Evaluate the response (D1: U21)

Learning outcome 3(U21): Be able to pitch ideas on a proposed media product and respond to questions.

Points which I will act on

The black and pink of the logo clash, try changing the colours.

I will be acting upon this advice of the client as I firmly agree with it, the murk of the disco ball overtakes the pink tones of the title. I do believe the logo/masthead itself is well thought out, I used the globe/ disco ball to infer a musical theme, an eye catching shape and this helps consumers to easily identify it amongst other magazines within the store. However, the colours used in the logo clash and distract from the actual name of the magazine which gets lost in the disco ball. Therefore, I will edit this in photoshop by altering the colour and changing it to a lighter shade of black/grey as I feel the disco ball should still be a prominent feature without overtaking the title 'pop planet' itself. This will massively benefit my target readers by making the magazine easier to find on crowded shelves and therefore will increase the magazine's total revenue.

Can you do 80 pages a month? Try to do 30-40 as a start.

This constructive critique is helpful to the production of my magazine as it will ensure the quality of the magazine is up to the very best standard. For instance, if the magazine had 80 pages, at the start I would struggle to get it filled up with all relevant and unique content, and therefore the quality of writing and content will be dramatically reduced thus leaving my readers disappointed. Additionally, the cost of filling up 80 pages will be much more expensive and likely require additional funding which is difficult to get while the magazine is still local and relatively small. However, 80 pages of content would allow my readers to get value for their money as there would be an increased amount of content within the magazine still for the same price. It is likely they -my target audience- will appreciate the amount of content and therefore purchase the magazine on multiple occasions. 

Overall I will be moving forward with this advice and producing 30-40 pages for the first year due to the cost efficiency as well as the more realistic chance to fill up the pages. Reducing the content to 30/40 pages will allow the magazine to be more cost-effective, I will slowly build a loyal reader base and with that, I can raise funds and ultimately afford to fill 80 pages. 

The brief is for a local magazine, this presentation seems more like a national magazine.

The advice I got from the client was to try and scale back the magazine to make it smaller and local to better fit the brief. Interestingly, I will be applying this advice to my magazine by acquiring up-and-coming artists from the area as the main features within my magazine. Focusing on these artists will allow the magazine to become smaller and more affordable for both us and our customers. Taking this advice on board benefits my magazine as it'll allow the production of Pop planet to be more cost-efficient and help our target audience to gain self-identification by relating to our featured local artists. 

You have the journey, focus a bit more on how to start

This advice relates more to the actual presentation rather than the magazine itself however I will take it on board when pitching my product to stores in the future. When presenting my product, the client felt as if it was headed toward a more national magazine with a large consumer base although the brief said it should be smaller and more locally based. The main reason for moving forward with this advice is because local magazines are less common and therefore a niche in the market, when pitching this to shops such as Tesco or Sainsbury's I need to focus on how to start the magazine and emphasize the niche. Interestingly, this will help my magazine to find its way onto the shelves in big supermarket chains as there are minimal competitors for local magazines and I will then gradually build up to a larger magazine. Only introducing the journey and my ideas to expand later on in the partnership with the supermarkets and other shops, once they trust us we can begin to discuss how the magazine could grow.

Use icons for social media, not words. 

A small, but useful point was to change the worded social media links on the front cover to icons. I think this will appeal better to my readers and make it clear what the information given is referring to, additionally, it draws potential customers in and encourages them to check out our social media accounts. 

Points I won't act on

Your competition has an abundance of cover lines and stickers, shouldn't you try to replicate this? 

I acknowledge this advice from the client and understand that my competitors have busy front covers to display the amount of information discussed within the contents of the magazine. However, this surplus of writing on the front cover often takes away from the featured artist's photo and can overcrowd the page with uninteresting or unnecessary information which will overwhelm the reader. A magazine that has less text on the front cover can still be informative, fewer quotes and headlines will still provide readers with the information required when deciding whether or not to purchase the magazine. Additionally, less text on the cover allows the magazine a more modern and sleeker look which will appeal well to a wider range of consumers from teens to more sophisticated adult females. Furthermore, my primary target audience of young teenaged girls is within the generation that is more enticed by photos and fewer words, for this reason, my magazine will increase the stickers on the front cover and reduce the word count to have a more appealing ratio between text and photos.

Where will you find relevant artists?

Another question the client proposed was this, where will relevant artists be found locally? The advice of the client was to perhaps consider a genre where you will be able to find more up and coming artists easier, such as rap or jazz where there are often small clubs and bars in which they will perform. It will be easier to locate and approach these artists to be featured within the magazine. While I agree that it might prove difficult to locate small pop artists, I am confident that I will be able to discover them even in the most unlikely of places such as talent competitions (big and small) or social media platforms. Talent competitions such as The Voice, X-Factor, or Britains Got Talent will attract small artists who are often focused on the pop genre and will thus be relatively easy to locate and allows our articles to be cheap to produce. Customers will likely enjoy sharing the experience with these talent show performers, increasing sales as well as making it easy for me to gain artists for my magazine. Additionally, smaller local talent shows within North London will also entice small pop artists who I could approach and perhaps discover by increasing their fan base through articles in my magazine. Social media platforms such as YouTube and TikTok give individuals the opportunity to post a variety of content, including songs and music videos, it is here where many artists can be discovered and I believe my magazine can help these artists to further approach the public eye. Furthermore, the brief discusses showcasing 'venues in the area' so, while I will be able to find these artists I can also speak about popular venues for the genre to feature within my magazine. Consequently, this content helps the magazine to fit the brief more appropriately and will appeal to our target audience well, they will love to hear about new venues they can visit as to better submerge themselves in the genre.