Test shots

Flatplan feedback

To see how my target audience felt about the cover of my magazine I asked them to write some feedback on my flatplan. These are the results:

Although most of it was positive there was a comment suggesting that the main picture should be bigger which is something that I will take into consideration while constructing my magazine cover.

Flat plan

Visual moodboard

A short video showing the visual moodboard I created.

Reader profile

Shot list

Artist profile

This is a glog that I created using the website glogster. It is a profile for the artist who will feature in my magazine on both the cover and double page spread.

http://rubyheathcote5696c72b1563c.edu.glogster.com/artist-profile-638/

Imbed code: <iframe src="http://edu.glogster.com//glog/48431551" width="480" height="650" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" style="overflow: hidden;"></iframe>

Focused audience research

Here is a video showing a focus group that I held with two people in my target audience.

These are the two different magazine covers that were shown in the focus group:

During the focus group it was stated that 'rock sound' was the better looking magazine out of the two. They stated that the colours, the layout and the overall look were better than the 'Kerrang!' one. With this feedback I will most likely stick to the colours of black, white and red for my own cover. 'Kerrang!' was described by the pair to be childish and pop magazine looking due to the overpowering of the colour orange and the crowdedness of the layout due to all of the pictures displayed at the sides and bottom. Once again to respond to this feedback I am likely not to use pictures around the edge as this is clearly something my target audience does not want.

Here are the participants with their consent forms:

Market research

For this post I googled alternative rock and saved a random selection of the magazine covers that appeared. With all of these covers I have noticed certain similarities and conventions that appear on most if not all of these magazines. When there is a band on the cover the lead vocalist is always at the front with the rest of the group in a formation standing behind them. Black and white are dominant colours in all of the magazines below and I have also noticed that they all contain red as a feature colour. This is most likely playing on the theme of danger and rebellion the rock scene is associated with. Another convention that I have noticed is that all of the magazines below are dominated by males. With my own magazine I aim to subvert this and have an all female issue to make the genre more approachable to girls.

 

  

  

Artist research

Alternative rock from rubyasmedia

General audience research

Here I have created a survey on survey monkey to conduct research. Below are the questions that I have included.

The results that came back from the survey are the following:

 

 

I asked this question to get a rough idea of my target audiences interest in magazines as a whole.

 

I asked this question to see what stands out most to the consumer so when I create my own magazine cover I will know what to focus on. According to the data that I have collected the most important thing to people is the image of the artist on the cover.

 

For this question I asked for the survey participants to rank the importance of a list of features related to the cover. They voted that the way the artist is presented is the most important part of the cover. This means that the positioning and clothing of my artist will be an important decision when I make my own cover.

 

I asked this question to see how much my target audience would be willing to pay for a magazine of the genre that I have chosen. I have done this so that if I add a barcode to my cover I can add an accurate price. As the mean answer was £4.00 I know that pricing it above this will mean that my target audience are likely to lose interest.

 

 

 

Basic genre research

Alternative rock is a sub-genre of rock which emerged in the 1980's. It is known as alternative rock as it differs from the mainstream sounds, messages and attitudes of rock, but however still caries enough of the characteristics to be classed as rock. The term alternative rock covers grunge, gothic rock, jangle pop, noise pop, indie rock, indie pop, industrial rock, pop rock, alternative hip hop, and rap rock. The breakthrough of bands such as Nirvana brought light to the style in the 1990's and 2000's allowing it to become more mainstream and its artists more successful.

Nirvana - Smells like teen spirit

As the genre grew so did the artists attached to it. In more recent days some of the most popular names linked to alternative rock are the Foo Fighters, Green day, The Killers, Oasis, Linkin Park, Fall out boy, Arctic Monkeys, My Chemical Romance, Imagine Dragons and Evanescence.

Linkin Park - Numb

The Killers - Mr Brightside