Audience Research: Focus group questions

Focus Group Results

All of the candidates in my focus group fit my magazine's target demographic of 16-25 year olds who are socially conscious and middle to upmarket. I have chosen to have 2 male and 2 females to participate to help have a balanced opinion.

Candidate no.1 

Name: Phoebe Rigby

Age: 17

Occupation: In 6th form

Physcographics: explorer/reformer

Interests: movies and photography

Favourite Movie: Marvel

Favourite Inspirational person : Jameela Jamil

What they think is society's biggest problem: poverty/homelessness

Candidate no.2

Name: Noah Severwright

Age: 17

Occupation: In 6th form

Physcographics: Explorer

Interests:Art and Poetry

Favourite movie: Shawshank Redemption

Favourite Inspirational person : Longfellow

What they think is society's biggest problem: Greedy Corporations

Candidate no.3

Name: Jordan Lait
Age: 22
Occupation: Student at university
Physcographics: Reformer
Interests: Coding and gaming
Favourite movie: The Matrix
Favourite Inspirational Person: Elon Musk
What they think is society's biggest problem: Global warming




Candidate  no.4

Name: Mary Pantiru
Age:21
Occupation: Student at University
Physcographics: Reformer
Interests: Baking and reading
Favourite movie: Pirates in the Caribbean
Favourite Inspirational Person: Louise Pentland
What they think is society's biggest problem: Global Warming

The first question I asked my focus group was regarding the frequency of their usage of different social media platforms. This is because from my audience research, I found out that the print magazine industry is failing and switching more to online, and to platforms which their demographic most likely uses. Since my focus group fulfills my target demographic, it was important to receive feedback on which media platform they interact with the most. The overwhelming results were Instagram, 4 votes for Instagram and 1 for Snapchat. However this was a multiple choice question therefore someone could have put 2 media platforms they interact with the most. Here are the results:

Candidate 1:Instagram

Candidate 2: Snapchat and Instagram

Candidate 3: Instagram

Candidate 4: Instagram

The second question I asked was in reference to which media platform would they most likely find a magazine article on as it is key to know which platforms magazines have fled to online. The majority chose Snapchat, with 3 for Snapchat and 1 for Instagram. I would agree with the majority, I have definitely seen more magazines on Snapchat, more precisely Snapchat's explore page, they make the articles in forms of stories to appeal to their younger target demographic. The results were :

Candidate 1: Snapchat

Candidate 2: Snapchat

Candidate 3: Instagram

Candidate 4: Snapchat

The third question I asked was about consumer consumption of magazines to see how much my target demographic purchases print magazines. The results were not very shocking, with only one person who occasionally purchases a magazine and three who buy none at all. Although this is only 4 people, I believe it does accurately represent my target demographic because from the audience research it's clear that print sales have gone down as technology has advanced. It makes sense that a demographic who are the most in touch with technology would not buy print anymore. Moreover, it could be due to the environment, the younger generation does appear more concerned with global warming and recycling, not everyone but a large majority. Here are the results:

Candidate 1: Occasionally 

Candidate 2: None at all

Candidate 3: None at all

Candidate 4: None at all

I asked this question to get a sense of what my target demographic is willing to pay for a magazine and to compare prices to some of my generic analysis. The majority of results where 3 who voted for a range between £1.90-2.90 and with 1 vote for £2.91-3.90. Compared to the price of a magazine such as the Big Issue which is £2.50 and Time magazine which is £4.01, they prefer the cheaper ones and I think I'm most likely to price it between the lowest and medium range. Here are the results:

Candidate 1: £1.90-2.90
Candidate 2: £1.90-2.90
Candidate 3: £2.91-3.90
Candidate 4: £1.90-2.90

The fifth question I asked was to see if any of the candidates had subscriptions to any magazines. I gave 2 no options as it was important to distinguish between whether they didn't subscribe to a magazine because they could access them online or if they just don't read them at all. I think the results are conflicting because later on some say they do read them online, I think they got confused with the question and thought that I meant online subscriptions? Here are the results:

Candidate 1: No (option no.1)
Candidate 2: No (option no.1)
Candidate 3: No (option no.1)
Candidate 4: No (option no.1)

For the sixth question I wanted them to specify in more depth if they read them online and if so on what platform. Here are the results:

Candidate 1:sometimes - on magazine websites
Candidate 2: sometimes, on Snapchat
Candidate 3:I don’t read magazines online but I do view articles and links when searching google, looking at news apps and websites (e.g. BBC news)
Candidate 4: No

I asked question seven to get more ideas from the actual target demographic that are meant to be the target consumers yet the number of sales have fallen incredibly low with many magazine companies having to close.Here are the results:

Candidate 1:adapt to target a younger demographic
Candidate 2: Doesn't seem to be much advertising, maybe show how the magazine is relevant to me
Candidate 3:Give freebies.
Candidate 4:Free gifts, bundle deals or a cheaper subscription for a longer period of time (e.g. subscribe for 1 year for 20% off)

I really liked the idea about more advertising for magazine companies however I think deals and freebies would be a better solution. Moreover, making the content very demographic specific because if it showcases events that don't apply to the target demographic, they won't want to read it.





