Prelim: Audience Research

June 10, 2018

Prelim: Audience Research - Focus Group

I conducted a focus group, as I wanted to see visual reactions from my desired audience. I also wanted to see how my readers would initially react to magazines and questions about their style. This would allow me to see what their initial reactions are when a cover is presented before them, immediately forming their opinion and preference of magazine. Since my mainly only reached consumers aged 14-16 - as I mainly had reach to those ages- I aimed and managed to include older audiences through asking pupils from the 6th form; part of my secondary school. My questions were:

1. What are your ages and genders? - this would allow me to see any correlations between ages/genders and style preferences.

2. What is your favourite fashion brand and why? - from this i will be able to base an initial fashion type to each participant. I can link their further answers to the style of fashion associated with their brand.

3. Which colour scheme is most appealing and why? - this question was asked as the use of the visual magazine would allow the viewer to realistically see the colours of the magazine. It can allow me to see what the readers initial thought to the colour scheme of a cover is when they first pick up the issue.

4. Which font out of all the colours do you prefer and why? - this would allow me to link a font, if it is formal (serif), informal (san serif), with a preferred theme with older readers.

5. Based on these covers which magazine are you most likely to read and why? - from this i can see the participants overall judgement of which magazine is most appealing to my target audience. It will also help me distinguish any similarities or differences between the age range (14-16) of the contributors from the online survey, and the age range of the focus group (17-18). I can also clearly see the style preferences from including a 15 year old alongside older participants in the interview.

6) Did you choose that magazine more because of the fashion displayed or because of the model? - I asked this question so I could see whether using a significant model distracted the reader from the actual clothing and articles presented on the covers.

7) From the ones you chose is there anything you would change on it to improve it? - from this i can see whether or not i can take the improvements from the professional magazines and use it in my work.