When designing a media product, there needs to be a target audience in mind in order to keep the product relevant and focussed. The audience in mind will have a great impact on the content and design of the product and any other important decisions when producing it.
All media products should use demographics in order to determine who their audience is, this also enables them to discover and understand as much as possible about them in order to create a really good quality piece. They should take into account everything from age and gender to race, as this will help to ensure that their product fully caters to everybody in that target audience. They should also consider which band they wish their product to fit into, as this will help in the choice of advertising used in the product and also help to make sure that all of the content is relevant and useful for the audience. VALs should also be looked at so all aspects of the target audience are covered. This will help to specify exactly what kind of people are using the product and will help to make the product even more appealing to the audience.
As part of my research and planning tasks I produced a readership profile, similar to the example demonstrated by NME magazine. This particular task enabled me to really keep my work specific and my magazine remained clearly focussed. Up until this point I remained unaware of just how many things needed to be taken into consideration for my target audience, but I now understand clearly what is needed for my magazine to be a successful product for them.
Median Age Group: 24
Gender: Male/ Female
Social Grade: 86.6%
VALs: Experiencers
Specific Music Sub-Culture: Punk Rock
Current Media Texts: Kerrang, NME, Q, Rolling Stone
I have selected this group as my audience as I feel they have the most relevance to myself and my own interests. This therefore made it easier to create a product that appealed to them as I knew myself what appealed to me. There is also a very wide range of bands in this particular sub-culture, and as this is a magazine that only includes bands, this was extremely useful and was a really good opportunity to use this particular idea.
I also think that, even though this magazine is designed in order to appeal to fans of punk rock, it could definitely appeal to other audiences. The music style used as the basis of this magazine often crosses over into the mainstream of music and culture, which, I hope, would make this product popular.
