Market Research: Dazed & Confused Magazine

http://www.dazeddigital.com/Music/Default.aspx

Dazed & Confused Magazine uses the type of context and layout and focuses upon the same target audience that I was hoping to employ in my own music magazine. Dazed & Confused is a magazine that includes fashion, art and culture, photography, film and music within its pages however it does not hinge its context on mainstream popularity but instead focuses upon the more obscure.The music section of the magazine is more about discovering new artists and bands, 'incoming' bands and'rising' new artists. Another aspect that i wish to employ into my own music magazine is the use of playlists. When amagazine has a certain target audience of the same age group and a similar type of person, then stereotypically the type of music they listen to will be similar. Putting playlist ideas within a magazine, playlists inspired by celebrites or the general public, could be a clever way of promoting new music alongisde well known classics.
Dazed & Confused focuses upon arty/fashionable/indie students and it is this kind of target audience that i wish my music magazine to be aimed for.

Preliminary Task: School Magazine 'Prefect'

I decided that the preliminary task, a school magazine, should appeal to a target audience of sixth form students aged between 16 to 18. It was important that everything included within this magazine was relative to our target audience. This issue of the magazine is from 'June 2010' therefore most of the corresponding articles and editorials had to adhere to what was going on during that time of the year, exams. I also included information on new drivers and ways of tackling holiday boredom because it was this kind of information that needed to be included in a magazine for this age group. I think that the font and images used show a very stereotypical outlook on a school magazine, they are what is expected from this genre of magazine.

The colours chosen, yellow and green, are particularily eye catching against the background image. Ideally, i would have chosen to use the school uniform colours but they did not stand out against the front cover image.

I decided to make the magazine 'free' so that i was more accessable to the target audience of sixth form students who aren't necessarily earning any money.

Personally, i think that the front cover and contents page have been particularily successful because they are a true representation of a school magazine.