College Magazine Audience Research.

Why do we conduct audience research?

Audience research is necessary to find out the likes and dislikes of our target audience; Their emotions, beliefs, attitudes and knowledge, so that we can decide the best way to fulfil what they want in a magazine.

For my college magazine, I have conducted audience research with a questionnaire, using 6 questions asked to 7 males and 7 females between the ages of 16-19 in my college, to find out what they would like to see in a college magazine.

My audience research.

1. How many times a month do you purchase a magazine? (Closed)

2. What genre/s of magazine do you tend to purchase most? (Closed)

3. Name a magazine/magazines that you enjoy reading.

4. What features do you like most about this/these magazines? (Open)

5. How much are you willing to pay for a magazine? (Closed)

6. What would you like to see in a college magazine? (Open)

The questions I asked focussed on finding out the type of magazines people enjoy reading, and why. I did this so that I could find out what my audience would wish to see in the college magazine. By looking at other magazines that my audience are interested in, I can get a good idea of what will encourage them to buy.

I also asked how much each participant is willing to pay for a magazine. This would help me price my magazine in order to reach the largest portion of my target audience as possible.

The final question, ‘What would you like to see in a college magazine?’, is very important to my audience research as it is clear and concise. This means I can obtain a simple answer from my participants.

These questionnaires were handed out to 7 males and 7 females, in order to get a fair and unbiased view on what both genders want from a magazine. They used both Open and Closed questions in order to obtain both simple, analysable answers, and more complex, individual ones.

My questionnaires after completion.

My audience research.Gender Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5 Q6

P1 Male 1 Music Kerrang!Interviews with band members

£2.01-£3.00 News, Images

P2 Male <1 Entertainment OXM Freebies, articles >$4.00 College activities, News

P3 Male <1 Music, EntertainmentEmpire, Kerrang!, Rolling Stone Interviews, articles

£2.01-£3.00

College bands, College activities

P4 Male 2 Entertainment, Science New Scientist Articles£2.01-£3.00 College activities, News

P5 Male <1 Entertainment OXM News£1.01-£2.00 College activities, Images

P6 Male 2 Music Kerrang! Interviews, freebies£2.01-£3.00 College bands, News

P7 Male 1 Music, Entertainment Empire, PSM, Kerrang! Interviews, articles£2.01-£3.00 News, Images

P8 Female <1 Entertainment MYM Originality£1.01-£2.00 Anything

P9 Female 4 Music, Entertainment Empire, Kerrang! Information about events.£2.01-£3.00 News

P10 Female 3 Music, Gossip, Fashion Q, Look, CompanyReviews, Fashion information. >£4.00 Anything

P11 Female 2 Music, Gossip, Fashion Look, More, Reveal, OK! Fashion information.£2.01-£3.00 Quizzes, Images

P12 Female 1 Music NME Interviews, articles£1.01-£2.00

College bands, News, Images

P13 Female <1Music, Lifestyle, Gossip, Fashion Vogue, Heat, Elle, Grazia

Fashion information, Images >£4.00 College bands, Fashion

P14 Female 3Entertainment, Lifestyle, Fashion Look, OK!, Empire Interviews, Reviews, News

£2.01-£3.00

News, College activities, Images

Target Audience Interest.From my findings I can see that most of my target audience are interested in music. This can be seen by the genres chosen. Both males and females often chose music as one of the genre’s they tend to purchase most, with 9 of 14 participants. Males seemed more interested in Entertainment (Film and Gaming) magazines than females, though females seemed more interested in Fashion or Gossip magazines than males.

How much are they willing to pay?

My findings show that most people are willing to pay £2.01-£3.00 for a magazine, though some were willing to pay over this. This suggests that my target audience is in the ABC1 social grade. I will price my magazine in the middle of this range in order to appeal to the widest proportion of my target audience.

More than $4.00

£1.01 to £2.00

£2.01 to £3.00

3 3

8

Favourite Features.

My research shows that most of my target audience are interested in articles and interviews. Females are shown to be interested in fashion advice. Some people were attracted to a magazine by the freebies available, such as posters, cinema tickets, or free Starbucks. This shows that my college magazine could include offers for discount food in town or cinema deals.

College Magazine Features.

As can be seen from my audience research, many people are interested in college activities that may be available. My magazine could contain information on different types of enrichment courses, such as music courses or clubs that people could join.

Many of the participants were interested in college news. The magazine could contain articles written by students on various things that are happening around college, such as the introduction of a new subject building.

ConclusionUsing the findings from my audience research questionnaire, I can decide on which features would be most welcome in a magazine aimed towards this target audience.

My magazine will be priced at £2.50 as most of my participants specified £2.01-£3.00 as what they are willing to pay for a magazine. From my research I can also see that the interests between male and female students are varied: Males seemed more interested in entertainment, whereas females were often interested in fashion. This means I can have many different articles to appeal to both genders. I can use cover lines with more feminine/masculine fonts to advertise these articles for their respective gender. My magazine will be based mostly around college life, detailing college fashion, bands, enrichment courses and stories of other news around college.

Overall, I believe this task has helped me define my target audience, and what they want or expect from a college magazine. This will be beneficial in creating the cover and contents page for my magazine.