Evaluation Question 5

How did you attract/address your audience?

When deciding how to attract and address my audience, I felt it necessary to take precautions to make sure my magazine was appealing in every way to my target audience and also so that it filled their needs. I believe the colours I used on the cover; red, black and white, would have attracted my audience, as these colours fit their culture perfectly. Also these three colours compliment each other brilliantly. I only used three colours to keep it minimal so my magazine did not become too colourful, therefore becoming too much for the reader. Someone of the Indie genre would want to buy my magazine because of the colour scheme, the articles advertised on the front cover, as these will interest my target audience and the price, as it's easily affordable, even in the lifestyle of a student.
When it came to writing my contents and double page spread, I believe I would have connected with my audience through language. I believe I spoke in a way that my readers could associate themselves with and relate to, e.g. 'Katy B just chillin' in a hallway, as you do'. To do this, however, I had to differ in the language of which I speak, however I did not find this difficult, as, despite not speaking it, I was familiar with this dialect. During my double page spread, I thought it would be best if I included phrases and words that my audience would be familiar with, keeping them interested, e.g. "Magnetic Man treated me like shit". I believe my easily readable and understandable conventions would have also attracted my audience, as you don't have to hunt for the price, or the article you want, it's very easily read.
When it came to my content choices, I thought to myself 'what would be part of an Indie person's ideal magazine' and with this, I got the answers; gigs, Indie artists, them to have their say, chances to meet stars and a chance to win cash.
When it came to layout, I looked at other magazines under the same genre as mine; NME and Q. I chose these because they are very popular, well-known and loved magazines in the Indie genre. Therefore if the layouts work for these magazines and are appealing for the same audience as mine then, I thought, if i adopted a few of the conventions and layout techniques and combined it with my own, it would work well. I believe my magazine has came out well and would provide competition for big magazines in my genre; NME and Q. My colour cheme was always going to be red, white and black, due to the importance in the Indie colour these colours hold, it was just combining them with my layout to make sure the pieces of text I need to stand out, stood out. I used 'NME' as a main template when designing my magazine and choosing how to to address my audience and what language to use.
I believe my magazine to be informative, bold and fresh. I believe, with my magazine, I researched and took the best things from my competitors and combined them all into my own magazine, therefore reaching out and becoming more attractive to my target audience. I believe I offered something for every sub-culture within the Indie genre, therefore keeping my target audience happy.