Task 5: Evaluate response (D1 U21)

- LO3: Be able to pitch ideas on a proposed media product and respond to questions

Client considerations - Useful Points 

Unknowingly, I named my magazine the same as a 80s American boyband. Doing this created confusion due to the connotations of the name. I found this feedback constructive as I was previously unaware of the shared name. In order to respond this constructive feedback I will change the name of my magazine. After the pitch my magazine has been renamed to 'UNDERGROUND'. I have chosen to rename it to this as I feel this newly chosen name reflects the genre and content of my magazine. The word 'Underground' has connotations to the unknown, I feel this is fitting to my magazine as my product aims to focus on undiscovered young talent.

Within the feedback provided, the client mentioned my colour scheme as he felt it was too dark. I will take this feedback on board when creating my final product as I want my product to attract attention; something which it will struggle to do with such a dark colour scheme. However, despite the feedback provided I will still keep my colour scheme relatively dark in order to portray the genre of the product. My colour scheme will be altered to be lighter and brighter but will now consist of greens and blues. The newly chosen colours will be much more eye-catching in comparison to the original colour scheme. I feel it is important to do this as I want my magazine to reflect the genre of music it focuses on.

Another piece of feedback from my client was that the target audience of the magazine did not reflect the product as a whole, this was mostly due to the dark colour scheme. The client suggested that I narrow down the target audience to just males. Instead of changing my target audience I decided to change the colour scheme instead. This was because I did not want to create a product that only appealed to one gender. I altered my colour scheme to become brighter in order to appeal to all genders. My colour scheme now includes lighter colours such as orange and blue.

Another issue which arose was the fact that Kerrang magazine was the closest I could find to my own magazine, even though the genres were very different. Initially I thought that this might have been a disadvantage but on further reflection, and with the clients input, I realised that it has generated a unique selling point.

Points that do not add to the product

Despite the feedback concerning the colour scheme in relation to the target audience, my target audience remains the same. I responded the feedback by altering the colour scheme in order to make the product appeal to both genders. The colour scheme is now includes green, orange and blue. These colours are gender neutral meaning that they will not only appeal to a single gender. Despite not taking feedback from the client concerning this area fully on board, I still found it important to hear. I decided that changing the target audience of my product would not add to its success as the audience of readers would become much smaller.

It was also extremely useful to take on board the suggestions of Time Out and The Big Issue. After the pitch I did some research into both these magazines, with a specific focus on the gigs and interviews sections. Whilst these were interesting in some respects, I felt that the remit and appeal was too broad and could not be related to my magazine.