Question 2: How does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text?
Here is my response to CCR2:
Transcript
My magazine is called Aspire and reflects the values of my chosen genre of indie-pop perfectly.
Aspire offers a unique experience within the wider community, for those young aspirational individuals considering a potential career in the music industry. We strive to empower and motivate newly emerging artists and provide them with special opportunities that boost their confidence with their imagination, creativity, and originality. We are passionate about bringing ingenuity with our content to reflect our dedication to inspiring small artists, collaboration to drive the community feel of the readership, and allowing them to express their true selves artistically.
My audience are fun/atic individualists, aged 17 to 21 year old females who are particularly interested in fashion, art and have a love for indie-pop music. They desire independence and freedom, as well as value the importance of life.
Linking back to the Blumler&Katz theory, you need to be aware of the audience’s uses and gratifications. The audience of the media both actively seek pleasure and practical use out of the different media they consume. So as a designer, I made sure to engage my audience through Entertainment, Personal Identity, Social Interaction, and Information.
Entertainment – Within my magazine, my audience can acknowledge entertainment by reading the article featured on my double-page spread, it expresses the determination and courage of a young individual entering the Indie pop industry with a disability. This allows the reader to escape from everyday life and focus on something completely inspirational.
Personal Identity – Personal identity is presented in my double-page spread as it reflects my target audience’s personal values and beliefs. The positive message addressed throughout is that no matter what happens in life, never give up. This reinforces their values of life and its importance. It’ll help them grow as an individual and endeavor to achieve anything they make possible.
Social Interaction – Additionally, my magazine will be distributed online. This opens many opportunities for the readers to discuss and socially interact on various forums and Q&As.
Information – My contents page contains a variety of headlines that provide information to the readers before they flick through the magazine to their desired page. For example, in the ‘regulars’ section of the contents, the headline ‘Outfits of the week’ summarises the details of the corresponding page. The subtext underneath ‘Style your wardrobe with …’ gives a broader range of fashion trends that an individual can spice up their life with, allowing them to feel better and more confident about themselves as well as improving their life on a practical and emotional level.
AIDA is used in marketing to identify the stages an individual goes through during the process of purchasing a product. It stands for the four stages which are Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action.
Attention is made apparent through the strong direct eye contact with the main cover star image on my front cover. This enables my model to engage with the audience and show interest in picking up the product.
Interest is further stemmed by the informative catchy headlines and captivating cover lines displayed on the cover and contents. As well as this, by mentioning other well-known artists within the genre, I aimed to create more interest as the recognition of those familiar names would instantly attract the attention of my target audience.
Desire is beckoned through having the chance to win exclusive tickets for various tours such as Tame Impalas. These would only be possible to win if you brought the magazine.
Furthermore, action is when the ideal target member closes the deal and purchases the product.
The ideal company that I’d want to distribute and represent my magazine would be Hearst. Hearst portrays a forward-looking community that engages with positive people in positive environments. In addition, Hearst’s goal is to create premium, purposeful content that helps our audiences and partners strive, thrive, and get more out of life. This statement admirably aligns with my magazine’s outlook, creating the perfect opportunity for my magazine to work with a brand that follows the same beliefs and values as my own. As well, Hearst owns magazines that my target audience would also be interested in such as ELLE and Cosmopolitan. This would automatically grow my magazine’s interest as there’s a gap in their market for a new music magazine and create a unique selling point for Hearst even though they already have a strong adherent.
Throughout the process of deciding on my chosen adverts, I referred back to my audience’s psychographics and demographics to have a clear understanding of their interests.
For my first advert, I chose Doc Martens as I feel the overall attraction of the advert would be of interest to my desired audience. It also blends in with the vibrant color palette throughout my magazine. By looking back on previous background research made prior to my magazine, I identified my target audience’s interest in style and fashion trends. Since indie-pop is quite quirky with a grunge aspect to it, I feel as though Doc Martens are a great reflection of the genre due to their rebellious style and trendiness across various social media platforms, especially amongst the female audience.
For my second advert, I chose Doritos as I feel its simplicity and creativity of it will allure my ideal target audience. The simplicity won’t overwhelm my magazine and the way the product is incorporated into the design of the Mexican sombrero gives a sense of quirkiness and fun to the advertisement. Plus, Doritos are a popular worldwide food to snack on, tasty and very craveable so is ideal for any gender of any certain audience.
For the distribution of my magazine, I would want to have digital and print copies as they can focus on both the online users and the physical readers. Having digital copies allows my magazine to reach a younger target audience, plus they are cheap and easy to produce. Moreover, print copies are easily accessible to everyone and help grasp those who prefer to have a physical copy rather than it being all online. These two combinations would work well together to expand your audience and grow profits by publishing both versions, meaning you can reach a wider range of people and audiences. In addition, I’d also want to create online adverts to further advance my magazine. The significance of this is that online advertisers can give advertisers bespoke audiences, through micromarketing, this allows advertisers to target a specific group of people regarding their uses and gratifications, and products/services can be marketed directly to a certain group of customers.
To help my magazine survive in the digital world, I shall use social media to popularise and boost the magazine. Links to enhanced digital content like various forums and Q&As will be attached to provide a source of social interaction within the community.
To further stimulate the sales of the printed copies, I think it would be beneficial to include freebies such as samples of new makeup products and perfumes, or vouchers for different health products or food.