It wasn’t that hard to find a way to attract my demographic. Because they are young teenage girls they can easily be persuaded. I decided that in this issue the main thing I would offer them was a free lip gloss and a poster inside, since that was relatively popular. In other issues I would have offered a chance to win tickets to concerts. I think this would be a good idea for a magazine because it would be different and unique every week, not the same thing as they would get bored of it.
Because I was offering lip gloss, I would work with the company ‘Claire’s’, which is part of my audience profile, to help sell the magazine. It would create synergy between my company and theirs and because my target audience will identify the brand they will be more likely to buy it. Because I decided for my distributors to be IPC, I could work with their radio stations and get tickets available for concerts so that I could sell it in my magazine.
I could also use social media to help attract and address my audience. I could use websites that my demographic are most likely to go on and use, such as the Disney website and You tube and games websites. I could also use Facebook and create a like page since the internet is very powerful and can have a big influence in how successful my company will be. I will try my best to make my audience feel that they are part of the magazine and as if they can relate to any of the articles in there. My magazine will include things that are aimed at them, and about them so that my target audience will understand and will be able to relate to the magazine.
I will try to make it as entertaining as possible and include lots of copy and images so that my target audience will not get bored and lose interest in the magazine. I decided that by including quizzes and horoscopes in my magazine it will make it better and more likely to be bought by my audience because it offers something different and unique and something fun for them to do. Most people will throw away magazines once they finish reading them but hopefully with mine, they can keep them or at least last longer because of the other fun things to do that are included in the magazine.
I have decided that I will use as many buzz words in my magazine as possible. Because my audience are quite young they are more likely to use these words themselves therefore they will be able to relate to the magazine more easily. They are less likely to buy a grown up, intellectual magazine such as ‘Little White Lies’ because they can’t relate to it therefore it won’t appeal to them. An example of some of the buzz words that I included are, ‘World Exclusive’ and ‘Reveals’. These help attract my audience and get their interest into what information will be included in the magazine without giving too much away.
The people featured in my magazine need to be someone my audience aspires to be or someone they can identify with. This is known as personal identification. When doing my research the majority said they would like to see a female singer on the front cover. This is because a female singer would appeal more too both genders and young girls would look up to them and see them as role models and someone they would love to be themselves.
The uses and gratification theory can be applied here. This theory focuses on the consumer and what the audience can get out of the media and suggests that the audience are not passive in this and are fully aware of the type of exchange that is going on.
The uses and gratification theory is mainly about what the consumers get out of the media. They use the media for many different things whether it is for passing the time by, getting information from the news, finding out information about soaps so that you have knowledge and can apply it to social interactions and interacting with distant family members or friends on social networking sites.
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs can also be applied here. The needs have been split into 5 categories, Physiological, Safety and Security, Love and Belonging, Esteem and Self-actualization.
My demographic will fulfil their physiological needs because they will want their presence felt, they will want to feel like they exist, and they do this by using the media to create their own social networking profiles. They fulfil their safety and security needs by maintaining stability and following what everyone else is doing or using so that they can feel in control and secure about themselves. They have the choice of the kinds of media products that they can use and therefore feel safe and reassured by this. They fulfil their social needs, such as love and belonging because they get a chance to connect with friends and family through the media. They engage with conversations on social networking sites and the people that share the same views as them which will help them feel like they belong and are loved. They fulfil their self-esteem by voicing their opinions and engaging in conversations and showing off their images on social networking sites. They eventually get personal fulfilment and self actualization.
Katz, Gurevitch and Haas (1973) developed their own hierarchy of needs in terms of social media. They developed a total of 35 needs and placed them into five different categories, Cognitive needs, affective needs, personal integrative, social integrative needs and tension release needs. My demographic will fulfil their cognitive needs by getting information and news out of my magazines, news that will help them out socially because they will be aware of the latest news and have knowledge so that they can use it in conversations. My demographic will fulfil their affective needs by gaining emotional pleasure from reading the articles there, especially if the young girls are reading articles like ‘How to get the man of your dreams’. They fulfil their personal integrative needs by achieving a status among their friends because they have knowledge others don’t. They fulfil their social integrative needs by being able to use the media to communicate with friends and family. They fulfil their tension release needs by using the magazine and the articles in there to escape from reality.
My audience have been encouraged to take part in the magazine in various different ways including them taking part in the magazine themselves. Sending in questions are emails so that they can be mentioned in the magazine covers this. I also thought of having a section where the audience can send in pictures of look-a-likes and this will help get them more involved in the magazine. Also writing in for the chance to win tickets is also another form of getting them to be a part of the magazine. Another simpler way of getting them involved in my magazine would be using the quizzes and games at the back of the magazine because they will answer it and take part which will help them feel more of a part of the magazine.
I wanted the overall tone of my magazine to be like a best friend. I achieved this by using different forms of mode of address. One way of doing this was by including close up shots which gives a personal and intimate feel and allows the audience to feel closer to the people in the magazine. I included life style elements and the kind of things best friends would talk about in the magazine to help the audience feel more connected and have something to talk about. I have included love life elements and gossip columns because they are the type of things best friends would talk about.
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