Focus Group Plan

To create a focus group I am going to interview and speak to a group of males and females between the ages of 17-26 as that is the age range I want my target audience to be. By getting a group of my intended demographic I will be able to get the views and opinions students and those of the working class. This will help me find my target audience and find out what their views and opinions are on magazines.

I will ask them a ray of questions. I want to find out their hobbies, their social and cultural information. I will find out their music interests, what they like to do when it comes to hobbies and interests. I also want to know what they are doing within their lives right now, whether they are studying or what they hope to do in their lives as this then gives us a sense of interests and goals. By finding out this information it will give me a sense of what my target audience is like and what types of things they are interested in therefore I will be able to chose and know what types of articles my target audience will be interested in, also by knowing about my target audience I will then be able to decide what price my magazine should be and what contents should be inside when it comes to the choice of words used whether they be complex or not, I will also know what brands and lifestyle I can create in the magazine.

In my focus group, not only will I find out what I would like to know about them, but learn what my target audience would want from a magazine, what type of articles would they want included, what star would they like to see included and possibly what they want to get from a magazine, what about a magazine would interest them. I want to find out what magazines they usually read and what about those magazines they like and what they wish those magazines included and what they did not like about those magazines. As this is a lot of information to take it i may have a focus group and a questionnaire as they are both effective tools that will give me a lot of information without having to use to much of my focus groups time.

All this information will help me know what my target audience want from a magazine and what will make them find my magazine the best. I want my audience to be able to relate to the magazine and enjoy every issue that comes out, therefore by having a focus group it will give me the knowledge of how i can make the perfect magazine that my target audience will enjoy.

Considering My Ideal Target Audience Member

Our ideal target audience members are between the age of 17-26, they are apart of the Hip-Hop and RnB culture, they are also into the media culture always wanting to know the latest news on artists, actors and entertainers. My ideal reader wants to be at every concert and festival there is instagramming tweeting and keeking! Fashion forward is must; we want our readers to look good at all times. Our readers do not have to be the smartest or have the best qualifications and we do not discriminate our magazine respects male and female as long as they love the Hip-Hop culture.

Ideal Readers Profile

Name: Jermaine
Age:20

Jermaine is a young male who enjoys listening to a lot of Urban music, his favourites are Kendrick Lamar, Drake and Jay Z. He enjoys waiting for new albums to come out from his favourite artists, and also loves waiting for new concert and festival tickets to come out. He also loves going out with his friends and socialising, whether its going out to eat or watching new movies, when he is not working at his apprenticeship in radio and journalist media. Jermaine thrives in finding out the newest information on his favourite rappers and singers as he is very much apart of the hip hop culture and this is shown in the clothes he wears and music and other interests of his such as social networking and playing basketball.

Ideal Reader Profile #2

Name: Renee
Age:18

Renee is a young female who is currently studying at college getting ready to go to university. When she is not studying at college she is working at her part time job in HMV. In her spare time Renee likes to spend time socialising with her friends, going out partying, cinema or just hanging out at each others houses gossiping. However, when Renee is alone she spends 85% of time listening to music, whether it be through her headphones, searching on YouTube or flicking through the music channels on TV. She loves watching programmes like Keeping up with the Kardashians, 106 & Park or The Wendy Williams Show as she always likes to keep up to date with what’s going on with her favourite music artists and actors. Renee currently reads magazines like Vibe, XXL and Heat magazines as she likes to find out about new music, up and coming stars, even what her favourite artists are wearing and where she can get it from. Renee is apart of the urban culture, you can see this from the clothes she wears, and music she listens too. Renee strives to be in a career that gets her involved with fashion and music, she hopes to be able to work with stars interviewing them and being apart of the magazine industry.

The Source Magazine Target Audience

Source Magazine

The source magazine was established in 1988 where it originated as a newsletter and progressed to a full magazine. It is the second longest running Hip Hop magazine behind the UK magazines. It is very influential within the hip hop culture and is well known for its rating system of one to five mics and only a select few albums have managed to get the full five mics.

Target Audience

The readers are usually from urban inner cities, they on average are aged 25 (targeting 18-44 year olds), 58% of the readers are male. Whilst 50.2% of the readers are African Americans, they are well educated with the majority in employment with 73.9%. They also enjoy reading about music, films, celebrities, technology and fashion. They will be dedicated music fans and they most likely spend their money on films, video games, clothing, grooming products and music. Therefore The Source Magazine use cultural background and interests when creating a issue making sure it will appeal to the audience.

