MAGAZINE DEMOGRAPHICS - CASESTUDIES.
- Hannah
- Dec 4, 2020
- 6 min read
Updated: Dec 11, 2020
Below is a bar chart with that stats of who actually purchases the issues, this is something which will help them figure out who to aim their future publications at, this can be done with their style (font and layout) and the celebrities they use as both the coverline story (front cover) and the articles. We see that there are much more women who purchasing the magazine, which means they can use strategies to gain more traction, they may include more self help articles or tips on health and beauty, as stereotypically this is the content that many of the women enjoy from the magazine.
We can assume that the most popular reasons for consumption are divergence and surveillance - more on the uses and gratifications of Vanity Fair here - this is taken from the concept of the amount of articles on health and beauty. To learn about how to take care of both yourself and others is something which will attract the succeeder and the explorer, this is because they each
want to develop their lives or skills to become better people. The front cover of the December 2020 issue is a great example of how to use the right celebrities. the model is very relevant to the current news affairs as (at publish date) she had just become the vice president - this will keep the attention of those who read for surveillance reasons as her new position is something that could affect the world. For the woke explorer who reads for divergence, will be captivated as she is the first female vice president of colour. This audience may want to learn how she has adapted to the new job and how in fact she gained the position in the first place, all the hard work and graft. The insight into her unique world is something which makes this a divergence example.
To the right we see the stats for the magazine giant from 2019's July to December. With the info, we see that they have a very similar number of print to digital copies (via subscription) sold, meaning that they don't need to adapt significantly to one platform in order to ensure consumer loyalty. Despite this, the chart below shows that the actual singular copies sold, the print publications reign on forward, of this celebrity magazine genre, many print copies are purchased for to be collected. With this in mind, we must remember that many will buy a copy for the love of the person on the front cover rather than the actual content inside.
Vanity Fair magazines include competitions to keep the reader engaged and interested, this is a technique which may entice new
customers to indulge if they desperately want a chance of winning the prize. They also contain a wide variety of celebrities, this will gain traction from a wide genre of possible readers. Shown in the example above, there are politicians, actors, singers, directors, fashion designers to television show hosts. The inclusivity of VF is something which their target audience of young to middle aged adults can all enjoy, a whole family could read a copy and discuss.
The magazine is a celebrity magazine which main demographic is women, this is done with the elegant fonts which don't speak as much to men, the male a udeince would respond best to a
basic sans serif font as they refect the general stereotypical concept that they prefer to get straight to the point with the easy to read font. Also, the majority of their front covers have women on them, with feminnine features. To the left is the 2017's May front cover with the theme of pink, the most stereotypically feminine colour. This represents the brand as being a promoniantly female based magazine, using women to aim to the target audeince of women. This is emphasised with the floral vibe, they are intertwined across the whole piece, from the model's prop to intertwining into the skyline. The makeup has also been done to replicate delicate and bright vintage look of an upper class woman, this represents the target audience of the magazine itself.
The following shows where the magazine distributes their physical copies, we can see that the majority are sold to places where the readers engage in order to pass time, this divergence will keep them entertained. The popularity in the travel industry suggests that the articles are fast paced and don't require a lot of time decication to read, this is a positive factor for this type of use and gratification as it means that you don't need to read for a long period of time.
We can see here that their sales are generally similar within the thousands, they keep a steady
amount, although the dips may be due to the front cover celebrities. The cover of the October 2019 magazine was Kristen Stewart, though I cannot understand why this has so little traction though. When searching online for the issue, there is a website you can purchase it from and it
states that it the copy is 'very heavy'. This may be factor to prevent sales when seeing it in a shop, it appears intimidating.
The month where sales surged is when the coverline was A lister film star Angelina Jolie, her high profile is a very probable reason for the increase. She is liked by all, including the male audience, so despite the magazine being generally aimed towards women, the actual consumer reach would have widened. On top of this, the specific edition is described as the 'ULTIMATE GIFT GUIDE', so coming up to Christmas, the early shoppers would be in their element. They have advertised well in terms of the times as they knew it would have sold more, all over a simple two lines of text. The coverlines also are guided to the audience of the brand, the female young / adults who are more likely to be self conscious. With the line 'EAT, DRINK, AND STILL FIT INTO YOUR JEANS' they knew it would attract that certain line of consumer.
The company's general target audeince is female, we see this as the Indian October 2018 cover showcases a beautiful woman with a piercing look to the camera. She has the look of an 'idealised' beauty with her defined cheekbones (enhanced with makeup) and clear skin. This type of person would entice those reading with surveillance, they want to learn some of her tips to keep looking lavish. The large font suggests that this is the content of the coverline: self confidence. However, the italic serif, with the red colouring suggests sex, supported by coverline above 'NEW RULES OF SEXY'. The themes of sexual confidence flow with the model's stare and red strawberry lipstick.
During this year, with the pandemic, the average circulation has been brought down just as lockdown commenced. The lowest drop in April shows how the general public were hesitant to purchase the magazines in order to avoid catching the corona virus, after this, when the cases lowered, the magazine copies increased - showing the dedication to the magazine. As well as this, it is importnat to note that people had much more free time, therefore they had more time to read, so there may have been new customers engaging. On the flip side, the numbers are still below the average line (below), this may be because of distractions, with family grievancies or a new workload to adapt to.
With the global corona virus pandemic in mind, the magazine used an NHS frontline worker on the front cover to show respect to their sacrifice and risk. We see that the background matches the model's clothes, the consistant blue flows through the cover page, ensuring that it is aesthtically pleasing. The main coverline, 'FROM THE FRONTLINE' gains the attention from those walking by with the bold, sans serif font, with a stand out background of the contrasting colour to the font. The strapline to this - 'WE'RE PUTTING OURSELVES IN DANGER. PLEASE HELP US HELP YOU.' - will make the passive reader more mindful in their actions. Some of the coverlines have even adapted to the circumstances, for instance the inclusion of self help stories - 'I'M SELF ISOLATING WITH MY EX HUSBAND' - will make the reader feel they are not alone, even when physically isolating alone themselves. The divergence means that the reader will that they can dive into someone else's life, as being at home daily, it has been found that people are alone with their thoughts and overthink, then bringing problems onto themselves. The look into another's experience in the shared climate, brings comfort that things could be very different, for example, isolating with an ex husband must be intense and bring along many issues emotionally and mayb even physically.
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