Evaluation Question 5 - How did you attract/address your audience?

INTENDED AUDIENCE: 

• 16 - 24 year olds 
• Teenagers and students 
• "Explorers" and "Reformers" 
• From a B/C1 socio-economic background

Ways in which I tried to attract my target audience:

1. House style: From generic research, I found that there is little to no indie music magazine directed specifically at teenagers/students. In general, acknowledged music magazines are aimed at people in their twenties and early thirties since they are perceived to have better knowledge of music than teenagers. Because of this, the style of the magazine often comes across as boring and unappealing to teenagers. 

FOR EXAMPLE: 

NME recently underwent a makeover which affected their house style. Previously, their iconography was red. This was their iconic colour throughout the decades the publication has been around, which meant their reader demographic was mainly in their early thirties and above.

However, the renovated cover has a much more minimalistic house style and features artists of all genres including the likes of Taylor Swift, Zayn Malik and Justin Bieber. The various styles for each cover means that the reader demographic has shifted in terms of age.  They now have much younger readers because the forms and conventions are much more attractive for younger readers.

The house style for Junction is essentially a hybrid of NME's older and new style; it maintains a simple colour scheme, but not quite minimalist. 

From my focus group feedback questionnaire, 85.7% of responses said that they would read my magazine based on only my front page. This proves that I have attracted my target audience effectively.

2. Model: Many of the responses from the feedback questionnaire said that the front image was intriguing and because of the way I had edited the photo, the blue of the model's eyes were emphasised and rather captivating.

(Please click to enlarge)

Through the use of direct mode of address, the image manages to draw in and create a strong connection with the audience. Furthermore, with the way the model is hiding the lower half of her face with her hands, an aura of mystery and enigma is created. Since Junction is a magazine that promotes new, unknown artists, many readers may be unaware of who 'Luna' is. They will feel inclined to find out who she is and why she said what she said (regarding the quote on the front cover).



Social Media: Teenagers are essentially "digitally native" and the main way in which to communicate and address with them as a target audience would be through the use of social media. It offers a direct link between the institution and audience. According to a recent survey...

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/tk-facts-about-teens-on-social-media-that-are-really-scary_us_55a7c6f0e4b0896514d06eab

To take advantage of this, on my contents page, I included a section in the bottom right corner ("Hit us up!") where there are links to the various social media pages that Junction has - Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, as well as a website link.

To reach an even broader audience, I think it would have been beneficial to include a Snapchat, Vine and/or a Tumblr link.



"Audience Reviews": Readers can take part in the production of the magazine through the segment by sending in reviews of their own.

Teenagers and students are often neglected and there are very few professional platforms where their views can be deemed influential. So there will be many teens who will enjoy Junction purely because it promotes interactive audience engagement.