Focus Group- Primary and Secondary audiences

Name: Bonnie Grieve

Age: 21 

Gender: Female

Race: White (British)

Occupation: Apprentice in Marketing 

Location: Southend-on-Sea, Essex

Interests: socialising with friends, walking my dog, film, music, travel, pilates 

Values/ Brief application: I love consuming BBC media as it informs my work and helps me to understand their ideologies and viewpoints. My favourite magazine is Grazia, as I am able to not only keep up-to-date with the latest fashion trends but also be informed of celebrity culture and gossip. 

Name: Evie Lander

Age: 17

Gender: Female

Race: White (British)

Occupation: Student

Location: Southend-on-Sea, Essex

Interests: Dancing, reading, charity shopping, baking, and socialising with friends 

Psychometric group: Aspirer and Explorer

Values/ Brief application: I like to keep up-to-date with the media and what is trending in fashion. I prefer to read a magazine online as I find it more engaging and is often related to me in some way. I dislike reading about overly-complicated, hard news like politics. My favourite magazine is 'Take a Break' because I wish for escapism and love to hear other people's stories.

Name: Sam Morris

Age: 21

Gender: Male

Race: White (British) 

Occupation: Student

Location: Oslo, Norway and Essex

Interests: Socialising with friends, charity shopping, travelling, baking vegan goods and journalism

Psychometric group: Explorer and Mainstreamer

Values/ Brief application: Due to doing a journalism degree at the University of Sheffield, I love to consume as much media as I can, whether online or in a physical print magazine. I believe in empathy towards all living creatures and our world, therefore I occupy myself with media related to ethical living and trailblazers of marginalised groups 

Name: Emma Grieve

Age: 52

Gender: Female

Race: White (British)

Occupation: Estate agent

Location: Southend-on-Sea, Essex

Interests: Music, Walking my dog, socialising with friends and family, shopping, interior design

Psychometric group: Explorer and Mainstreamer 

Values/Brief application: I love to read print magazines when I get the time on the weekends. My favourite magazines are lifestyle magazines, in particular home design and fashion. I like to think that I am conscious of the news, whether having read about it or watched it on television, however dislike to read heavy politics and law. 

Name: Oliver Husslebee

Age: 32

Gender: Male

Race: White (British)

Occupation: Trading and Finance

Location: Southend-on-Sea, Essex

Interests: Sports, going to London to watch Football matches, socialising with friends and family, Cars, Travelling, Cycling

Psychometric group: Mainstreamer and a Succeeder 

Values/Brief application: On the train to work, I read the online GQ as well as checking my news apps. I enjoy reading magazines based on particular interests, such as The Economist and MoneyWeek. I dislike reading long-winded articles of gossip (celebrity gossip) as due to having little downtime, I prefer knowledgeable and straightforward articles.

Name: Mia Hidveghy

Age: 17

Gender: Female

Race: White (British)

Occupation: Student

Location: Southend-on-Sea

Interests: Music, reading, socialising with friends, baking, travel, shopping

Pscychometric group: Aspirer 

Values/Brief Application: I love to consume media both online and on print. I often like to read either a book or a fashion magazine when travelling abroad, either on the plane or at the beach. I believe I am quite environmentally aware and enjoy shopping at charity shops and trying to re-style outfits. My favourite magazine is Cosmopolitan.

Name: Danielle Zarb-Cousin 

Age: 30 

Gender: Female 

Race: White (British)

Occupation: Model and Influencer

Location: Southend-On-Sea, Essex 

Interests: Music, fashion, beauty, classic films, country music, vegan food/healthy and sustainable living. 

Psychometric group : Aspirer/explorer 

Application to brief: I enjoy consuming content that is original and not following social media trends. As a creator, I am always looking for the next big thing before it happens. Originality is very important to me. I like to consume and can appreciate content that has been well thought out and not ripped off someone else. I enjoy content that promotes and shows how to achieve a more sustainable lifestyle, whether that be buying vintage fashion or showing how to up-cycle homeware. I tend to stay away from mainstream media news and engage more in smaller media forms for information as I find they do not engage in media bias like the big news companies do. I also follow a few ‘Good News’ channels as I find the mainstream media outlets can be overwhelming and can focus on the negative. The majority of the content I consume is online using social media sites and websites such as Pinterest for inspiration but I do buy magazines if I feel they contain information I would want to present in a mood board (home and lifestyle) or information I would want to keep for a long time, for example a magazine showing new vegan sustainable recipes would be something I would purchase because I prefer to have it in physical form and not on my phone. 

Textual Analysis: Vogue

 

JUNE 2021

Typography: 

• Sans Serif( very typical for mainstream magazines), coheres to the brand identity of Vogue with the iconic font of the magazine 

Layout:

• Bold masthead at top of the magazine, hidden behind Eilish- shows she is important whilst also shows the brand as well-known therefore they are able to cover some of it
• Typical cover lines- not obstructing the view of the celebrity/model on the front page
• Goes against usual connotations with little on the way of cover lines- due to being such a big brand, does not need to include much to encourage people to buy it

Language and Image:

