As you can identify in some of my previous posts I have created the ideal profile of who I anticipate my target audience to be perceived as. There are a number of key characteristic and personality features each individual should share in some respects but generically they are all interested in the same style, genre and concept of music detailed within my magazine. I have composed some key readers profiles to offer me a visual perspective of what I should be aiming for in essence of attracting the correct standard of audience members. Since I am gauging with an exclusive audience range (under 30) I believed it would be most appropriate to compose profiles dedicated to exclusively suiting this age range as ultimately I will be appealing to a niche reading domain.
Audience Profile - Males and Females under 18
The vast majority of magazines in the media industry this current age are designed to target and engage the interest of the younger generation of audience, in this case teenagers ranging from 11-17, as this is the greatest margin for companies to make a profit from. Music is heavily orientated around pleasing this group with publications such as 'NME' targeting them as a hopes to sell the product and merchandise to them. I intend to be slightly unconventional in the sense that I am aiming for an older audience variety (18-25) as these are normally excluded by organisations to make room for the younger 'future' readers of this day and age. Essentially I am distributing many editorial techniques and ploys to discourage and disengage the attention of the under 18 year olds. First and for most the language present in my magazine will be complex and structured, typically seen in traditional mature set productions, with their english abilities still that of a secondary school standard I am hoping the majority will be left uninterested by the articles if they cannot fully grasp the concept of what is being detailed. Furthermore an additional yet simple strategy I am incorporating is that of a higher retailed price on the front cover. From statistics I observed on the internet I discovered that less then 0% of under 18 year olds are employed and that over 80% are still engaging in full time education, this has led me to the conclusion that a huge majority will be unable to afford the product I am selling thus deterring them from buying the magazine. Most importantly I strongly feel the under 18's will be incapable of engaging with the music artists of choice my articles are focusing upon. It is noticeable I am complimentaing adding recent and up coming music artists into the mix of talents to be focused upon in my articles, despite this factor it is confounded as a significant minority of the product will revolve around more dated singers from the late 80's/early 90's who this age group are likely to be unfamiliar with as I can foresee they wont have been exposed to them when they were chlden. Under this impression I predict they will not be interested or swayed to not only buy my magazine but even look at it on the shelf if they cannot recognise the musicians names/photos on the front cover. This further illustrates my production will be orientate towards a niche audience (18-25) as the content (for example the artists) will easily be identifiable to them and as they will be heavily involved with this genre as a music taste, hopefully it will persuade them to purchase my product ultimately increasing publicity. As a large sum of this age will still be attending school, I can't see them being passionately interested in this genre as through background research I discovered that 70% listened to chart/pop music giving me the impression that not many individuals will want to read the indie/alternative music magazine I am proposing. To me all of these factors strongly recommend not to orientate my product to suit these members of the public as effectively it would be fruitless since only a minority maybe be partially interested in this music.
