Target audience questionnaire

To fully understand my target audience, I have devised a questionnaire. This will help me understand my TA and with their answers it can help be make my magazine suitable for their needs and wants.

I gave out the questionnaire to 10 people, out of the 10 there was;

• One 12's
• Two people aged 13-14
• Three people aged 15-17
• Four people aged over 18

 From the results of the questionnaire, I have found out that pop is the most popular genre with 6 out of the 10 people asked. There was at least one person from each age category that chose pop as their favourite genre. The most popular age group that chose pop was the over 18 category (3 out of the 4), which did come as a surprise as I thought the 13-14s would chose pop as their favourite. However, pop wasn't the only genre chosen. As well as pop, people ticked soul or indie as their favourite genre of music. This shows that people have a varied music taste and like more than one type of music. But it does show that pop music is popular.

 When asked if they bought music magazines; four people left the question out, two answered "no" and four answered "yes". The reasons the two answered no was because:-

• of lack of availibility
• couldn't find a magazine that appealed to their music genre preference
• didn't have their favourite artist in that often

The four that answered yes was because:-

• They like reading reviews of artists they like and they like finding out about new artists
• Music is their life, so they enjoy reading about all aspects of music
• If they see something on the cover that is interesting, they'll buy it.
• They like knowing what's going on in the musical world and like being up-to-date

 This shows that music magazines are still being bought, as people like to read about their favourite artists or like learning about new artists. Also, people like being kept up-to-date with everything that's going on and that if the cover of a magazine looks interesting, then some people will go and buy it. However, it does show that perhaps magazines aren't easily accessable everywhere, whether that's to do with where they live or if magazines don't get distributed to their local shops. Also, that perhaps magazines don't show enough varied artists. Some magazines show the same artists in a magazine each time which can put people off from buying a magazine.

 When it came to the question with price, everyone who answered said they would pay over £2 for a magazine. This did come a shock, as I thought everyone would want to pay as little as possible. However, they said that if it was something they really wanted, they would pay whatever the price is. Having said that, I think it's still important not to set the price too high as this could put off people who doesn't have a high socio economic status. And also, if my magazine and another magazine have the same person on the front, they would go for the cheaper magazine of the two, which is another reason to set the price pretty low.

 The parts of magazine people said they liked were things like;

• Reviews of up-coming albums
• Everything
• Articles on artists, mostly new up-and-coming artists
• Pictures
• Interviews
• Charts
• Quizzes
• Gossip pages

Things they weren't too keen on were things like;

• Advertisements (although they recognised they were essential)
• Lack of variety
• Price
• Giving unfair comments to artists that are just starting out
• When they write about an artist or band, without doing their research
• Horoscopes

 This shows that to make my magazine successful, I should include features that people enjoy about the magazine; pictures, interviews, reviews etc. And should try and not include things that aren't as popular, such as having a lack of variety and being bias on artists.

Additional comments:
These are what two people said would make them buy a magazine;

"It’s important in media to cover the whole spectrum of music. From mainstream to underground from past to present. If I saw everything in different genres as well as mainstream through underground and like past interviews of ‘old school’ artists maybe with like, an update too. Variety sales because people now a days are interested in so many different views, plus more ‘walks’ of life would buy a music magazine too."
and
"Something free in those pages."

 So, again, variation is important to many people who have an interests in many music genres. Also, people like free gifts in their magazines, which may be the difference between someone buying your magazine or a magazine with a free gift.