Evaluation - Appeal to target audience

Final magazine survey results

I created a survery on http://www.surveymonkey.com/ in order for me to get responses about my magazine. From these results you can see I got a very good representative sample of my target audience opinions on my magazine. I know this because most people who took part in the survery were females aged 16 - 20, which is whom my magazine is aimed at. This allowed me to make a fair assumption of what most people would think about my magazine and to see if the techniques I used worked or not. I can also see their personal opinions about my magazine. Overall, i recieved very positive results and opinions from my survey suggesting that it attracts and appeals to my target audience appropriately. 

I posted this survey on my blog http://molliehinson.blogspot.com/ and on my facebook account allowing me to get responses which would more likely to be from my specific target audience. Also, this would give me as many results as possible.

In the survey I included questions about  my front cover to see what people specifically liked and disliked about the cover. These below responses are the results I got:

Many of the responses show that people liked the colour scheme I used on the cover suggesting that it worked effectively and would attract people to the magazine. Many people also said that the magazine had a professional look about it as they thought the layout looked good. Having a porfessional cover is very important as this is what attracts the audience to the magazine. If the magazine didn't look professional it wouldn't appeal to the audience. A tacky look would make the magazine unattractive. Another point made from the responses was that the main image on the cover looked appealing and attracted the audience to the cover. This is a key feature of attracting the audience to the magazine as it takes up most of the front cover. All of these factors give the impression that people would buy the magazine. One response said that the cover was too feminine which I could improve upon. However, my cover is predominantly aimed at females.

I asked in my survey how I could improve my cover and these were the results: 

Most of the responses show that no improvements should be made to the magazine  and that the cover was good how it is. However two results said that props could be used to show to make it more clear to the audience that it is a music magazine. This is good as it shows that my target audience likes my magazine and it doesn't need to be improved. 


Overall, my front cover proved to be very effective as it appealed to the specific target audience it was aimed at. I didn't need to make any adjustments to the cover as it appealed greatly to the audience already. The cover succeeded in attracting my specific target audience. 


The results I received for my contents page proved to be very positive too. The responses are shown below:

The results show that people liked the continued colour scheme and fonts used. This is because they are very eye catching and bold which makes them stand out greatly. Having a continued colour scheme from the cover to the contents is a typical convention of a magazine. Many people thought the layout of the page was good and that it was easy to follow and read. the clear design meant that it was easy on the eye which appealed to my target audience as they would be more likely to read it. Also, people said that the bold page numbers made it easy to understand where things were in the magazine meaning it was easy to navigate around. 

I asked the audience for improvements I could make to my contents page. The results are shown below. Many people said that no improvements should be made which is good as it proves it appeals to my target audience. However, many people said I should use fewer, smaller pictures which would improve the page. Although these improvements were suggested they were very vague. The contents page proves to be very successful, however slightly less appealing than my cover.

Next I asked questions about my double page spread to get feedback from my target audience. I asked whether the spread appealed to them and why. The results are shown below:

From these results I can see that there are many different ways in which the spread appeals to the audience. Many of the answers said that they liked the layout and that the text and image were positioned well making it clear and easy on the eye. This would appeal to the audience as its simple to read yet effective and bold. People said that they thought the article was very interesting and that they enjoyed reading it. A response said that the text was easy and clear to read which is an appealing aspect. Again, the colour scheme used proved to be very popular meaning that people are drawn to bright colours with a black font used for the article to make it look professional. People liked the title as it's very bold and stands out on the spread drawing them into the article. 

Again, I asked whether they thought any improvements should be made or not. The results are shown below:

The responses for this question were again quite vague, but many people thought that the page could use a larger variety of fonts. However, if I did this the page could become less professional and might not appeal to my audience. A suggested improvement was to add another pull quote to make it more eye catching. 

In the survey I asked whether people would read my magazine and there was a high percent of respondents that answered yes. This shows that my target audience are interested in my magazine and that it has successfully appealed to them.

Finally I asked if the font and colour schemes used in the magazine appealed to them. Again, the percentage was very high for yes showing that this aspect attracts the audience.