Audience Profile : Males and Females (18-20 years old)
Out of my main body of potential readers, this sub category contains the youngest ages as intentionally they are still the young adult/teenager sub genre and puts them at the borderline of my main audience members. These individuals essentially in the near future will be the designated age my magazine could appeal to. I expect them all to still be engaging with some form of primary education, for example college, sixth form or the beginning years of a university course, with interests ranging from socialising, sports and essentially new and upbeat music. From the profiles I have created I anticipate these to be most intrigued and therefore attracted to the articles that cover more recent mainstream artists as opposed to the more generic older musicians that are targeting the adult end of my audience. As I feel my product should provide a balance between new and old artists, this sub type of readers fits nicely with the notion of listening to the recently distributed composers (the likes of which can include Lady Gaga, The Vamps, Bastille etc) as this will be the style of music they will have been exposed to from an earlier age due to cohort generational differences, thus making them more attracted to this genre as compared to more 90's compositions. The audience members can range from a number of different social backgrounds - the scale includes working, economic to middle class, however I think readers from a heavily endorsed working orientated upbringing will be more appealed to this product as it provides them with an opportunity to 'escape' the harshness of reality and the brash living/working conditions they are subjected to. As both male and female music artists will be emmersed in the content of the production, both genders will be attracted to the nature of the articles as it will be expected they can identify with not just their own sex but the opposite as well. This is down to cultural practises and innate responses, in society we are instinctively drawn to members of the opposing gender whom we can regard as attractive and desirable, therefore women may be attracted to the physical appearance of a male composer and vice versa. The secondary selling point here directly relates to courtship principles rather then specific music interests so can gain extra public attention and convince them to purchase the product soley on the 'sex factor' which is an interesting selling regardment. A majority of the individuals situated in this age range have some form of part time employment to provide an income to get them through college/university or they could be potentially working full time as a career. In this instance I believe they will be able to afford the designated price I'm charging for this magazine, ultimately it ensures I'm gauging the interest of my target audience whilst inhibiting the eyeline of the least considered (teenagers) due to the pricey nature. therefore this creates a specific criteria surrounding my readers that must be fulfilled. A common social aspect of this age generation is that they are typically active regarding the likes of music festivals, this gives me the promise of creating more buzz about my magazine if I include articles focusing upon these live stages as in essence it distributes a wider range of stories and content to deliver to the readers therefore making my product more appealing to the public domain. Due to the mature mindset of this age group I can highly expect them to interpret the mature wording of the stories without concern and to understand more adult themes throughly then a younger audience would (such as complex personal problems in the music artists lives etc). so the content would be understood fully. As I anticipate a large threshold of readers in this age group to be students at univeristy I imagine a wide proportion will listen to this music at festivals, are in bands or listen to this genre as a means to wind down from reality.
Audience Profile : (Males and females between 20-25 years old)
Essentially the over 20 adults consisting of both genders are who I am mainly focusing on as the intended audience of choice for my music magazine. They conotate with the idea effectively of sitting within the boundaries for being able to interpret the different and often unique genres of music that are included within my product. This ranges from more upbeat, modern artists to the older, generational differences that exist within tracks (inexpliciantly this can be displayed in 80's to 90's singers as they may have been prominent in the industry when this specific age group was younger) furthermore this grants them a wider scope of a variety in the genres and types of music they could potentially be interested in, as younger ages (such as 13-15 year olds) are unlikely to have been exposed to song writers outside the millenium, as such they will be unable to relate to this style of composition. This category of the general public are more then likely to be engaging within some working commitment, such as a permanent job role or part time in an establishment. Due to the content analysis of my magazine, as it covers a huge diversity within the generational gaps between different music era's (80's to 2000's for example) many artists will be included which would require more time and money spent to create the most suitable production, in this instance having a reasonably high price (ranging from £3.50-£5) wouldn't be inappropriate due to developmental costs. As these audience members will be generating their own income as opposed to a teenage portofolio, they will be able to afford the price marked on the publication, this guarantees that my magazine distributors will be gaining an income from the sale of the product. Importantly this is an employment strategy to correctly target the desired audience whilst repelling the unintended (in this case teenagers) At this age I can anticipate a large majority of music fans will have attended a gig or live event at some point which highlights an important premise for me that I must include coverage over these situation due to music festivals playing a large role in the social lives of many over 20 year olds. As opposed to the young adult sub group listed above I can expect the over 20's to decipher mature content in the articles of the magazine without a problem, the only concern would be if they had some difficulty in reading more complex literature or wording which could potentially be an inhibiting factor in them purchasing the publication. Another variable to consider is will they be able to emotionally decipher complex situations and scenarios (this was listed above on the previous age group - ultimately I would like the audience to recognise difficult situations in the artists lives, therefore they require a mature mindset to do that) I do not regard this as an underlying issue for the nature of these readers, as they are adults they will have experienced some form of disturbance or problems in there lives, a friends or families, in this instance they should be able to interpret sensitive concepts during personal interviews with the singers (rather then just soley based around music), for this matter the content should potentially appeal to my readers in this respect. Finally I expect to draw interest from a wide range of music enthusiasts of the alternative/indie genre whether they are in bands or just purely listen to this type of music as a way to relax or for personal enjoyment.
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