Promotional Methods

Promotional Methods

When promoting my magazine, I have been thinking about a variety of ways in which this can be done successfully. There are various numbers of ways to promote a magazine, for example on the sides of buses and bus stops, launch parties, bilboards, posters, leaflets and many more. When choosing what methods I wanted to use I needed to think of how it would increase the circulation and readership of my magazine and appeal to my target audience of those aged 15-24 in the social bracket C2DE. It is important that the Promotional Methods that I choose are successful because this product is unknown to the market at the moment.

PICADILLY CIRCUS

TIMES SQUARE

One of the most popular ways to promote a product is on a bilboard which tends to be found on the sides of busy roads, near shopping centres or in a large city. I believe that these are an effective  choice because they are very big in size which will help catch the eye of the audience and are specifically placed in places where many people will be situated. There are many bilboards situated across countries so if this is a chosen promotional method, then it is key that I make it stand out from the other bilboards and make it look exciting and enticing. I plan on making sure that I include key details such as when the magazine will be released for the first time and the magazine's website. However, I would not include the price because it would be more likely for the audience that this medium is targeted at to go into the shop and have a look at it.


Another effective way of promoting a product is on the side of a bus. Buses drive across the country at all hours of the day so it is extremely likely that the majority of the population will see it. I believe that this is an effective choice for how I will promote my magazine because the target audience is of the ages 15-24 because half of them will not be able to drive and will most likely be taking public transport to get to work or school. Another good use of promoting a product within public transport is at train stations as there will be many commuters going to work or shopping for the day so this is another good way of getting a message across.


Some magazines may choose to have a launch party which is where they would invite important people from that industry to help boost their reputation and get contacts within the industry. For example with a music magazine I might invite editors from other big music magazines such as Q and NME but also popular musicians who fit with the genre that I have chosen.

Mood Board

Production Diary - Preparing for photoshoot

This week, I have been focusing on the chosen design of my magazine, which I have not yet finalised. I have been considering key factors such as the colour scheme and photo styles. On the 23.10.13 I have my photoshoot. I believe that once I have taken the photos for my magazine, it will be a lot easier to chose the style and ideology I wish to portray to my readers because I will be able to get the colours of the photos and magazine style to fit together, making sure that there is nothing to crazy and none of the chosen colours clash.

I got my model for my photoshoot, Mary to sign a model release which allows me to use the pictures and assures me that they will put in all the effort into making sure that I end up with high end and high quality images. It also allows me the chance to do a re-shoot if necessary.

The night before the shoot I will sit down and consider the different costumes that my model will be wearing and the props that will be used in the photoshoot such as a ukulele and a bowler hat.

I have decided that the colour scheme that I wish to go with will be black, white grey and either a shade of blue or blood red as I believe that these are statement colours which are extremely eye catching.

Once I have the images from my photoshoot, I will be able to cross off the backstage scenes and contact sheet of the things to do towards my final grade of my coursework for this AS Level.

Image Ideas

As a part of my planning for my magazine, I had to consider different designs that I would want to include in my photoshoot. Above you will find a collage that I created on a free collage making website called 'Fotor Photo Collage' where I added a variety of images of clothing, props and makeup that I could possibly use in my photoshoot. I decided that I wanted the style to be quite minimalistic, however include something that is quite bold and eye catching, e.g. bold, red lipstick; this was used to make a statement. I think that the red lipstick is a good prop as red has connotations of love and passion which signifies a musicians love and passion for music

Model Release

I have now chosen who I want to be in my photoshoot for my magazine, and to make sure that the model for my magazine is happy and decide that they do not want me to use the pictures anymore, I got them to sign a model release which allows me to use the pictures and to make sure that they understand that if need be, there may need to be re-shoots and that the quality of their work is to their best ability.

Possible Colour Schemes

I have started to think about the possible colour schemes that my magazine could consist of. Successful music magazines tend to consist of greyscale colours (black,white and grey) and then one colour which tends to be quite bold and bright. I decided that I wanted to go for a bright blue or deep red because I think that these colours will be very eyecatching and fit in well with the genre of music that I have chosen. These colours are not 100% definite because I need to make sure that the colour scheme fits in well with the photos that I take for the photoshoot, meaning this could all change when I have taken my pictures.

Sketches

 

Here are the sketches for what I predict my music magazine could possibly look like. Obviously, over the course of creating my magazine adjustments will be made to acheive higher marks and scores and all of the text, images and sell lines will be added to the appropriate pages. The production of sketches is a good idea because I feel that this helps me get an idea of what I want to produce and then I can go on from there.

