I will be evaluating the effectiveness of my magazine research in enabling me to develop ideas in preparation for my proposal and front cover. Methods include:QuestionnairesFocus groups Media packs NRS data

A questionnaire is a primary research method. Its results provide qualitative data. Questionnaires are effective because they allow large amounts of data to be collected on a wide range of subjects. However, quantitative date does have its limitations for example, the nature of the questions encourages only closed answers. This in turn leads to less detailed and insightful research.

The questionnaire helped me gather a brief overview of my target audience preferences. In my opinion the questions regarding style, layout and design proved to be of the greatest assistance when considering the compilation of my publication. This is because style, layout and design are all factors that can vary, Therefore, it was vital that I listened to my questionnaire feedback in order for publication to be successful in appealing to my audience. In addition, this knowledge helped me clearly document ideas in my proposal presentation and consider front cover layouts and designs. For example, my questionnaire respondents helped me to choose the title of my publication- ‘Rabona’.

Moreover, the responses helped me to decide what types of font styles should be included in each issue. The participants concluded that a mixture of serif and sans serif font style would be important in order for the publication to be interesting and visually appealing. Furthermore, the respondents indicated that they would prefer to see the colours red and blue included in my publication, they sighted reasons such as “The colours red and blue are commonly associated in football. This will give the magazine a feeling of familiarity.”

Contrastingly, questions regarding cover star and included topics did not produce responses of the greatest detail. This was because the question style did not allow the participant to fully expand their thoughts and feelings. Although, these areas of my research were vague and lacking substance, I was able to fill in the gaps with information from different research methods.

My audience research influenced many aspects of my proposal and magazine front cover. For example- price, publishing schedule and feature were all decided. My audience explained that in order for my magazine to be a success it needed to cover a wide range of subjects, spanning across continental and international competition, whilst

considering aspects of football commonly ignored by pre-existing publications such as women’s completive play.

Furthermore, with the help of demographic research I was able to understand my target audience in better detail. For example, I began to comprehend the term ‘socio-economic status’. I soon relised that socio-economic status was split into many different ‘social groups’. With further research into my target audience’s demographics I was able to identify that 16-19-year-olds fell under social grade ‘E’. Having access to this information allowed me to understand that my young target audience would be unable to purchase my magazine if the price was too high. This conclusion was also reflected in the questionnaire responses. The participants indicated the £2.50 for a weekly magazine represented good and fair value.

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In addition, my questionnaire documented that my target audience would find added extras such as a free gift persuasive. It was important to gain this information early in the creation process because the inclusion of a ‘free gift!’ graphic will have a defined impact on the layout and design of my front cover.

I distributed the questionnaire to 10 of my classmates, who fitted within the target age criteria. However, I realised that the results of my questionnaire did not reflect the thoughts and feelings of all my target audience. Moreover, the small amount of responses could potentially lead to discrepancies in my results. This is because my classmates who completed the questionnaire all have varying degrees of interest in football meaning that some participants were unable to produce detailed answers.

Alongside my questionnaire I also conducted a focus group. Focus groups are a form of primary research. Secondly, they provide qualitative data. Focus groups are effective because face to face interaction between the interviewer and the interviewee can lead to interesting and insightful responses that can further aid research development. However, focus groups can be difficult to organise and time consuming.

It was important to careful consider my focus group participants. At first this proved a challenge. However, I was eventually able to conduct the group with four family members that fell into the age criteria and had a reasonable interest in football.

I found that questions regarding content and design worked well in my focus group. This is because the open nature of the questioning allowed the participants to fully express their feelings on my proposed concepts and ideas. For example, when I asked about the proposed publication title ‘Rabona’. The group indicated that this name would make my publication ‘stand out from its competitors’. This positive feedback was echoed by the majority of the group. In addition, building on rudimentary feedback from my questionnaire I was able to further understand the undesirable aspect of preexisting publications. For instance, I asked the participants; ‘What do you dislike about currently existing football publications?’. Answers included; " Some articles can be too text heavy therefore, making them boring and unattractive to read."Answers such as the above laid the foundations for the content I was going to include in my magazine. It allowed me to realise that many pre-existing football publications have made their content unappealing to teenagers and younger readers. Therefore, I now understand that in order for my magazine to be successful I need to incorporated a balance of article formats. I believe that I could have improved the quality of my focus group research. This could have been achieved by asking the participants to expand their answers further. In order for me to gain an even greater understanding of the preference of my target audience. Media packs are a form of secondary research. The purpose of the media pack is to give a brief overview of a publications target audience, aims and message. At first it proved challenging to successfully locate a reliable media pack source. However, after an extensive search I was able to find a media pack from a market competitor- FourFourTwo magazine. (FourFourTwo media pack)

Three values drive everything we do: Insight. Access. Humour. And that’s what you can expect from any FourFourTwo product, whether it’s an award-winning app, our global-local website or our world-famous magazine.It’s also what you’ll get from any member of our team. We like to think we understand football and football content better than any other media brand out there, which is why we collaborate with the best players, the biggest brands and the most talented journalists in the world.We tell great stories to an intelligent, influential audience of fans and players. And we’d love to hear from you.

