Audience Research - Questionnaire Results and Evaluation

After twenty people who fit my demographic had filled out my questionnaire, I was able to put the results into graph form so they could be easily analysed. Following are the results for each question individually along with the conclusions I have drawn from them:

1.  What genre(s) of music do you generally listen to?

From this question, my focus group were given the option of writing more than one genre, and I have been able to discern that a wide variety of genres are popular among teenagers. Recurring answers were pop and alternative music, with indie also a popular choice. Therefore I have decided to create a magazine which covers a range of genres but specifically popular/ slightly alternative music, and could feature a run-down of the current singles chart in response to the popularity of this answer.  

2. How often do you think a new issue of a music magazine should come out?

By far the most popular answer in this multiple choice question was monthly, with weekly coming second and no-one voting that a music magazine should come out less frequently than once a month – therefore I have decided to create a monthly music magazine for my final product.

3. What do you think is a reasonable price for a music magazine?

From the results of this graph I have decided to charge £2.99 for my music magazine, given that most people were willing to pay £2-3 than any other value – this is affordable but would still ensure a profit if the magazine actually were to be produced and sold.






















4. Would you like the magazine to feature a run-down of the current singles chart?

Almost three quarter of people said that they would like the magazine to feature a chart update, which is unsurprising given the number of people who said they listened to current chart hits in Question One. In response to this I will definitely be including this feature in my magazine in some way, possibly on the contents page.

5. Would you like to read concert/gig reviews?

An overwhelming majority said that they would like it to feature concert and gig reviews, so I will be including this feature in my magazine as I feel it will be a very popular section and would help to sell the product to a wide audience.

6. Should it feature a list of upcoming gigs/ tours?

Again, the clear outcome of this question was that most customers would like to be presented with a list of upcoming gigs and tours as part of a music magazine, therefore I will include this in my product.

7. Do you prefer a music magazine to feature a wide variety of artists or similar ones?

In this case, the results were not unanimous, but it seems that a good 3/5 of the participants would rather it featured a wide variety of artists, and I will take this into consideration when choosing which artists to feature in my magazine.

8. What colours do you find stand out on a front cover?

Again, people were given the option of listing more than one colour for their answer, and the answers that cropped up again and again were black, white and red – these were also popular choices in my analysis of existing magazines, so I am considering using this as a colour scheme for my own product. Other popular colours included Purple, Blue and Gold, all of which are quite unusual for a magazine cover and would make it more individual and unique, so I will take this into careful consideration when choosing my final colour scheme.

9. Would you rather one large image or several smaller ones on a cover?

 The majority here said that they would prefer one large image on the cover, however there were some who said smaller images can be effective so I am considering using small images in addition to one main one on my cover.

10. Do you prefer a plain or fancy font for the cover, or a mixture of both?

The results were spread fairly evenly here, however the most popular choice was to have a mixture of fonts used – therefore I will feature a variety on my front cover and this will cater for all tastes.

11. Should the images on a front cover look natural or posed for?

Three quarters of my focus group stated here that they would prefer an image that looked like it was from a photo shoot as opposed to a natural photograph on the cover, therefore I will work on planning my photo shoot and poses and making the shot look as professional as possible.

12. Should the tile of a magazine be long or short and snappy?

Fourteen out of twenty people said they would prefer a short, memorable title such as Q and NME to a long and complicated one, and I will take this into consideration when deciding on the title of my final product.

13. What information would you like to find out from a contents page?

-Page numbers

-Article summaries

-Section headings

-Whereabouts I can find the articles and features on the cover

-The regular features of the magazine

-A letter from the editor

This information I found I could not put into graph form as I was faced with such a variety of results, but I have listed a selection of popular responses to this open question and I can ensure that all of this information is provided on my contents page of my finished magazine.

14. Do you prefer a blocky or scattered format for images/text on a contents page?

The results for this question were split almost equally, suggesting that these two choices are both very popular – I will therefore try to create a contents page with elements of both layouts, which will look unique and interesting while still easy to navigate and which clearly presents information.

15. Would you like the colour scheme to relate to that on the front cover?

Only one participant here stated that they would not like the colour scheme to relate to that on the front cover, therefore I will definitely use similar colours on my contents page and my cover to give it a professional and linked effect.

16. Would you rather one large image or several smaller ones on a contents page?

Again, the results here were not skewed in favour of one choice, so I will take this into consideration and use images in a wide variety of sizes on my contents page.

17. Do you prefer a written up interview or straight Q+A?

As a result of these opinions I have decided to combine a written up article and Q&A for my double page spread, in order to cater to all tastes and make the piece as interesting to read as possible, as the results were almost even.

18. Would you rather the article header be the artist’s name; song lyrics or a headline?

The two most popular choices here were for a creative headline or some song lyrics to introduce the piece as opposed to merely the artist’s name, therefore I have come to the decision to feature song lyrics on the double page spread, but come up with an original headline for my front cover  - this will keep the magazine varied and please all of my target audience.

19. What do you look to read about in articles in a music magazine?

Answers included:

-Interviews with featured act

-Whether they have any new albums or singles coming out

-Their personal life

-How they started out in music

-Who inspires them

Again, the responses given to this open question were very varied and could not be put into graph form; however I have included a selection of popular answers which I will carefully consider when choosing the contents of my article for the double page spread.

20. Would you prefer one large image or several smaller ones to accompany the article?

Aside from having both, the most popular choice here was to have one large image with seven votes compared to two – the solution to this I feel is to go with the majority and include both a large image and possibly some smaller ones to accompany it in the double page spread of my final product.