Survey Analysis

Katie Farrow

Question: What is your gender?

For this question there were three answers available; Female, Male or other. 63.64% of the responses were FEMALE which is the highest result. This is vital as this could influence the content of the magazine. Providing for the female gender would be difficult as female and male genders have different interests. Looking thorough the results of this survey I will have to take that it is majority females answering the questions.

However, these results are similar which shows that my magazine will still have to be varied with the content that is unisex. If the magazine only catered for one gender there would be a decrease is consumer sales. Usually, magazines are aimed towards the male gender such as KERRANG and Q which heavily focus on genres such as rock and alternative.

Magazines which are catered towards the female gender tend to be themed around pop music. For example, Top of the Pops and We love POP. In these magazine there is content surrounding and free items include makeup and jewellery. Males are unlikely to purchase these magazine if they contain such gender biased content like this.

As a result I would have to create a magazine suitable for both genders which would contain unisex content- however to attract more female customers there would have to be more content which is appropriate for them.

Question: What is your age?

Here, there were several options available however, the age range was from 16-19. None of the other options were chosen. Although this is because the questionnaire was placed onto the student college website, so it was only available to students within the course. This result could be biased as there were no opportunities to hear the options and results of anyone over the age of 19. Taking this into account, I realized that I would have to provide for a young audience. An advantage of this is that the questions after this are the options of this age range (16-19) which is not that large a gap. The positives are that it really showed me the mind set and preferences of 16 to 17 year olds. The following survey was taken by these same people, which helps me as I understand the things which these ages like.

To improve the survey as a whole I could ask several people of all age ranges to take the questionnaire. However, this was also an advantage as it really showed me the mind set and preferences of 16 to 17 year olds. The following survey was taken by these same people, which helps me as I understand the range which these ages like.

Question: Which genres of music do you like?

This question is vital as the whole magazine would be centred on the most popular genre. This was Indie with 81% whereas in comparison the least popular answer was classical with 0%.

The top three were indie alternative and rock, these genres often feature in magazines together such as Q, KERRANG and MOJO. Luckily, I have past researched into these magazines and analysed there front cover etc.

Showing that indie is the most popular, it indicates that they can connect to the music they listen to. Researching into indie shows that many of these songs are old ranging from 1990 through 2000’s. This genre could be most popular as the majority of people who took the survey, who were 16-18, have grown up listening to this music along with their parents. It is proven that parent’s music choice reflects onto their child.

http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2013/09/05/219278386/turns-out-your-kids-really-did-love-that-music-you-played

“Earlier research has found that the music heard in late adolescence and early adulthood has the most impact and staying power through a person's life.”

Question: How often do you purchase a music magazine?

In this question I wanted to know how much content was consumed from one magazine which I thought I could take with ‘How often do you purchase a music magazine?’

This is based on the assumption that the magazines bought are released once a month. Some magazines which are published once a month are Q, MOJO and Mixmag. These magazines often contain lots of information and content compared to magazines which are released every week. As a result this singular magazine would be more expensive compared to a magazine released every week. This is because the more content included would cost around double the price of a magazine published each week.

I received two ‘other’ with an answer which were ‘I’d buy a magazine if it was online and relevant to my interests’ and ‘I buy on impulse depending on the content’ This question was very weak and did not really help my investigation into audience research. If I were to improve this question I would include more choices e.g.

- Once (A magazine that is published once a month)- Once (Any magazine I see fit)

Then I would be able to see if magazines are bought once a month as they are published that way or bought due to ‘suiting the consumers interests. Overall this question was flawed and did not supply sufficient evidence for my audience research but it did enable me to realize whether I would have to publish a ‘monthly’ magazine or ‘weekly’

Question: Which way do you purchase your music magazine?

Which was a magazine is available is highly important as I would have to ‘make my magazine available’ this way too. The highly popular method of attaining a magazine was through supermarket/store.