Research into media packs has helped me to understand how pre-existing publication document their desired message. For example, FourFourTwo magazine place emphasis on including humour into their publication. Evidently, by conducting their own market research the FourFourTwo brand have decide using elements of humour will appeal greatly to their audience.

When considering the details of my magazine proposal this section of my research proved crucial. FourFourTwo are amongst the leaders in the football publication market. The FourFourTwo brand have maintained and increased their market share of a sustained period of time. Therefore, in order for publication to be successful in need to acknowledge the parts of FourFourTwo magazine that are positive and build upon them with my own ideas and ethos.

NRS data is a form of secondary research. Its results are quantitative. The NRS data revealed that FourFourTwo magazine as a weekly male readership of 126,000, this is compared to a 5,000 female readership. This section of my research helped me in the creation of my front cover because I knew from the NRS figures that I would be trying to appeal to a male majority audience. In turn this knowledge helped me to decide that the front cover should contain stereotypically masculine colours such as blue, red and black. In addition, this indicated that sans serif fonts style would have a greater appeal to the target audience because the sans serif sans font has masculine connotations.For the contextual element of my research I sought inspiration from the FourFourTwo magazine company.

This was an initial logo and masthead font idea. At first I thought this design idea could potentially work for my final product. The graphic shows a footballer attempting the rabona skill. When carrying out the rabona action using the left foot the letter R is created by movement of the legs. This potentially could have been the element of my publication that set it apart for its competitors because of it unusually and quirky appearance. However, after further consideration and audience research I decided that this font idea would be unclear and confusing for the reader.

This is my final masthead idea. I decided to choose this font style because it is clear and legible for the reader. Moreover, its free flowing and circular appearance makes it contrasting to other mastheads. In addition, the lower caps text gives the masthead its own individual identity, while still maintaining a feeling of informality. Furthermore, in my opinion this irregular masthead proposal reflects the characteristics of the publication perfectly.

For example, these two magazine front covers use bold sans serif font styles predominately. I believed in order for my own publication to be successful I needed to incorporate a mixture of the two font styles. Therefore, having the masthead in strictly serif font style will allow be to experiment with bold sans serif fonts on the rest of the front cover without it becoming boring and unappealing.

Article source: FourFourTwo

Evaluating Psychographics

When analysing the media pack of the FourFourTwo magazine I was able to conclude that in my opinion the publication was trying to target mainstreamers, and reformers. This is because many of FFTs articles cover mainstream topics and subjects that Would appeal to a mass audience. Moreover, reformer-who seek enlightenment will also value the FFTs content because of it detailed and factual nature. In addition, I believe that this magazine targets and would also appeal to succeeders because the FFT media pack states that “We tell great stories to an intelligent, influential audience of fans.” The phrase ‘influential’ is commonly associated with the succeeders section of the psychographic table and indicates that the FFT brand is actively trying to appeal to this audience criterion.

My publication will also include mainstream content. Secondly, it will also appeal to reformers who demand enlightenment and knowledge. I will aim to appeal to reformers by

producing interesting and insightful content. However, in contrast to FFT magazine I will also aim to appeal the explores. This group stereotypically includes people from a younger demographic (students). It is important that I appeal to this psychographic because student fall directly into my target audience criteria (16-19Y/O). I will appeal to explores my producing content that will aid discover and education. Moreover, I will aim to create content the differentiates from rival publication by covering a wide and diverse range of topics. Plus, I will try to present my publications contents in a fresh and initiative way.

Analysing ContentFour-Four-Two 2014-15 Season Preview issueThe cover of the publication is bright and colour. The masthead, captions and other informational texts are in Sans Serif font style. The layout and design allows the front cover to grab the eye of potential readers.Delving into the magazine I am able to see the advertisement of the four-four-two weekly football app. This is an effective marketing ploy used by the publication because I know from my NRS research that interaction with social media and creation of applications allows a publication to increase its readership and market share.Looking further into the magazine There is a range of different articles covering the interest of a multitude of teams. The information includes- stats and facts, verdicts and strengths/weaknesses. Teams ranging from the premiership- League 2 receive analysis from the publications writers. This is effective because the magazine is able to appeal to the majority of football fans.The advertisement continues throughout the issue. Ads include other commissioned application and a payed advertisement of mentos.