I lastly asked question 8 to decipher if my target demographic does purchase magazines, why do they? Here are the results:

Candidate 1:when i’m going on an airplane mostly, or a long journey - for entertainment
Candidate 2:none provided
Candidate 3:I’d purchase them to research or learn about a topic
Candidate 4:none provided

In conclusion, unfortunately my target demographic is not into buying magazines very often or at all, this is evident in the sales decrease over the past years. However, in my magazine I will aim to incorporate prizes and competitions, bundle deals and very interesting topics relevant to my 16-25 socially conscious middle to up market target demographic.

Audience Research: Audience behaviour

Source: https://www.journalism.co.uk/news-commentary/the-magazine-market-isn-t-dead-it-s-different/s6/a698229/

This section of the article highlights how technology has affected print magazines and how the content is the most important as it is no longer such of a high concern for customers to buy a specific magazine based on it's reputation of being elite. People can access everything online and therefore it is the actual content that will likely set you apart from the competition.

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/media/2019/sep/14/between-the-covers-how-the-british-fell-out-of-love-with-magazines

This article from The Guardian newspaper online argues a different standpoint, instead of the main  concerning threat being more consumers access the magazines online instead of physically buying them, it claims that actually it's social media that is one of magazine's biggest competitors as consumers are less interested in magazines and articles all together. I personally have to disagree, I think a lot of the magazines have simply transferred their content onto different platforms, such as Vogue and Beautyinsider who have stories and articles on Snapchat, even a lot of newspapers have moved their services to Snapchat also. I would also argue that social media platforms have increased their audience interactivity, many of the magazine articles have online poles for readers to participate in and also sometimes fun activities that require the reader to screenshot the story, draw something on it and share with their friends.

      The graph above shows a clear example of how much sales have decreased in print magazines over the last 15 years, I think it's no coincidence that it might have a correlation with rate of technological advancement.

Generic research: Textual Analysis 2

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Generic Research: Textual Analysis 1

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Audience Research: Feedback on Pitch

The first question I asked my classmates to answer was regarding my magazine's political stance. The majority responded neutral, regarding my two topics, successful business women and mental health I don't think it would be necessary to have a political tone but if it were needed I wouldn't be against suggesting the magazine was more left leaning.

The second question, I asked regarding one of the front covers which I thought would be around economy or something where there are successful business women and there can be a reference to an interview which would be inside the magazine (and perhaps on the website) discussing their leadership, dedication and passion which will be a positive representation of strong women (similar to the front covers of The Time, examples can be found in my mood board).The average result was 4.42 stars as can be seen above, which shows people agree with the topic being a good idea and I will take it further on.

The third question was about my second front cover which I suggested to be about mental health, and a famous person's experience about mental health to spread awareness. I got a 4.67 star response in agreement that it would be a good topic idea. I later got feedback to do an ordinary person's experience instead as it would make the reader feel like they have more in common with them which I think is also a really good idea (this will be brought up in question 7)

For the fourth question I asked for suggestions about potential prizes that could be used to reward customer loyalty, only those who purchased the actual magazine rather than read online would be able to enter. This could be in forms of hidden Easter eggs, such as on the front cover or on the spine of the magazine. I really like the the idea of a subscription to headspace (a meditation app) for the mental health front cover edition. Perhaps another prize for the other front cover, with the successful business woman, such as a chance to meet her or a chance to have a tour with the magazine. I think for the website I will also have more prizes, perhaps to promote the website there could be suggestions to the readers to check out the website to enter more competitions at the chance of winning even more.

For the fifth question, I asked for suggestions of shows surrounding mental health, this is to later on help me incorporate intertextuality into the mental health front cover edition. I will research and watch quite a few of these shows and reference them on the front cover.

For the sixth question, I asked for relevant movies to suit both of my front covers to fit my 16 - 25 demographic, similar suggestions but I will look into references from them I can incorporate into my front covers.

The first suggestion is one I think is very good, a "real" person would seem more approachable and relatable whilst a celebrity would create more awareness as people are more likely to pick up the magazine if it is a celebrity's face on the front cover. However, the second suggestion implies that they prefer real people over celebrities also, therefore I'm leaning more to not using a celebrity persona. I will also make sure to include current events as well as personal stories into my magazine to make sure it does fit the brief criteria of "current affairs magazine". The fourth suggestion is valid but I will most likely be using a male model for the mental health cover to make sure both covers can relate to a wider audience and also meet the brief's criteria (as the successful business woman cover will have a woman model).