Ideal Reader Profile

Jason is a young male ages 20 who enjoys listening to a lot of Urban music but is mainly interested in hip hop and enjoys going to music events such as raves and converts. He also enjoys going out with friends and socialising, rather than staying at home. He is very much part of the hip hop culture and this is shown by the way he dresses in clothing such as hoodies, jeans and trainers.

XXL Magazine Target Audience

From this survey we learn that XXL magazines ideal reader is Male as 78% of reader are male, therefore the magazine will be very masculine in the choice of articles they use and the way they portray genders, for example they may sexualize women if they are on the front cover of a issue using the male gaze theory.

The average reader income is $56,571 which shows that is a BCD’s range, therefore the magazine will show quite a rich lifestyle/middle class lifestyle they portray this in the brands that they show in their magazine. Henceforward, as we can see, the average reader is 29 years old and 67% of the readers are African American therefore XXL magazine will use the knowledge of the target audience to create a magazine issue that will appeal to the age gender class and social background and culture of the target audience.

XXL Mission Statement and Ideal Reader

XXL mission is to take a mature real and intelligent approach to hip hop music. XXL keeps up with hip hops energy and targets the people that live for urban music. The general target audience for XXL magazine is 78% male readers, with the median age of 27, and 44.7% college buyers, and 67% African Americans. Priced at $5.99 XXL is the number 1 selling magazine on the newsstand which outsells magazines like Rolling Stone, Vibe, and spin. The readers of XXL purvey hip hop culture; consume music, and fashion and lifestyle on a level that defines logic. The readers are either in clubs, online, onstage, and at shops (places they can gain or access music from). XXL readers helped the magazine to become NO.1 most influential brand in rap media. XXL is no.1 selling ABC audited music publication sold worldwide and is the hip hops media brand.

Vibe Magazine Target Audience

Vibe Magazine

Vibe magazine is a music entertainment magazine founded by Quincy Jones. The magazine features R&B and Hip-Hop music artists, actors and entertainers. Vibe is issues every other month with double covers also with a very large online presence.

Vibe magazines target demographic is young urban followers of the Hip-Hop culture aged between 18-34. Vibe magazine is around $5 therefore the target audience is around the C1C2D range. Out of the audience 50.5% of them are males meaning the other 49.5% are women. The ratio between the genders is almost equal, which means that vibe magazine is aimed towards both genders. By having both genders as the audience this means that the audience for vibe would be larger than the audience for Rolling Stones which is a magazine mainly aimed at males. By having a larger audience it means increase in success for the brand.

Studies have shown that education does not really matter as only 50.7% of Vibes audience never went to college. Which means only 19% study at college or higher education. Therefore, their magazine content is not aimed at educated people. Therefore their magazine involves slang and not complex theories or choice of words. However studies have shown that Vibes audience are mostly employed as 73.9% of the audience is currently employed, therefore the magazines content may not have complex writing but some of the content will relate to the world.

Furthermore, studies also show that that 71.3% of the audience is African Americans; this means that the magazine should be relatable to them by including their interests and culture i.e. hence why the magazine involves Hip-Hop genre artists, actors and entertainers. This shows some examples of how target audience is important as the demographics, working class social and regional states should be taken into consideration when creating a magazine.

Vibe Magazine Mission Statement

VIBE is a leading entertainment and lifestyle brand delivering content across multiple distribution platforms to a culturally diverse audience around the world. Celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2013, VIBE continues to embrace its roots in music and chronicle the celebrities, sounds, fashion and culturally-relevant events from hip-hop to the modern day converging music landscape. Over the past year, VIBE has been significantly refocusing its efforts online – doubling its online traffic to become one of the most vibrant digital music brands. VIBE is a member of Spin Music, a division of SpinMedia.

Vibe Magazine Ideal Reader

The average reader of Vibe Magazine is 24 years old, an urban outlooker who takes interest in media culture. They enjoy finding out the new music every week, buying up to 3 albums a month, they’re interested in finding out the newest mixtapes too. The average reader is employed ranging from the C1C2D range being working class and a small percent is studying in higher education. The average reader also spends around 15 hours a week on the internet, they like to use social networking sites, finding out the latest information on their favourite artists and actors, finding out when their latest movies, concerts and albums are releasing.