3. What have
you learned from your audience feedback?
I know from
peer and lecturer feedback (which in turn was my initial target audience and my
lecturers are my actual target audience) that my target audience needed to be a
little older as my initial age range was too young in that they wouldn’t have
been interested in newspapers but in magazines. However I still tried to stick
to a young target audience as I wanted my target audience to be a new newspaper
audience, someone who didn’t usually look at newspapers as they are too
political etc.
I also had
peer and lecturer feedback on the pricing of my newspaper as it needed to be
low enough so that people would be able to buy with change when they were going
to the shop but not too cheap in that the whole of my newspaper looked cheap
and unrealistically priced and so due to audience feedback I was able to find a
middle ground.
From doing a
pitch in front of my peers and my lecturer I was able to gain feedback on my
product whilst in was still in its construction stages.
From the first
person’s audience feedback I found that I could include a price for my
newspaper products as it would help draw my target audience with it being a
new, cheap but professional newspaper for their local area and about the local
people. Another point which inspired me to change my idea completely for my
newspaper advert was when my target audience asked that ‘Could your
advertisement be that it is the 1st edition’, which made me realise that the
best way to target my audience was to present my newspaper to my audience
through the newspaper poster as a new newspaper launch. Another point
which was raised to my attention was that I needed to look up what a typical
new launch newspaper poster looked like for example I needed to know layout,
colour scheme, logos/taglines etc which was why I researched into more depth
about new newspapers and how they advertised new products.
From another
person’s comments/feedback I found that I needed to look at existing newspapers
and find out how I can differentiate my product from existing products so that
when I publish my product it wouldn’t be too similar to existing products that
my publisher is on. I also needed to think about the colours I was going to use
for my newspaper as I didn’t want it to be like any other tabloid/newspaper and
so I was debating if I should use my colour scheme (red, black, blue and
white), however after looking at other existing newspapers I decided to stick
with my colour scheme as no other newspaper used the colours together the way
that I had. For my newspaper I also tried to keep to newspaper conventions,
however I also tried to filter some magazine conventions as it would help to
bring in the younger audience which is my target audience. This feedback also
made me think about what type of advertisements I wanted in my newspaper
products as it is a local newspaper I should have local companies and so this
is what I tried to incorporate into my newspaper articles and advertisements. I
also needed to look at existing newspapers so that I could define more
conventions and apply them to my newspaper as it would help to make my
newspaper look like a newspaper but also subvert some of the conventions so
that it stood out against other newspapers on the shelf.
From another
audience feedback I found that for my newspaper advert I needed to look at my
use of logo, writing tone and style as I wanted people to be intrigued in my
advert so that they would buy my product and go online to subscribe and have a
look at my online product. I wanted my tone to be humorous as it fits my target
audience, however I didn’t want the tone of my newspaper advert to be too
humorous as news is meant to be taken seriously. For example from looking at
existing advertisements I found that like newspaper like The Sun newspaper that
I needed to include topics that my target audience could relate to which was
why I used social media and web links on my advertisement as the younger
generation are more internet savvy and so I used these links to draw them into
my newspaper. For my advertisement I tried to keep to conventions but also make
it pleasing on the eye and simple as it would help draw my target audience into
my product, instead of another newspaper product.
From the feedback
for my website I realised that I needed to keep a house style throughout my
product, however for my website I need to change the content slightly and the
layout of my content as my younger audience will be more internet savvy and so
will probably clicking onto my website and so need to draw them in more with
the internet benefits of my product; subscription. However this being said my
website will appeal to all age ranges throughout my intended target audience as
it will have the same articles and article types and topics. From this feedback
I also realised that I needed to add local advertisements to my website as well
as advertisements for my newspaper as this is the way to keep all of my
products connected and give it a flow.
I again
received feedback for my products and realised that I needed to add social
network buttons such as Twitter and Facebook etc, as by doing this it will help
to keep my target audience interested and being connected to my product. I also
rethought my idea of having a formal tone to my website as for all news needs
to be taken seriously as it is aimed at a young audience it needs to have a
light tone/manner. However this being said my actual newspaper will be more
formal as it will be targeted at my older target audience as stereotypically
they
are the ones
who read newspapers.
Another
feedback comment was that I needed to have a ‘More specific age range’ and so I
decided that for my website it will predominantly directed at a 15-24 year olds
and for the newspaper and poster it will mainly be directed to the 25-30 year
olds. I also agreed with the feedback which said that I needed to change my
colour scheme so that it will attract my target audience and I was thought that
I could use shades of blue, so that it didn’t completely resemble existing
tabloids/newspapers.
I was also
given feedback on that I should add the temperature to my website as this is
what they typically do on existing newspapers and websites and so I implemented
this idea into my products as the feature is helpful to my target audience and
will help to make my products appeal to them.