Survey Responses and Analysis

As I was still immersed within the planning/ mind mapping stages of developing my product, I decided that before I initiated the final construction of my music magazine, I needed to identify with my target audiences specific needs and criteria, this would ensure my product appealed to them and their interests, which would ultimately prompt then to purchase my publication. To interact with them at a more deeper level, I believed it would be most appropriate to conduct a question and answer response styled survey, this way I could ask unique and specialised questions that I personally wanted to know from them. Unconditionally it would grant me access to their hidden opinions and ideas surrounding what they would anticipate a product to include that would appeal to them, ultimately conforming to their needs would generate the best possible outcome for me as the magazine would be geared to suit their requirements. I used the programme 'Survey Monkey', to establish an online questionnaire to help me gain an extensive understanding of who my target reading audience was going to be, how they would perceive and relate to the genre of music I am to focus upon and essentially be able to fully relate to the articles included inside. Presented below is an overview of the responses I obtained.

As you can see I began with a simple gender question to gain knowledge if I was interestingly appealing to a particular sex  - as illustrated the majority of the respondents who answered were female, subtly suggesting that women are more likely to take a liking to music orientated productions maybe? If this was the case then I would maybe have to gear my publication to suit more feminine needs at the expense of the males? This is debatable, due to a large majority of men engaging in indie/alternative rock music, so before I rush unecessarily into a conclusion it would be best to weigh my options up first.

Here I focused upon gaining an insight into how often my audience indulged in reading a music related product, from the answers gathered it indicates half of the people who completed the survey did not read music magazines and the ones that did only one read them three times a month, two twice and two once. This suggests to me my own publication would benefit more from being distributed to the public fortnightly or perhaps at the extreme monthly, as I feel I would get a decent income for my company weekly if the majority were not engaging with these products on a regular basis as the results highlight.

Essentially, this is the question I desired a response from the most due to it relating to a main concept of my own magazine (I intend to feature unknown artists) and these responses would identify whether the audience was willing to buy a magazine if they could not recongnise the artist in question displayed on the cover. Answers generated indicated 54.5% of the public would purchase the magazine whilst 45.5% expressed no desire to at all. Most of the readers who would purchase it said it was because they wanted to find out what style/genre these new comers focused upon whilst the respondents who werent overly keen on buying the product said it was due to them not knowing if they would like the music they produced. To try and gain audience inflation I could appeal to the select few who didnt want to buy the magazine become tempted by using other popular mainstream artists and comparing the upcoming singers to them as a marketing strategy, hopefully this would make the audience relate to them more if they can be identified as being just as good as famous music artists/bands. Or essentially I could market 'one off' issues where a new artist dominates the product at the expense of the more popular musicians of the category, this method would allow me to appeal to those who want to engage with unknown artists and will ultimately keep those not interested content as the vast array of my products will be designated specifically to famous entities.

From the data collected and analysed for this question it appears 54.5% of the public surveyed would be prompted to suscribe to a music magazine that showcased unfamilair or upcoming new artists/bands in the industry compared to the 45.5% who claimed they wouldnt. The ones who would buy the product explained in a summary that it 'Allows the new artists to establish a baseline measurement of where they stand in this competitive industry' whereas the public that wouldnt generated it was down to them 'needing to sample the music first in case they could not to relate to it, therefore they would have wasted their money buying a product they could not identify with'. In a bid to increase the chances of this 1/3 who would not purchase the magazine, I could open a link on the company website that allows them to preview a sample of this music and allow the reader to have a taste test as to whether they like them or not, this would avoid them 'wasting money' in the future.

This question queried to how many different genres of music my readers would like to see in the magazine. My results determined that a high percentage would like to see a variety within the product compared to a select few who would just want it to focus on a specific area in general. The ones in favour of more said it was because 'it narrows the range of music we get to enjoy', this revelation will be hard to bypass as i'm specfically focusing on indie/alternative music - to avoid losing buyers I could delve deeper into sub genres of this music style to find a variation within the style of music and how they compose their songs. However in this circumstance the styles must not differentiate massively or be too disimilar from my main focused genre, this would orientate the notion away from my product that it is conforming to a niche standard, as I do not intend to create a universal magazine. In this case I could include punk pop (i.e P!nk), rap (Jay-Z) or purely rock (Bon Jovi) as these sub categories can commonly feature in a small minority of indie/alternative rock songs  on an occasional basis to create variety within the musicians work.

After analysing the responses from this question I found that generally the members of the public would like to see displayed in the music magazine a album review or an interview with the upcoming/undiscovered bands and artists, within the feature they stated they'd like to see tours covering promotional work, the up to date music singles charts and the occasional new album release covered. The data collected shows that the readers would like to keep within the inside circle revolving around the upcoming artists and the opportunity to see their origins and maybe a personal story from the artist themselves which indicates they would like to deeply connect with them and be a legion of followers studying all their future steps. This is great aid in constructing my featured double paged spread as I will know its essential to add this interview to the article and that it will beneficial to include personal, detailed information about the artist.

When I studied the responses to this question I revealed that 63.6% of the general audience do have the curosity to engage in searching for unknown music artists, indicating that my product would indeed attract reader interest and therefore a retail market which will generate income. I predict most of this searching is conducted online via the Internet, implying I may have to create an url link and essentially a viral webpage specifically for my magazine where the public will be able to locate these artists. The information on how to access these said pages should be present on my product, ideally within the contents pages.

Whilst looking at the responses to my penultimate question it suggested that the people who were surveyed, and my intended target audience, would happily purchase a music magazine that revolves around showcasing many undiscovered artists in the industry. If they were influenced by the product to attempt to follow their own dreams on average most responded and said they would normally pay £1 for the magazine, however it was revealed that many would even go up to an alarming £6 if they found it helpful. Due to my age range directed at an older audience (18-25), having a more profitable price would allow me to essentially target my desired members of the public, these results indicate not many would be prepared to purchase a publication higher then £3 - these I anticipate are younger members. When marketing my product in a retail environment I believe i would stick to the average price of around  £3.00-£4.00 as for most mainstream magazines individuals of this age categorisation are willing to pay it (this can be seen mainly on the Q products) so it deems reasonable to price my product up at this range as well.

Lastly for my final question the average range of answers from my respondents indicated that the majority who took their time to complete the questionnaire were aged from young adult to above, this is perfect as this is the audience I was aiming at attracting in the first place. My product seems to have proven in attracting a wide range of potential customers of the 16 + as I intended it to. The surveyers agreed that the magazine should be based around this age range, as i can doubt many older individuals (over 30 specifically) would have a passion or inclining towards keeping up to date with particular genres of music, rather having a 'come and go' approach where they listen to what is being broadcasted on the radio at that moment in time.