Overall, from looking at the responses given in this survey, I think my product greatly appealed to my target audience. The results show that people liked my magazine and thought it was very effective and appealing other than very few minor improvements. This shows that the techniques I used throughout creating my entire magazine worked well and made the audience attracted to the final product.

How did you attract/address your audience?

The audience for my magazine is predominantly female older teenagers/young adults who are interested in pop and r and b music. In order to appeal to this audience created a suitable layout, used appealing fonts, colour schemes and images which would attract them to the magazine. I also included topics that covered the said music genres. 

Front cover

The front cover of my magazine was very important. This is due to the fact that this page is the first thing the audience see, therefore it needs to be eye catching. I used as many conventions on this page too. 

The title of the magazine is placed at the top of the page due to the fact it is a very important feature. The title is at the top so that the audience can easily see then name straight away, The font I used for the title is very bold and stands out on the page against the other colours used. I used black for the title font as it made the magazine look more professional and stands out from the bright colours of the cover lines. The next most major thing the audience see is the image. The image I used on my front cover follows on from the title in line with the route of the eye convention. Using an appealing image is an important factor as it makes the reader more interested and therefore more likely to buy the magazine. Also, by having the image here it provided me with good space to add cover lines and other features to the cover. In my survey results revealed that most people would prefer an ordered layout to a cluttered one so I created an ordered layout to appeal to as many people as possible. The next thing that the audience will see is the main magazine article. This main article needs to appeal to the audience as it will make them want to read more. On the cover I used a different font to the rest of the text. This made it appear to stand out more, catching the audiences eye. The most important features on the front cover are in the route of the eye as the audience will spot these straight away when glancing at the magazine. The colour scheme I used on the front cover was suitable for my target audience as it is quite feminine but mature looking at the same time. The colours I chose to use were pink, blue, grey and black. I spread out the different colours well, ensuring that the magazine looked even and spaced out. I only used a few different fonts on the cover which made it look more professional and carried non with the ordered theme to the magazine. If I used lots of different fonts the magazine could look immature and cluttered. 

Contents page

My contents page is also extremely important as it is the second page that the audience see and the reader has to refer to this page to know which pages to go to. Therefore this page needs to be eye catching and stand out. I had to make the layout interesting ensuring that it didn't look too plain. To make the contents page appealing I used many different conventions to do so.

As you can see by the above image, the principle of thirds has been used conventionally. The image is in one column and the article pages are exactly in the other two columns. This separates the information in a neat ordered way which will appeal to the audience as it is easy on the eye. Again, the route of the eye convention has been used professionally on this page. The first thing that the audience will see is the face of the model which has to be appealing to attract the target audience. The image used shows a stereotypical representation of a fashionable teenage girl which is my target audience so will appeal to them. Next, the audience will see the title of the page welcoming the readers to the magazine which is another important aspect of the page. I used bold bright colours for the fonts here as it will appeal to the audience grabbing their attention. After reading the title of the page the readers then see the editors message. This is a very important feature of the contents page as it tells the reader about the issue and welcomes them to the magazine. Therefore it has to make the magazine sound interesting which I did on my product. There is also a signature from the editor which makes it more personal and makes the reader feel involved in the magazine. Along the route of the eye, the next thing the audience will see are heading for article pages and the different articles. This is an important feature as it guides the audience around the magazine and is essential for attracting the reader. When the reader scans over the page and sees articles of interest to them, then they are more likely to read the magazine. I used bold bright fonts and colours for the headings of the different articles such as 'on the cover', 'regulars' and 'plus'. I did this so that the page was easy to navigate around and so the reader could easily spot articles which they wanted to read. I also put the page numbers in bold so the audience knew where to find certain things quickly. 

I used the same colour and font scheme for the contents page as I did on the cover of my magazine. This consistent style throughout the two pages gives the magazine a professional look making the reader want to read on. By keeping the colours and fonts the same the magazine looked quite mature which will appeal to my specific target audience.

Double page spread