Evaluation Question 5: How Does Your Magazine Appeal To Your Target Audience?

    To attract my audience I incorporated the ‘essence’ of my target social group into things such as graphology, phonology and choice of cover lines and features. I have mentioned before that fans of Rock and Metal are known stereo typically to be disruptive and are often featured in the news relating to violent stories, such as the seaside riots in Brighton or general deaths related to the music genre (for participation in activities such as moshing). I kept this quality in mind when creating my magazine ‘CLASH’.

  For my font choices I used many different varieties that represented destruction, the font used for my masthead was one that I found on a website called DaFont.com and it looks like it has been eroded away, this represented my theme well. Some other fonts used also reminded me of scribbling or graffiti which also represents rebellion and anarchy, like the fonts used on my contents page and for the title/pull out quotes on my double page spread. Along with looking like they have been distorted in some way I also made sure these fonts were engaging and loud, representing members of my target audience further with their stereotypical loud personalities and daring appearances. There is a lot of current taboo language that is used sometimes to describe my target audience, such as ‘Greeb’ and ‘Emo’ because of their physical appearance and choice of clothing. These terms can sometimes be offensive but they are useful to take into account how my social group is perceived by others, Rock fans are often judged for not caring what they look like and being scruffy. This helped me in choosing fonts as they could look messy and distorted and this linked to the target audience well.

  When choosing a name for my magazine I kept these ideologies relating to my target audience in mind and eventually decided on ‘CLASH’. This was to play further on the idea of destruction and anarchy with my magazine and it is also an example of onomatopoeia making it appealing to the ear. Furthermore, some may interpreted this masthead choice as relating to the Rock band ‘The Clash.’

  For colours I made sure to use bright and loud tones with a contrast of white and black. Black is often associated with the Rock genre as a lot of Rock music is dark and ‘scary’ with the added connotations of dark clothing, make-up and hair styles. Also, I tried to stick to a main colour scheme of roughly 4 colours to keep the whole of the magazine looking consistent. The other colours I chose were yellow and red, these colours stood out against the white and black and are very eye catching and loud. This again attracts my audience as this relates to their outgoing personalities, and also red holds connotations of rudeness, rebellion and violence. The colour scheme differed slightly when it came to my double page spread, and instead of the loud cherry red I had been using throughout the texts I decided to use a more subtle plum colour. This was to go with my photography and also the music genre (hard rock) of my fictional band 'DEADRUNNERS.' This appealed to my target audience, as it communicated the diversity of the genre and liberal aspects to the collectivity of different bands with different genres and styles that make up the contents of my magazine. This idea also relates to the audience themselves, as my research has shown that fans of the diverse genre also widely differ in age, gender and characteristics. Furthermore, the colour is slightly more pink, and can be interpreted as reflecting the femininity of the model. Despite having a blurred representation of gender (I have explained how certain elements have given her a little more masculinity), the pinker colour highlights her gender well and I think added a nice touch.

    I also researched into other magazines that attract a similar audience to mine; they used many cover lines with news from the Rock industry such as new albums, tour dates, interviews and general news stories. Furthermore I noticed that one of the most successful ways of attracting this audience was to promote free giveaways, gifts and competitions with merchandise and instruments linked to this genre. This is because my core target audience of younger fans of the genre have been known to be interested in pull out posters for room decoration, possession of merchandise and other items that express what type of music and hobbies they are interested in. Therefore, this was a crucial element to include in my texts that would thoroughly engage the audience. Specific examples of this technique used was my advertisement for the issue being a ‘poster special’ for the Rock/Heavy Metal festival DOWNLOAD. As I have mentioned before DOWNLOAD is exclusively a Rock festival and my audience would be very interested in it, it may even have been an event they attended, which enhances the chance of them wanting to purchase the magazine in hope that they are included in one of the images. Also, on the contents page I promoted a competition to win a Drum Kit signed by Travis Barker, a successful Drummer in the Pop/Rock band Blink 182. These were the only competition/giveaway cover lines I used because even though they may be the most appealing factor to the audience, I knew that news about bands was the most important elements to the magazine.

      Also, I made sure the model I used for the front cover and double page spread of my magazine looked like she could fit into my social group as both a fan and a star. This is because musicians of Rock music also love the genre themselves and often come from similar back grounds as my audience. What I mean by this is that bands are normally self-created and sometimes self-taught as opposed to be being trained or manufactured through an agency, this fact comes from the DIY movement and Punk eras that occured over the timeline and development of the rock genre. I also thought this was a crucial factor to make my model relatable from the reader’s perspective; I kept this in mind when creating her interview also.  To enable that this idea was established, I researched how models similar to my own were represented and portrayed in similar products to mine before my photoshoot. This helped me decide what kind of look to give my model, and how to photograph her. She wears dark colours that my genre is associated with, loud edgy jewellery that feature spikes and metal (conveying toughness) and a strong, tough facial expression and pose. 

    In conclusion, I feel that my magazine both represents and appeals to the chosen target audience well. I have used factors that represent my social group both in appearance and personality traits, and used this is engage my readers and show that CLASH magazine is clearly written for fans of Rock music. I have also looked at how the audience will be attracted to the magazine with free gifts, news and graphological features.