Evaluation Question 4: Who would be the audience for your media product?

Every piece of media that is published should have an intended target audience who the author is trying to reach out to. It is very important for media marketing companies to know their audiences very well, because if they print something that their readers don’t like then they may stop buying the magazine which would cut their profits. Magazine editors also need to know what kind of topics their target audience want to read so that they can keep their readership engaged. The target audience is very important when designing a magazine as it will influence the colour scheme, layout, and content among many other factors.

Media companies use Vals( values and lifestyles) and demographics in order to try and pinpoint a target audience. The Vals system categorizes people into different groups such as Survivors and Thinkers. These groups are calculated based upon on peoples personality and social standing. While demographics on the other hand is the use of statistics such as gender and age groups in order to try and gauge who would buy the magazine.

As part of the planning process I created an audience profile in order to help me to identify the sort of person who would read the music magazine that I was trying to create. Below I have posted a quick summary of Shockwave's core target audience.


Summary


Age Group:16-25
ABC1: 80%
Gender: 65% Male 35% Female
Student Percentage: 75%
Target Vals Group: Innovator


I selected a relatively young target age group as the magazine focusses a lot on technology and teenagers generally are very skilled in this particular field. My magazine is for people who like music who can't understand the hype around big names such as Justin Bieber. It is supposed to act as a quality product for casual music fans and it is supposed to appeal to the person who does not like fanzines for hardcore Beleibers. In terms of Vals group I am targeting the type of person who matches the Innovator archetype. I decided to target this group because in theory they are the most open to new ideas and experimenting with technology which is a key aspect o the magazine.