Masthead Design Analysis

As a part of this homework, I had to choose five mastheads of existing music magazines and analyse them and discuss what I liked about them, what I disliked, choice of colours and typography, etc... I believe that this is an effective task because it allows me to look at a variety of designs and get some ideas for myself, it also allows me to see what is and is not effective when it comes to designing the masthead for a music magazine.

Magazine Names

Here are 20 names of music magazines that are currently in the music magazine industry. Some of these magazines are extremely big and popular and consist of the variety of styles that magazine names can consist of: Acronym, Phrase, Connotative and Compounds.
(below are some examples of these 4 styles)

Acronym - NME (New Musical Express)

Phrase - Top of the Pops

Connotative - Kerrang!

Compounds - Indie-pendent

I believe that the name of a magazine is an extremely important factor in to how successful a magazine is because it is a clear representation of what to expect inside and possibly what to expect style wise inside the magazine. No magazine names are the same in any way because even though magazines are similar is some ways, they all have their own quirks and differences to the content and style that they are producing.

Through the creation of the names of the magazines, it can be quite obvious as to what sort of genre a magazine might be covering. For example, 'Alternative' is obviously going to be covering alternative music, and 'Billboard' will obviously be covering music that is currently in the charts. However, a music such as 'MixMag' might not be as obvious as the word mix could suggest that the content inside is varied.

Production Diary - Choosing the Name and Masthead Design

Production Diary - 14.10.13

Today in class I had to consider different name ideas and masthead designs for the production of my music magazine. From the start I wanted to make sure that the designs that I have chosen are minimalistic yet effective because I think a front cover which is overly crowded with different colours and images can be quite overwhelming and not very effective.

When considering name ideas, I wanted to keep the name short, but punchy so that it left an effect on the reader because that way it will be memorable. I had to come up with 25 different name ideas that I could use for my magazine and some of them were:

• IM (Independent Music)
• Polyphonic
• Pitch
• Sync
• Loud
• Alternative
• Amplified
• and more..

I decided that I would present the ideas that I had considered on a programme called wordle which would put all of the words into a 'word bubble' where you could change the font, colour and layout. This was an effective way of presenting this because it looks like a brainstorm that you might do on a piece of paper or powerpoint but its another way of presenting my work.

Then I had to consider different designs for the masthead which I did on InDesign. I created about seven different designs which consisted of a similar colour scheme, yet different fonts and layouts such as letters being flipped and being elongated to make particular letters stand out.

Masthead Designs

 

When thinking of the Masthead Designs, I had not actually concluded as to what I wanted the name of my magazine to be so I just considered the different designs with the word Masthead. I have decided that I want to go for different shades of blue and then also Monochrome (black and white). I want to keep the design of my front cover simple and minimalistic yet effective, and I think I will be able to achieve this by not choosing too many colours because I would think that is quite childish. The designs that I am considering are the second and third designs because I like the choice of fonts and the mimimalistic design. Obviously I still have a small amount of time before I actually create my magazine and I may change my mind but these design ideas have helped me think of how I want my magazine to be styled.

Name Ideas

As a  part of the planning section of my music magazine, I had to come up with some ideas for what I wanted my magazine to be called. I came up with 25 different name ideas which I thought would go well with the genre of music that I have chosen; Indie. The names that I am considering are:

• Sync
• IM (Independent Music)
• Amplified

When considering different names for my magazine I tried to consider the four different styles of name ideas that there are: Acronyms, Phase, Connotative and Compounds. I believe that the most effective styles are Acronyms and Connotatives because they have a good link with the genre of music that I have chosen.

Key Concepts Analysis

Key Concepts Analysis from ramsz001

As a part of understanding what a magazine does - I have completed an analysis of the key concepts you will find in a magazine. The four key concepts are: Codes and Conventions, Audience, Representation and Institution.

the codes and conventions are the generic features that you will tend to see in the content of a magazine; e.g. what you would find in the front cover, contents page and double page spread. If a magazine does not have these main features it is unlikely that they will be successful. By including all of these key conventions it will make the magazine look more aesthetically pleasing to the reader.

The audience is an analysis of what makes a reader want to read a magazine. Here you are probably going to look at the uses and gratifications theory which discusses the main points as to why a reader will use this medium, for example as a form of entertainment. We also might look at why print magazines are still as popular as magazines now processed online and also the expectations of a music magazine.

The representation analysis features how the genre of music a music magazine is focussing on is represented through the use of images and text. I also analysed the key iconography that is linked with the genre of music that I have chosen for my magazine.

And finally I looked at the institution side of a magazine which is where I focused on how publishers are making their money, sustaining their audience and also what other assets a magazine like have like awards shows, radio slots and TV channels.

Production Diary - Key Concept Analysis

Preliminary Video

Front Cover

 

 

Contents Page

 

Audience Survey Analysis