The least popular way was a subscription which indicates that the respondents prefer to attain their magazine through a store or online. Going into a store you are able to look through the magazine and decide upon whether you like the content before your purchase. Here, the consumer is able to personally feel the magazine and directly hold the product. Through a subscription the consumer isn’t given a direct look at the magazine as a whole, it is just emailed, or sent to their address. For an online bought magazine, a preview of the magazine is made readily available for the consumer. In this instance the customer is able to get extracts from the magazine which they would be buying.

Overall the most popular answer was buying from a store, which is likely to be because of you are able to look through the magazine before buying.

Question: Do you frequently purchase a certain music magazine?

The results of this question were pretty balanced. Both answers received around 50% for feedback which has no real differentiation between the two. The reason I included this question was to find out if magazines were thoroughly sought after by 1-18 year olds.

This indicates that many students do not care for a frequently released magazine. However, it also suggests that many do buy a certain magazine.

Frequently released magazines (once a week) include; KERRANG and NME. This was to be expected as the results were 50/50 so a high influencing magazine such as KERRANG, will be very popular and contribute to this. It is expected for avid music lovers to repeatedly buy a magazine which contained information about the genre they love.

Question: If yes, which magazine is it?

The most popular magazine was KERRANG with 38% whereas the least popular answers were MOJO and The Source.

Looking at these results I am able to show that many magazines are bought however, none which are contain ; classical, rap or pop. These were the most unpopular genres in question 3, this further reinforces that.

This indicates that 16-18 year olds choose music which is relatively old compared to pop. The most popular magazine which was ‘frequently bought’ was KERRANG which shows that this is a very popular magazine amongst 16-18 year olds even though that KERRANGs reader profile is a 29 year old.

Question: How much a month do you spend on magazines?

There were multiple answers available to choose on this question. Depending on the price given I was able to guess what

The most popular answer was nothing which shows how

However, the second most popular answer was £5.50-£10 which shows that the students who do buy magazines spend a large amount. Magazines which usually cost this amount include KERRANG MOJO and Mixmag (as said in q4) This also suggests that magazines were bought once a month also as the price is higher than that of a weekly released magazine.

This shows that many of the teens do spend a large amount of their small disposable income on magazines.

KERRANG: heavy metal/ ……………….rock.

PROG: progressive rock

NME: indie rock

Other; Q: alternative

The Source primarily focuses on the hip-hop genre and in addition to this is an American based magazine which is only scarcely available in the UK. From this I have deducted that this is the reason why no respondents have chosen this choice.

MOJO has frequent coverage of rock artists which many criticise. Rock wasn’t a genre which was extremely popular in question 3 which could be the reason that this magazine hasn’t been chosen as an answer.

Question: Do you buy your own magazine or lend someone’s?

This question showed that most of the respondents buy their own magazine instead of borrowing their friends or family. This question was not essential to the survey however, it gave a good insight into how the magazines were acquired.

Borrowing a magazine mean that no capital is forwarded toward the publisher as there has been no actual purchase by the person in question. At the average age of 16 many students have part time jobs with leaves them with a small disposable income. This indicates that even with this amount of money over 72% have managed to pay for their magazine

This provides me with information which is suitable for the price point when tied in with the question above. This will be needed if I want to find out the desired and estimated price for my magazine.

Question: What content do you like in magazines?

This question was pivotal within the questionnaire as my magazine will focus on the most popular answer. This was articles, which means that I will have to create a solid set of features or write-ups to be in my magazine. As the most popular answer was articles it shows that the people who answered my survey are mature. This is reinforced by the fact that none of the chose the answer ‘free items’

Free items are usually seen in children’s magazines as the younger audience is persuaded by this to buy the magazine. Examples of these are;

In magazines such as KERRANG and MOJO their articles have a lot of content about their features and even smaller interviews. In turn, this means that I will have to include content which does not primarily focus on images. As the chosen answer was articles, my article will have to include a lot of information about the artist/band.

This helps me when thinking about my magazine as I am able to include what the consumer wants in the magazine instead of guessing what they would want. Also doing this will maximize consumer sales for my magazine.