Product Placement

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.