My Evaluation - 5) How did you attract/address your audience?

I have tried to attract my audience in many different ways, one of the ways I have attempted to attract my audience is by including two additional incentives. An additional incentive is a free give-away, and I have chosen to give away two pots of nail varnishes to try and attract my audience to the magazine.

I have also advertised JLS concert tickets on the front cover of my magazine. I have done this because JLS are a very popular boy band of the moment and the majority of my audience adore JLS. The advert promotes that the consumer can win the tickets, and this is how I will get the consumers to engage with my magazine, this would be a form of synergy.

The model on my front cover identifies with my audience, because she is female, she is young, and she is pretty. This makes my model identify with my audience because they are also female, they are young and they too are pretty. Although obviously I haven’t met any of the consumers of my magazine I know that all young girls are pretty in their own way. Furthermore my model Rose isn’t the average size zero model that all the girls get shown throughout every magazine that they read. This helps Rose identify with the young girls because not all young girls are small and skinny, especially at the age of what my demographic is. Most young girls carry ‘puppy fat’ so it is nice to show the young girls more curvaceous models. 

There is also a Facebook page that the consumers can become a fan of. This helps my audience not only interact with my magazine but it will help the audience interact with each other. Along with the Facebook like page there will also be a website that the consumers can log on to frequently and there will always be updates, on whom the editors have met and who will be appearing in the magazine soon. The magazine will be full of competitions that the consumers will hopefully get involved in, which will therefore get them to engage with the website and the magazine. I also have a letters page within my magazine which will give the readers a chance to contribute to the magazine. This helps the consumers feel as though they are part of something. Obviously as the consumers are only kids there is parental control throughout the Facebook like page.

Another way I have tried to attract my audience is by relating my magazine as a need compared to by Maslow’s hierarchy of needs triangle. This is part of the ‘self-actualization’ section of the triangle. This is the sector that illustrates that we need dreams and lifestyles that we aspire too. I have attempted to create dreams and lifestyles that my readership will want to aspire too. This will therefore make my demographic more likely to buy my magazine because they will feel like it is a need.  

Another way I have tried to attract my audience is through the theory of uses and gratifications; this theory explains why we use the media. I have tried to attract my audience by entertaining them, by providing my audience with information, by promoting social interaction and by presenting the idea of personal identification.

I have tried to entertain by including pictures and an article for my readership to read. The article also contains information surrounding Rose my artist and model on the front page of my magazine. I have also included a fact file about Rose thus resulting in certain facts being informed to the audience. I have included the link for the magazine’s website and for the magazine’s Facebook page. There is also a link on Rose’s double page spread of where to find more pictures of Rose, the rest of her touring dates. This comes under the social interaction and the entertainment value. In the 21^st century we use the media in an interactive way, known as web2.0. This enables user driven content – known as exchange, the audience can create their own little films, songs, lyrics, poems, pictures etc based on the magazine or something featured in the magazine. The idea is that the audience are no longer seen as a passive recipient of a text, they are now able to engage with the product for a long time after the magazine has already been brought out. Although my demographic is a young demographic, most of them have a Facebook account, if a member of the demographic then update their status discussing an article or a picture from the magazine they will be exchanging information about my magazine.

The magazine also presents the ability to escape from everyday problems and routine, this is by reading Rose’s article. Because the article is split between ‘questions and answers’ it could be seen that the person reading the article is asking the questions so therefore is interviewing the famous person which is something that doesn’t happen every day – this is why the reader is able to escape from their day to day routine. Personal identification enables the reader to find themselves within the texts, this could be while reading Rose’s answers as to what she likes to watch, what she likes to eat etc.

 

I have also created a TV music channel in order to try and entice a bigger audience, this could be seen as another form of horizontal integration.