Research

Analysis

In order finalise any creative decisions made regarding my college magazine, I decided to carry out
some primary research in the form of a questionnaire. I designed my questions in order to make sure
that the final product will suit as much of my target audience as possible.
Question 1: Would you, as a student, be more comfortable with a formal or informal magazine?

WOULD YOU, AS A STUDENT, BE MORE

COMFORTABLE WITH A FORMAL OR
INFORMAL MAGAZINE?

I designed this question to help me

establish an overall style for the magazine,
as I know some students will be put off by
overly academic content and would rather
just read a magazine for their own
entertainment.

Formal
(16.6%)
Both
(50%)

As I had predicted, 33.3% of students asked

would prefer to read an informal magazine,
Informal
whilst only 16.6% preferred a formal read.
(33.3)
Surprisingly, 50% of the students asked said
they would prefer a mixture of the two on
a content-by-content basis. When asked
why this was, the general agreement amongst the students, was that they didnt want a magazine that tries
to hard to engage them. As a student myself, I can understand the approach and will aim to integrate that
into the text of my own cover and contents page, I aim to present the text in such a way that doesnt patronise
or alienate my audience.
Question 2: What information would you expect to predominantly feature within a college magazine?
College magazines often feature a
variety of information that students may
or may not require. The longer it takes
to find the information, the less
interested the audience will become. I
therefore designed this question in
order to establish a general order for
the content of the magazine. The result,
should mean that the students are able
to find the information that is most
important to them and remain
consistently interested in actually
reading the content.
The most sought after content includes:

What Information Would You Expect to

Predominantly Feature Within a College
Magazine?

8%

8%

Student Jobs

25%

9%

Gigs
Upcoming Events
Help & Support

25%

25%

General Information
Tutor Gossip

Student Jobs (25%), Gigs (25%) and

Upcoming Events (25%). The least
sought after, of the students asked,
included Tutor Gossip (8%) and General Info (8%). From this information I have decided that the content with
the highest percentages will appear at the beginning of the contents page and therefore the beginning of the
magazine.

Question 3: If you were to feature on the cover of a college magazine, what would you be doing?
This question had a range of unique responses from the students asked. Many of them, decided they would
like to be pictured studying, whilst other would rather be doing other activities that they and other people
would associate with student life, including listening to music and chilling. Of all the students, only one
stated that they would actually pose for the photograph.
This tells me that the students of the college would generally prefer to see a more candid representation of a
students life. I can link this to the earlier statement from question 1. Any other form of representation, will be
seen amongst the students as manufactured and will do relate to them on the social level they would
expect.
Question 4: Would you benefit from easier access to caf prices or library opening times?

Would You B enefit From

easier Access t o Cafe Prices
or Library Opening Times?

Yes

No

This question, I designed out of personal

interest to see if this is an issue that
other students had experience. I was
even more interested to find that 100%
of them said that they would benefit
from prices and opening times
throughout the college to be made
clearer in one place.
As its a uniting issue among the
students, making it clear to them on the
front cover and contents page, may help
to sell more copies and make the
magazine a bigger success.

Question 5: Do you often struggle to find out about significant events in and around the city?
Upcoming events, was a popular request amongst the
students from within the college, so I was interested to
see whether or not they would be interested in events
outside the college itself and within the wider community.
The majority (66.6%) agreed that they would find this
information helpful, whilst under 34% said that the
inclusion would make no overall difference to them.
Therefore, I feel that in order to make the biggest impact
with my target audience, this information needs to be
included alongside college events.

Do You often Often Struggle

to Find Out About Events in
and Around the City?

66.6%

16.6%

Yes

No

16.6%

Don't Care

Question 6: What do you dislike the most about modern magazines or college magazines?
In order to remain completely reader friendly with my target audience, I decided to find out if there is any
content that would put any potential consumers off of the magazine. This was once again a topic with a lot of
unique and varying opinions. The two major points that can be taken forward into the production of the
magazine, would be that students want a magazine thats not too academically focused as well as
advertisements to feature together in ONE place within the magazine and not spread throughout. When asked
why, it was generally suggested that the students would rather to be pressured into buying particular products
if they are not reading for that purpose.

Question 7: Would you feel put off my certain font styles on the cover of or within a magazine?
In order to help me establish a font that will
appeal to a larger number of people, I asked
my target audience whether there was any
particular fonts or styles that would put them
off from engaging in the magazine.

WOULD YOU FEEL PUT OFF MY CERTAIN

FONT STYLES ON THE COVER OF OR WITHIN
A MAGAZINE?
No

100% of the people aske stated that they did

not mind what the font or style would be for
the magazine. However, it was commented
that obviously simple fonts such as Comic Sans
should be avoided.

Yes

Question 8: Do you feel put off by any particular body language?

I chose this question as an extension to Question 3. The aim was to help me identify what my target audience
felt was acceptable in terms of imagery both on the cover and within the magazine itself. Many did not mind
what photos where used, however other people suggested that nothing inappropriate or over the top should
be shown as well as a limit on antisocial activity, such as mobile phones or looking away. This is something I
can understand and would be able to adapt to fit the magazine style to allow the entire audience to feel
comfortable with what they are viewing.
Question 9: Do you find any colours particularly negative?
In order to help me establish an appropriate
colour scheme. I asked my target audience if
there were any colours that would not want to
see within the house-style of the magazine. Deep
blue and Green were the most common
responses. With 25% and 37% respectively.

Do You Find Any Colours

Paticularly Negative?
13%

From this, I can see that may audience would

prefer a lighter and more vibrant colour scheme.
I will therefore choosing colours of this
description when I decide on my overall house-
style throughout the magazine.

13%

37%

12%
25%

Green

Deep Blue

Brown

Black and White

Yellow

Question 10: How much would you pay for a college magazine?

How Much Would You

Pay for a College
Magazine?

43%

14%
14%

Free

29%

One Pound

Fifty Pence

Two Pounds

One convention of a magazine cover, is to clearly

display the price of the magazine. In order to decide
upon a price, I asked my target audience first-hand
how much they would be willing to pay for a copy.
Many people would be willing to pay up to 2 for a
copy of the magazine, if it is printed to a high quality.
29% of people said they would only be willing to pay
1. However it was suggested that a cheaper version
should be made available at lower quality. Therefore I
plan to implement both ideas by charging 2 for high
quality and 1 for low.

Question 11: How frequent should the magazine be released?

A second magazine convention that must be
displayed on the cover, is the date it was issued. In
order to do this, I had to decide on a frequency for
the magazine. Many students felt as though having a
weekly magazine was too regular and that there may
be more news one week than in the next. Therefore,
66.6% of students agreed that the magazine should
be released on a monthly basis. Whilst the remaining
33.4% suggested a termly release. There for the
entire results show that having a magazine released
too frequently, would result in the target audience
quickly losing interest.

How Frequent Would

You Like It?

Monthly

Termly