Product Placement
Market
My chosen genre for my music magazine is ‘Indie’ as this is
one of the most popular genres of music at the moment. The magazine I am going
to be making will be in competition with other music magazines like ‘Q’ and
‘NME’. From my questionnaire I know that there is a gap in the market for an
indie music magazine like mine as many other indie music magazines are very
focused on a specific style of indie music (indie-rock, indie-pop, indie-folk)
whereas my magazine will focus on the more generalised indie artists but centre
itself around the themes of ‘vintage’ coming back into fashion, so including
content on old artists being rediscovered, vinyl coming back and have an
aesthetic that suits the vintage style.
Target Audience:
My research
has also shown me that my target audience needs to be for 14-17 year olds as
this is the age that most people listen to indie music and are more likely to
purchase an indie music magazine either in stores or online. I also believe
that people in this age bracket are more likely to go to a concert, festival or
music event and I plan to include content on this in my magazine that would.
I will also find it easier to relate to my chosen target audience as
I am a part of it and this means that I have similar preferences and can
make decisions more inclined to please my target audience. I also think that due to an increased use of Web 2.0, my magazine will
suit my target audience as they can share the magazine and spread awareness of
its existent quickly and easily via social media sites.
Publisher
Deciding on
the way my magazine will be published is important as this is how my product
will reach the widest audience possible. I need a publisher that will help produce
my magazine as a high quality product and distribute my magazine in many
different supermarkets, online stores, shops and newsagents as this will give
my magazine the exposure to grow its audience. ‘Q’ magazine is published by
Bauer Media Group who manages over 600 magazines, has print shops, postal,
distribution and marketing services and approximately 11,000 employees in 17 countries.
I think that my magazine’s publisher should be Bauer Media group as they can
give my magazine the biggest audience and exposure as I plan to eventually
spread my magazine to Europe and eventually the USA and the offices that the
company has abroad could make this happen.
Distribution:
For the
distribution of my magazine I also plan to use the methods of ‘Q’ magazine as
they are sold in many different magazine sections across the country in supermarket
chains, newsagents, high street stores (like WHSmith) and even on online
stores. To reach an even wider audience I am also going to create a digital
version of my magazine available in the form of an app for all smart phones;
this will increase the amount of readers as it is easier to access and my
target audience is the younger generation who are increasingly using Web 2.0 to
share content. For those who purchase the app, exclusive interviews, videos and
news of private gigs will be available for them to access and the option to subscribe
for monthly issues will be available. I plan to also collaborate with many music
stores to distribute my magazine so that I can increase sales as many of my
target audience would shop in the kind of stores I plan to work with; these
stores include HMV, the Rock Box vinyl shop in Camberley and many smaller vinyl
and vintage clothing stores in London.
