Target Audience/ Purpose/ Genre/ Aesthetic

 Target Audience/ Purpose/ Genre/ Aesthetic

The target audiences I could select are plentiful as there is a large variety of magazines which are aimed at all different hobbies, genders, lifestyles and socioeconomic categories. However after the research I conducted in my report I found three magazines which applied to a similar socioeconomic demographic however deal with different topics. GQ, Empire and Time. I shall evaluate all my options and come to an informed conclusion about which magazine I should use as primary inspiration.

I am going to be choosing to display the topic of lifestyle in my magazine as I feel it is a vary broad subject which can be expanded on in many unique and interesting ways. For example, initially I was intending on doing a film review magazine but upon further thought that is a very set topic with little leeway to impart my own style onto what I am creating and reporting. However with a lifestyle magazine there is a lot more free reign on what I can report on and what counts as lifestyle. Fashion, holidays, furniture, exercise, and many more things which open up many possibilities.

Figure 1
As can be seen on Figure 1, the main demographic of GQ magazine is Men who are in the A-B-C1 socioeconomic classes and who are aged 35+ with children in their households. This demographic makes sense as GQ (Gentleman's Quarterly) is a monthly men's magazine which focuses on many topics such as: fashion, style, and culture for men, food, movies, fitness, sex, music, travel, sports, technology, and books are featured. It's most likely that this magazine is read by the A-B-C1 classes because of the price and the variety of content covered in an issue, which may not be useful to those in lower socioeconomic bands because they may not be able to afford to make the changes to their lifestyle which GQ is portraying. It is expected that men would be reading a men's lifestyle magazine.

Time magazine also caters to a similar audience in the A-B-C1 socioeconomic classes and who are aged 35+ however unlike GQ its content is more attractive to women in the Uk and those who buy the magazine do not have children. This shows that although these magazines the same genre and have the same socioeconomic demographic, the way they present their magazines and the content within them, with Time being the more gender neutral of the two causing a larger female audience to read the magazine.

My target audience

Taking inspiration from these magazines I will be targeting similar demographics with a few choice alterations to make my magazine more inclusive and unique to my brand. The socioeconomic target will remain the A-B-C1 socioeconomic classes, this is because the magazines targeting these bands are usually easier to design and write more as they prefer a more minimalistic and informative style which I find easier to design than magazines with flashy titles and cluttered covers. Also by targeting these bands I will also be able to charge a higher price for my magazine as the groups I am aiming the content at are far more financially stable than the ones which I have excluded for my grouping.
Unlike both GQ and Time I will broaden my audience by aiming it at a wider age range, I shall tailor my content to a 20-35+ market as I believe that by excluding younger people from their intended audiences they are making a mistake because although younger people are less financially stable they are also influential, meaning that a lifestyle magazine instructing them how to live and sustain themselves would have a large effect on a young person's life causing them to most likely interact with the magazine and by products promoted within it as they try to live in a way that the magazine portrays as the standard.
Inspired by GQ I shall be designing my magazine in a way to attract a larger male audience. I am aware this will be alienating a large portion of possible customers by due to the style of magazine being lifestyle it will be harder to cater to both audiences effectively and consequently I could risk making the magazine seem out of touch with both genders. 

Audience survey

To ensure I know what content should be included in my magazine I will be creating an audience survey to insure what is within my magazine is topical and relevant to my desired target audience, the questions I shall used will be focusing on what topics/ sub-genres of lifestyle they would like to see represented in media, this could span anything as long as it can be tied back to the original topic of lifestyle. Due to a lack of ability to go outside and actually ask people of this age bracket their opinions on the matter I will instead be using social media sites such as Instagram, Twitter and Facebook groups (such as Figure 3) to send out digital surveys and read the responses provided through those sites, also using social media will give me a larger sample size because as of now I can only make contact with a handful of people without getting a Covid test and due to this the data gathering process would be far more efficient online.

1) What lifestyle topics do you believe garner enough attention by the media?

2) What 3 lifestyle topics do you wish received more attention in media?

3) What was the last lifestyle based magazine you read?

4) What aspects of a lifestyle magazine are you interested in?

Aesthetic 

The Aesthetic of my Magazine is one I have already tampered and experimented with in the past, as it is one which catches my interest due to it being a common theme throughout many of the magazines targeting the same demographic as mine. GQ, Time and Empire all share bold Mastheads with block colours and fonts partnered with a large cover photo centralised on the page, this is then pared with some smaller tag lines one of which is nearly always a rhetorical question. This simplistic design is very modern and sophisticated making the magazine look at place in an office or a study, not adding bright over the top graphics and tag lines like other magazines such as OK. This modern sheik aesthetic fits a lifestyle magazine such as mine well because my Magazine is going to be attempting to attract a target demographic of customers who is similar to these other companies in all ways accept age, to tackle this I will be adapting the content within the magazine and what is displayed on the cover to suit younger adults, this will be done by discussing issues which are relevant to them and making this clear in the tag lines by using words and names which are captivating to younger audiences. Furthermore, to increase the appeal to younger men specifically as that is who I chose as my primary gender target I will be using a cover photo of a product or a brand which interests them. If this was a larger scale project then I'd prefer to be able to reach out to famous figures who are currently relevant for young men such as the newly founded Twitch Dream SMP group which are becoming more known by the day for their relatable and funny content, however since I have no way of contacting the likes of Thomas "Tommy" Simons AKA "Tommyinnit" and getting him to send me some exclusive photos of him modelling I see this as a highly unlikely possibility, however I shall still attempt this but if it doesn’t work I do have an alternative idea. Either way the general Aesthetic of my magazine will remain the same.




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