I wanted to find out about what people looked for in a magazine and what influenced them to buy one, therefore I felt it was necessary to create a questionnaire. Each member of my group gave the questionnaires to 10 people from our target audience. The questions that were asked related to the appearance of a magazine and what information should be included. The questions were about the front cover, contents page and double page spread of a magazine.
The first question was, ‘When purchasing a magazine what influences you to buy it?’ We gave the options of, ‘celebrity on the front, price, cover stories, free gifts and other.’ 50% said that the celebrity on the front influences those most to buy a magazine and 20% said the price persuades them. I think the option celebrity on the front was the most popular because people want to read about their favourite celebrities. They will be more inclined to buy a magazine which they can familiarize themselves with rather than a picture of someone they do not recognise. However cover stories were chosen by 40% so that is also quite important. I was going to focus more on having a celebrity on the front cover of my magazine but I would also make sure I had a few cover stories as well because I wanted to attract as many readers as possible.
I wanted to find out whether price influences someone to buy a magazine and how much they were willing to pay so my first question was, ‘does price influence your choice of magazine?’ My second was ‘how much are you willing to pay for a magazine?’ The answer to my first question gave me an even result as 50% voted yes and 50% voted no. Therefore the price of the magazine would be important because I had a young audience who would not be able to afford an expensive magazine. The most popular answer for my second question was that 80% are happy to pay £2-£3 for a magazine whereas only 10% want to pay £1-£2 and £3-£4 and no one was willing to pay £4+. Therefore the price I would set my magazine would be £2.50 because it was an affordable price for the young teens and would be cheaper than most magazines. Consequently it may have influenced them more to buy my magazine, as people would prefer to pay less.
Sub sequentially I asked, ‘do you prefer a simplistic front cover design or one with a large amount of detail?’ 70% said they would prefer a simplistic design compared to only 30% saying they would enjoy a detailed design. As a result I would create a simplistic front cover to satisfy my target audience. I think people preferred to look at a simplistic design and the information can be laid out clearer which will create a calmer feel to the magazine. Young teenage girls may not like a detailed design because they don’t know where to look first as it confuses them. It may obscure their picture of their favourite celebrity if the picture was smaller in order to fit in all the information.
I wanted to find out whether colour would persuade people to buy a magazine as young teenage girls usually preferred pinks and purples to blacks and blues. Therefore I wanted to make sure that my target audience would still buy my magazine even if it did not fit their preferred colour scheme. 60% said that colour did influence their choice and 40% said it did not. Therefore I would ensure that the colours I chose for my magazine would be popular to that age group.
As companies release their magazines at different times I wanted to find out how often my target audience would like to read my magazine. Therefore I asked the question, ‘how often do you buy a magazine?’ my options were, ‘daily, weekly, fortnightly and monthly.’ 80% chose monthly and 20% chose weekly, therefore I will publish my magazine monthly in order to satisfy my target audience. I think the reason a monthly magazine was chosen is because it would allow more time to create the magazine; accordingly more information can be added. Therefore my customers will be paying a small amount of money for a better quality magazine because more care would be taken.
To find out how important my contents page would be I asked ‘do you always read the content page?’ If the results showed that most people read the contents page then I would make sure that it was just as important as the rest of the magazine. However if the contents page was hardly read by anyone, then it would be unnecessary to focus a on it. The options were ‘sometimes, no and yes’ and the results showed that 60% sometimes read the contents page whilst 30% didn’t read it at all and 10% did read it. Therefore as most people sometimes read the content page I would make it interesting and an important part of my magazine. I felt that the contents page was the most important part as it informed the correct page and the contents; this would influence you to buy it. From my research I found that most magazines begin with a letter from the editor of the magazine, therefore I needed to know whether my magazine should also have a letter so I asked, ‘do you read the editors letter?’ From the results I found out that people either sometimes read the editors letter or do not at all. Therefore I would have to think about whether or not I should include an editor’s letter. If I do I would need to make it more appealing to the audience to encourage them to read it. I also needed to know what sort of information should be in the contents page so I asked, ‘do you think a contents page needs images?’ Therefore if the majority of the answers were no I would have more information than images, on the other hand if the majority was yes I would choose to have less information and focus more on the design. The majority said that they do think the contents page needs images, therefore I would definitely add many images to my page to make it exciting and interesting for my audience.
Following this I needed to find out what kind of double page spread I should create so I asked the question, ‘what is the first thing you turn to in a magazine?’ I gave the options, ‘celebrity interviews, celebrity gossip, horoscopes, quizzes, competitions, problem page and other.’ The results showed that 80% turn to the celebrity interviews and celebrity gossip and that only 20% turn to the problem and fashion page. Therefore my main focus for my double page spread would be celebrity gossip and celebrity interviews. From looking though a music magazine, the double page spread that interested me most was a review page dedicated to new albums, new singles and new bands. Therefore if I chose to use this idea I could intertwine celebrity gossip and interviews by interviewing the upcoming band and adding in gossip about them. The music review included would also relate to the relevant music magazine.
From analysing my questionnaire it has helped me to realise what my target audience were looking for and how I could achieve this. The results gave me a better understanding. I thought in some questions the opposite result would occur; therefore I now know what I have to do to create a magazine suitable for my target audience.
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