an age range of 15-24, with 60% of them being male and 40% being female. This makes the median age 19. The profile describes the audience as being "media-savvy and marketing-adverse" and "active consumers of computer games, media and fashion".

It also describes the audience as being loyal and having their own personal style, as one of Kerrangs!'s previous Editor Ashley Bird says, "The Kerrang! readers are fashion conscious, but they have to completely trust a brand or label before buying into it. Once they do, though, they are incredibly loyal to it."

Kerrang! magazine also have quite a few multi-media platforms, such as K!Radio, K!TV and their website as well as their magazine. This means that there is plenty of accessibility for its audience and shows dedication to keeping its readers updated and happy. Bauer Media states that Kerrang! Radio targets men aged 15-34, "who want to be in touch with what is happening in the world of rock right now", and has 920,000 listeners a week.

It is clear that Kerrang! make an effort to engage with their readers, as according to Bauer Media, they have 745,000 Facebook fans, 583,000 Twitter followers and 78,000 Instagram followers.














Rocksound Magazine Reader Profile Research:

The name of the second magazine I have researched is Rocksound. The image on the left and below are from a reader profile for the magazine, which gives general information like circulation and the target audience. I also found this from slideshare, as unfortunately Bauer Media don't have the statistics, although I think this is the most reliable source I found. 

Rocksound publish a new issue of their magazine every 4 weeks, and have a target audience of 15-24 year olds giving it a median age of 21, although this part of the source doesn't specify in terms of gender. Rocksound is available at quite a wide range of stores, making it relatively easily accessible to its audience, as does the fact that it has multi-media platforms similar to Kerrang!'s. The platforms Rocksound has are their website, their newsletter that readers can sign up to receiving, and many social medias such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter to name a few. This means that if readers can't get the magazine, they can still stay up to date with the magazine via the website or via social media.

Rocksound describe their audience as young, fashionable, and loyal to bands and their music. This part of the source does identify the gender of their audience, and states that it is 59% female and 41% male. This is practically the opposite of Kerrang! magazine who have 60% male and 40% female.  

The profile also states that Rocksound are "achieving even more cut-through in a crowded marketplace". This could mean that they believe they fill a gap in the market, and the quote from the lead singer of the popular band Bring Me The Horizon, Oli Sykes, backs this up: "They've always focused a lot more on the music, not the gossip." This implies that Rocksound's values lie more in the area of informative news and interviews with bands rather than speculation or 'gossip', and aim to reflect these values in their magazine to keep their readers happy. This is something Kerrang! works towards too by what I've seen on their reader profile, and I think it is a value all magazines should hold because ultimately, it is the audience that supports the magazine and it's the demand and interactivity of the audience that keeps it going. For this reason, I will try to reflect this, and the conventions I have seen, when I am creating my final production.


How Will This Research Affect My Ideas?

In my research I found that most magazines aim to reflect their audience's interests (such as fashion  and music) and the values they hold in order to keep the audience happy and engaged. The magazines often fill a gap in the market, such as Rocksound being about just music and news rather than speculated gossip.

Although Kerrang! and Rocksound magazine both have the same target audience of 15-24 year olds, I think I will choose a similar age range for my final production as it seems that rock and metal magazines are most popular with them. For my target audience, I don't think I will aim for any particular gender because I don't want to make my magazine look stereotypical or geared towards one gender only and therefore limit my potential audience reach.

In terms of imagery and font ideas, I think I will produce a magazine cover that has quite a bright and bold colour scheme, but not too contrasting, and I will make sure that my images convey the genre of rock/metal by choosing appropriate conventional settings and subjects in the photos I take.