My Reader Profile

1st draft of my own reader profile:

This is my own reader profile that I have created through the research I conducted of my genre target audience. When creating my own reader profile, I followed the conventions of an existing reader profile under my chosen genre (classic rock).  As you can see, I have included the key stats, such as the gender and age, as well as quotes that I feel are necessary in order to reinforce the idea that the magazine is effective and sellable to the audience.This is the reader profile I followed:

As you can see from this reader profile, there is the reference of statistics and facts. By including statistics and facts, this portrays a realistic representation of the audience of MOJO magazine. Information such as readership, mean age, social class (ABC1), and social media is all included on the reader profile in order to establish the key information about the audience.

Although this reader profile is effective reader profile, I believe that I need to conduct more research about my target audience that will help me produce a more effective reader profile.

I have also included the purpose of reading. As I stated earlier, I felt that pop magazines were read as they share inside gossip about celebrities whereas I want my audience to read my magazine to learn about the music under this genre, the fashion and the icons that made the classic rock genre famous.

Finally, I have included a contact list (consisting of the email, website and number) in case the audience want to communicate with the institution about the reader profile.

After serious contemplation, I chose to adapt my reader profile, therefore I carried out a survey on the website www.surveymonkey.com, which allowed me to create an effective questionnaire consisting of open and closed questions as well as psychographic and demographic questions. By including a variety of question styles, this allows me to dive into further depth of my target audience, for example, psychographic questions are questions that refer to the audiences preference whereas demographic questions refer to the social status of my target audience. This will help me determin a price for my magazine.
This is the demographics table that will allow me establish the social class of my magazine.

Question one:

My survey began with the question 'how old are you?'. This is a demographic question that allows me to understand the age range of my target audience. By deterring the age group, this allows me to design an appropriate product for the specific age range. Eleven candidates answered this question and only one candidate was between the age of 41 - 50 years old, this obviously meant that ten candidates were between the age of 0 - 20 years old. This gave me an understanding as to the target audience of my magazine and therefore I will be creating a magazine aimed at teenagers between the age of 16 - 20.

Question two:

This is my second question, 'What is your annual household income?' Again, eleven candidates answered this question however, the answers were distributed across different options, for example, two candidates answered that their household income was below £10k, one candidate answered that their household income was betweek £10k - £20k, three candidates answered that their household income was between £20k - £30k, one candidate stated that their household income was between £30k - £40k, and finally four candidates stated that their household income was between £40k and £50k+. As the majority of my target audience stated that their household income was between £20k - £30k, I feel that by pricing my magazine at a price that these candidates can afford will help my magazine become affordable and wanted by not only my target audience but also by a bigger and wider audience. As I stated earlier, my target audience is teenagers between the age of 16 - 20, and as the majority of teenagers are in full time education around this age, I am aware of the restrictions they have to make in order to live sustainably therefore an affordable price will persuade my target audience to purchase my magazine.

Question three:

My third question is 'what is your gender?' This is a demographic question that aims to find out the majority of sexes who would read my magazine. By looking at this feedback, I am aware that my target audience roughly contains more females than males. As you can see from this research, for every four males, there are seven females therefore, I will achieve the highest profit if I cater my magazine to the female gender.

Question four:

For my fourth question, I was aiming to find out the ethnic background of my target audience therefore I chose to ask 'what is your ethnic background?' Fourteen candidates answered this question and they all answered with White British therefore I will be definitely aiming my magazine at the White British culture in order to propel my profits for the institutions benefit.

Question five:

In order to establish how my audience access their music, I asked the question 'How do you access your music?' With 12 responses, the majority (91%) of my audience replied with streaming. Second, my (83%) of my audience stated that they listened to music via Youtube. Only 58% stated that they listened to music via iTunes which was a shock as I believe that iTunes was a popular form of music access due to the rapid proliferation of digital technology. 

Two candidates stated that they accessed their music via vinyls, Spotify and live shows. 

When creating my magazine, I will include logo's such as Youtube/Vevo, iTunes and Spotify in order to entice my audience to purchase this magazine.

Question six:

This is question sex. For question six, I aimed to establish the favourite artist or band within the classic rock genre. I understand to controversy with this question as the candidates asked to complete this survey may not follow the Classic Rock genre and therefore they may be completely lost as to who falls under the Classic Rock genre. Through this research, I gathered that:

Five candidates chose The Red Hot Chili Peppers
Four candidates chose Bon Jovi
Three candidates chose Led Zeppelin
Three candidates chose Nirvana
Three candidates chose Queen
Two candidates chose ACDC
Two candidates chose Black Sabbath
One candidate chose Rainbow
One candidate chose Aerosmith
One candidate chose Bryan Adams
One candidate chose Slipknot
One candidate chose The Beatles
One candidate chose Jack White
One candidate chose Flock
One candidate chose Metallica
One candidate chose Alice Cooper
One candidates chose CCR
One candidate chose Marilyn Manson
One candidate chose Kings of Leon
One candidate chose Sock
One candidate chose The Guess Who
One candidate chose Motorhead
One candidate chose Guns 'n' Roses

Overall, when creating my magazine, I will feature artists such as The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Bon Jovi, Led Zeppelin, Nirvana, Queen, ACDC and finally Black Sabbath on the front cover, contents page and double page spread of my magazine. This will entice my target audience to purchase my magazine as well as reinforcing the conventions of the Classic Rock genre.

Question seven: 

This is my seventh question on my questionnaire. This establishes how often my target audience attend a live music event, I have asked this psychographic question to highlight whether my target audience prefer attending live music events or not. This will help me during the production stage of the creation of my magazine as I will be able to feature competition plugs such as 'win free concert tickets' or offers such as 'buy this magazine for free concert tickets'. This will help sell my product and make it a profit for my institution. As you can see from my research, only twelve candidates have answered this question however it was enough for me to gather an idea of whether my target audience would feel obliged to purchase this magazine as they are getting something in return. 

Question eight:

This question aimed to establish what my target audience would prefer as a freebie when buying this magazine. I found that the majority of candidates who answered this question would prefer a clothing voucher. This evidently goes to show that my target audience would purchase my magazine if it featured a free clothing voucher. However, due to the classic rock genre of my magazine, I feel this gift is not an effective technique that will help sell my product. I feel something more appropriate such as a wristband, CD or discounted ticket for a concert will be more suitable for my target audience.

Question nine:

In order to establish the colours most associated with the Classic Rock genre, I have asked candidates what three colours they most associate with the Classic Rock genre. it is evident that red is the most popular colour as seven candidates stated that this was the colour they most associated with the Classic Rock genre. Black came closely second with six candidates stating that they associate black with the Classic Rock genre. Four candidates stated that the colour white was the colour they associated the most with the Classic Rock genre. Only two candidates stated that purple was a colour they mostly associated with this genre. And finally, three people individually voted for grey, gold or silver. I will follow the response from my target audience and follow the key ideas that red, black and white are most commonly associated with the Classic Rock genre.

Question ten:

Question ten is my final question. I aimed to focus on how much my target audience spend when purchasing music annually. I have found that the majority of my target audience (46%) spent between £0 - £30. This shows that my target audience are willing to purchase a CD or merchandise for their favourite artist/band, therefore I believe it will be ideal for me to feature a free CD when purchasing this magazine as this will benefit my target audience by giving them the chance to buy a magazine and a free CD.

After completing this audience research, I have adjusted my reader profile in order to cater more to my target audience. This is my new reader profile:

As you can see, I have adapted the statistics of my reader profile in order to reference my audience in more depth.