• "Fabulous summer fashion"- rhymes, encourages audience to buy to see what is popular in high-end fashion- links to the aspirational psychographic 
• "The female face of modern diplomacy"- international superstar and role model, link to an exclusive interview and cover of her in the article later on, assumes she is the best and the embodiment of the modern target audience- a chance to find out more for the people who may not know why- suspence
• Billie Eilish image= authentic and original as no other magazine had seen her in this amount of clothing and in lingerie 
• Celebrity= big celebrity, encourage purchase as she is popular with the target audience, pop star, exclusive cover 
• Pink colour scheme= connotes feminine empowerment and feminism- Billie Eilish's own brand also represents this 
• Medium long shot- we are able to see Eilish' outfit, representing feminism
• Serious facial expression- represents seriousness of her brand and the issue of feminism in the cover lines- focusing on serious issues not just fashion and beauty

- Pattern of cover lines being 'post-covid'/'post-lockdown'- brings in audience as it creates excitement about the lockdown lifting and what high-fashion magazines suggest to do/wear etc- particularly brings in the aspirer psychometric as they may wish to follow or adapt to the 'Vogue guide to life'

Idea Moodboard 3: Beauty

 

Idea Moodboard 2: Weddings

 

Idea Moodboard 1: Fashion

 

History and Industrial context

Industrial Context 

 

 

Origin:

Magazines are found to be sourced in the spate of pamphlets, broadsides, ballads, chapbooks, and almanacs that made printing possible. The earliest magazine appears to have been the German Erbauliche Monaths-Unterredungen (1663–68; “Edifying Monthly Discussions”), started by Johann Rist, a theologian and poet of Hamburg. 

 

 

17^th Century to now:

In the 17^th century, magazines were a way of finding out news, reading poetry and prose. The idea was for a magazine to be  ‘entertaining and serious, rational and unsophisticated’. However, in today’s society, whilst having many similarities to original magazines, they have to provide information on particular niches and focus on trends or issues, giving background information on important news events whilst also being entertaining for audiences to read. 

Both of the magazines on the left were written in the 1700’s. As you can see, they both lack colour and illustrations and are in a different format to the modern day examples of the lifestyle magazines on the right. It shows clear coverlines to represent the topics and stories in the magazine, highlighting a ‘try-before-buy’ technique. 

The impact of social media and competition:

The growth of social media and the internet has highly impacted not only the magazine industry but the way content is consumed and viewed.  Most magazines and newspapers now have their own website, with the same Stories, access to an online version of the product and the chance to subscribe to the online magazine also. On a statistia survey, it showed that between 2008 and 2020 the average readership of online magazines in the UK had risen by 36%, from 34% to 70%. By surveys like these, it shows the importance of online content of a magazine to be equal or a little superior to that of the print copy. Although it is evident that print is on the decline, many people are shown to still like to buy print, whether for experience or collection purposes, therefore, companies must still offer a print issue at this point in the 21st century. 

HEARST Magazine

Owners: William Randolph Hearst III (chairman) & Frank A. Bennack Jr. (executive vice chairman) & Steve Swartz (president and CEO)

HEARST communications was founded in 1887 in San Francisco, USA and is now based in New York City, 300 West 57th Street. Steven R. Swartz is the Chief Executive Officer of Hearst. It is a multi-media conglomerate and mass media business, who own several different magazines, newspapers, television stations and channels. 

The brand peaked as a whole between the 1920's and 1930's, they owned the biggest media conglomerate in the world, this included magazines in multiple cities and the merge of Hearst and Cosmpolitan magazine. The company's readership in the first decade grew from a readership of around 15,000 to a staggering 20 million. This figure highlights the popularity of this form of media and the success that the company have created. They circulate around 4 million magazines a month, with 26 million digital users and more than 79 million follows, likes, and shares on social media platforms.

They produce magazines such as:

• Cosmpolitan
• Bazaar
• Red
• Women's Health
• ELLE (US and UK)

Due to Hearst being the conglomerate on the brief and of my magazine, this information will help me in the planning and the creation as I can edit and match my style and genres similar to their own magazines. Therefore, I will also be reviewing magazines of similar style to Hearst's magazines (like Vogue), whilst also analysing Hearst' own (Cosmpolitan). This way I can gain more insite into lifestyle magazines and niche genre magazines in essence.

Audience research moodboard

Additional audience research

 Gen Z 

• More global- spread news and educated on how the world is  

• Under the influence- keep up with celebrities and through brands and social media  

• More demanding- need ease to find what they are looking for  

• Eager to stand out- focused on innovation and uniqueness  

• After experiences- if they are valuable and define the audience  

• Pro Social(responsibility)- message and having ethical value- not want to buy a product if bad for the environment  

• Opts for quick communication with 50% saying they send at least 50 texts/day  

  
  

  
  

  Distribution of Instagram users worldwide as of October 2021, by age group 

  
  

  Gen Z on Fashion 

  Due to a rise of TikTok, many of the well-known fashion trends, that TopShop used to harness, has now seen a change. For example, ASOS which is an online only shopping site have taken over brands, such as TopShop and Miss Selfridge. Gen Z’s goal in getting dressed also seems to be much more about idiosyncrasy. Due to the target audience being ‘Digital Natives’ and conscious of the environment, shopping on sites for secondhand clothes like Depop and Vinted have grown in popularity, being both affordable and unique. 

  Many celebrities and people in the public eye have been spotted to be either re-wearing clothes or re-styling them in a different way. For example, one of the most astonishing celebs was Princess Kate, where she has been photographed many years later, styling the same outfit.