Analysis of Questionnaire Results

To find out more about what makes people interested in and buy magazines, I decided to create a questionnaire that will help me when it comes to creating my music magazine. Each member of our group asked a total of ten people so altogether we had a sample of thirty. These thirty people were from our chosen target audience. I will now analyse the findings from my questionnaire. I asked questions relating to the general appearance and features of the magazine, the contents page and what a magazine should involve.

The first question that I asked on my questionnaire was ‘When purchasing a magazine, what influences you to buy it?’ After analysing my results for this question I found out that the main influence for people to buy a magazine is the cover stories. This information will help me when I design my front cover because I now know that my cover stories have to be of interest to my target audience. The least popular answer was free gift, which could be because most magazines don’t give away free gifts anymore and readers care more about what is in the inside of the magazine.

To find out about the price I should charge for my music magazine I asked two questions related with the price of the magazine. The first question I asked was ‘Does price influence your choice of magazine?’ I found out that most people are influenced by the price of a magazine. I will need to consider this when I advertise the selling price of my magazine on the front cover. The second question I asked to gain a better understanding of which price to charge for my music magazine was ‘How much are you willing to pay for a magazine?’ The most popular answer was £2-£3, this could be an advantage for me when I come to pricing my magazine because from research I have carried out I have found that some music magazines can be more expensive than normal magazines.

To help me when I design my front cover I asked the question, ‘Do you prefer a simplistic or detailed front cover design?’ The most popular answer was detailed. I think this could be because when purchasing a magazine, consumers are attracted to magazines that look interesting and fun; which normally mean that the designs have to be very detailed. I think that people might not like simplistic designs because they might look a bit boring. I will consider this information when I design my front cover to make it appeal to my chosen age group.

To help me further when I have to design my front cover for my music magazine, I asked ‘Does colour influence your choice of magazine?’ The majority of participants answered yes. This tells me that the colours on my front cover have to be bright to create a fun connotation. Having bright colours on the front cover of my music magazine would mean that it would stand out and attract consumers eyes and make them more likely to want to read it.


To show how often I should release a copy of my music magazine I asked the question, ‘How often do you purchase a magazine?’ The most popular answer was weekly. By gaining this information I can decide how often I will release my magazine. I will either release it weekly, or fortnightly.

To gain information and inspiration about and for my contents page I asked questions like, ‘Do you always read the contents page?’ I found that people in my chosen age group very rarely read the contents page. This could mean that when I design the contents page for my music magazine I should make it interesting so readers would want to read it.

In some magazines there is an Editor’s letter which is normally found on the contents page. To decide whether I should involve an Editors letter in my magazine I asked the question, ‘Do you read the Editor’s letter?’ I found out from the people that I asked that they sometimes read the Editor’s letter or some don’t at all. This makes me think whether I should put I Editor’s letter in my magazine or what I could put in the letter that would make it more appealing.

To decide what to have as my main cover stories and what to include and advertise in my magazine I asked the participants, ‘What is the first thing you turn to in a magazine?’ The most popular answers among my chosen age group were celebrity interviews, celebrity gossip and competitions. This information will help me to decide what to include on my double page spread, at the moment I am most likely to complete a celebrity interview. This has also given me inspiration on what my contents page should include. I will definitely be including competitions. The least popular answer for this question was horoscopes which make me less likely to include them in my contents page.

By completing this analysis of my questionnaire I have gained a better understanding of my target market and what makes them want to read a magazine. I will look back at this information when I create my magazine so that I can be sure that my music magazine will appeal to my target market.