Market Research Results

We were asked to carry out a survey/questionnaire to help us target our chosen audience correctly. Therefore i created a survey consisting of 8 questions that would help me on how i can create a magazine that would appeal to my target audience. I asked people who i knew listened to hip-hop music to answer the survey on my blog, and then i collected the results which will help me in a later stage.

 

This is the first question on my survey, simply asking how old each person was that filled out the questionnaire, this was so that i knew if i was aiming my magazine at the right age group, which i know realise i was. The majority of people who filled out my survey were 15-18, with the minority being over 18. No-one was under the age of 15 which makes it clear i am aiming my magazine at older teenagers. 

  

 

The next two questions were quite general and were related to the actual sales of magazines. I wanted to know firstly, how much they would pay, with results showing majority would pay between £1-£2.50 which is a decent price for teenagers, who are more pre-occupied spending their money on things such as music and clothes instead of magazines. The second question was simply if they would buy a hip-hop magazine, with results showing that majority would.

 

 The following questions were also magazine-related, and although these questions are not hip-hop related, i stuck with asking only hip-hop music listeners because that is who i am aiming my magazine for, so the general information also needs to relate to them. The results from the first question shows a mix of frequency of buying magazines, with twice a month purchases of magazines being slightly ahead of the rest. The second question was quite useful for me, so that i know what to include in my magazines, interviews appear to be most popular in magazines with posters second. 

 The following question was the first qualitative question in my survey, which allowed me to explore the types of hip-hop that people listen to. This question helped to show who is most popular in the hip-hop scene, because new and popular artists are most likely to be on the cover of magazines. There was a draw between Lil Wayne & Nicki Minaj with both having three votes.

 This was another qualitative question, but is different to the one before because this one shows current/all-time favourite hip-hop artists with results showing a three-way tie between Drake, Nicki Minaj & Jay-Z. This helps because i now know what type of hip-hop artists people like.

 The final question was yet again another qualitative question, this time this question helped me to know what other genres of music are listened to by hip-hop listeners so that i can also feature content on these genres in my magazine so that it attracts a wider audience. The most popular answer was R&B and Pop, so now i know that i can feature information on these genres and it will also interest hip-hop listeners.


Overall this questionnaire has been extremely helpful in letting me know what hip-hop listeners want to see in magazines, their favourite artists and their habits with magazine purchasing. This information will definitely help me when making my magazine and has given me a deeper insight into my target audience and will help me to target them accurately. 


Thank you for reading :) 

Hip-Hop Magazine Research

For the coursework part of the Media course, we are required to create a magazine with a front cover, contents page and double page spread for a music genre of our choice. I have chosen to make a magazine for the Hip-Hop genre, with my target audience ranging from age 16-21 for both males and females. To be able to create our magazines, we will need to research into other magazines of similar genres so that we know how to target our audience. To do this, i have decided to research two hip-hop music magazines, XXL Magazine and Hip-Hop Weekly, two american-based music magazines. 

I chose to use these magazines as inspiration because i feel that they portray the style of magazine that i would like to create. They are targeting the audience that i am trying to target whilst still appealing to a wider age-range. However both magazines do not tend to stick with a certain typical layout for each issue, because although they always use the same font and colour. For example, XXL always use a red block with the font in white, and this is the same in every issue. Although Hip-Hip Weekly do not do the same, they use the same font, but each week they play around with different styles and it is in different positions compared to the last issue. 

The same is also said for colour schemes, the background colour for both magazines is always related to the cover artists, therefore it is constantly changing. Personally i think this is better because the covers do not become repetitive and each week/month there is something fresh to look at instead of feeling like you are looking at the same magazine each time. However, although they do not use the same colours each time, the colours are usually quite dark colours, instead of bright and loud colours. This is because the magazines know how to attract their audience, bright colours are more related to attracting younger audiences whereas the darker colours are more likely to attract the hip-hop genre because stereotypically they dress with darker colours and it is generally associated with that genre of music. 

Hip-Hip Weekly is a music magazine that also focuses on the gossip side of the hip-hop music industry, therefore the layout and conventions of the magazine are similar to that of a gossip magazine aswell. For example, the pull quotes of the magazine are highlighted in bright colour such as yellow and red which will catch the attention from across the shop. Hip-Hop Weekly tend to do this with most of their magazine covers, because they want to attract and hook their readers with the cover story, which clearly helps them sell whereas with XXL they rely on their faithful readers to buy their magazine monthly, therefore they do not need to use bright colours to attract potential customers. 

With regards to price, Hip-Hop Weekly is sold for £3.25 in the UK, and so far, i have been unable to find XXL Magazine anywhere in the UK. Howeber the £3.25 for the first magazine is quite a decent price considering that it is an international magazine. They usually use yellow for the fonts of the main article on the cover because that colour usually stands out against all other colours therefore whatever colour used for the background, the yellow will always stand out and catch peoples attention. 

XXL has the look of a typical hip-hop magazine, and that is the first genre that would come into your head when you first see all covers of the magazine. Particularly in this cover featuring Nas, the fact that he is not wearing a shirt and all his tattoos are visible automatically attracts hip-hop fans. Also the font used for his name, and the font underneath is quite rough and rugged-looking which associates to the music. The layout of the magazine is generally very good and well-spaced. There is no excess text on the cover, only pull quotes and the main cover story to attract the readers. The lack of text is clearly because the magazine aim to make their cover artist the sole focus of the issue, and therefore the cover represents the spotlight on them.

Hip-Hop Weekly is a hip-hop gossip magazine and therefore has all the qualities of a gossip magazine with the garish colours used to attract readers and make it clear that it is related to gossip aswell. Besides using bright colours, there is also a lot of text underneath the main title to give the readers an insight into the main article. The magazine also features cover lines on their front covers which will also persuade people to buy their magazine because then they know what will be featured in the magazine without having to flick through. 

The close analysis of both magazines will definitely help me with making my magazine, i will take all of this on board when making mine, because i now have a bit more of an idea how to target my audience and what i must include on my front covers etc. to attract my audience.

 http://www.hiphopweekly.com/ - Hip-Hop Weekly website.
http://www.xxlmag.com/ - XXL Magazine website 

 

Target Market Research Questionnaire

This questionnaire is to help me with my market research so that i know who to aim my magazine at, what they would like to see in the magazine etc. I will be asking people who i know listen to hip-hop music, because this is the genre of music i am basing my magazine on. I also will want people who listen to other types to answer my questionnaire so if you could take the time to fill it out, it would be greatly appreciated. Thank you :)

Uncut magazine research.

This is a presentation given on the music and movie magazine, Uncut. We were required to give a presentation on a magazine chosen by our teachers to help us find out how successful magazines work, their typical layout of their front covers and contents page, their target audience, how they attract their audience, owners of the magazine etc. This was all to help us when we are making out own magazine.

Uncut magazine research.

View more presentations from Zaina07.

Media Blog

This blog will be for my media AS class to display my progress over making a music magazine of a specific genre. As i go, i will upload all research and work carried out to help me with making my magazine which is 50% of the media course. Thank you for reading :)