CASE STUDY 2 - Kerrang!

Case study 2 - Kerrang!
The next case study I'm going to do is another rock genre and the magazine is called Kerrang!

                                                                    Front cover - 

In this magazine the first thing i can see visually is the the cover star, although the kerrang magazine doesn't list the band however, from reading the cover lines it tells me that the cover star who is featured on the magazines name is Gerard Way. The use of colours on the cover stars, clothing also represents and follows the kerrangs house style colour which consists of blue, red and yellow. The colours are also primary colours which make the front cover stand out as there is no usage of secondary colours in the front. In the cover lines I noticed that each of the cover lines include different bands, due to this the Kerrang publication wants to promote each individual band shown on this front cover. Above the masthead it shows a skyline, in this skyline it is enticing the audience to read the the magazine as it says "the funniest interview you'll ever read" this suggests that the kerrang magazine uses humour to interact with the audience and to also entertain the audience when they are reading. Lastly, there is a skyline on the bottom of the magazine front cover, which gives merchandise to the audience as it gives 6 posters out, which the audience may want as they might like a lot of the artist who are seem displayed on the magazine, there is also a competition on the bottom which encourages the target audience to participate in this competition in order to receive a ticket to a concert, this helps engages the audiences as they would want to see there artists live at a concert.

Contents page 

 In this content page, it shows the word content, this clearly indicates that this page is the conents page. it also helps the audience by giving a clear example which i directly aimed towards them as it says "learn to fly through the mag". In the content page it shows it shows different types of sections and are enlisted with numbers on the side telling the audience where they can find these pages. They have a section on news, which tells the audience about upcoming news to do with artists and bands who are on the kerrang magazine, it also gives feedback, where the artists themselves directly speak towards the audience. there are other sections which go downwards in the centre, these sections are shots, lives, albums, gig guides and the uptime rock test. These sections are here to meet the audiences need and to entertain them, while giving them the information they might be craving for. In the content page on the top it shows the issue date and the cover date, this tells you how recent or long ago the music magazine was published from the institution it came from which is called "bauer", as you can see this magazine has a recent date which means I bought it not so long ago. Lastly, there are a lot of images on the content page which varies with size and have numbers on them, these are double sided spreads, as I looked at them while reading the magazine, also on the bottom left of the page it shows miniature pictures overlapped on top of each other, and next to it is information on thanking people who helped form the magazine together, and the images show to people who helped create the magazine, this is good to know as it gives the credits for those that deserve it.

Double sided spread

In the double sided spread the colour scheme used is mostly primary colours which are bright, bold and stand out a lot so it grabs the readers eye and makes them look at the page to see what the article/ magazine feature is.The columns are structured very clearly which gives the reader ease of reading the article. The font is a black, bold one which makes it easy to read and looks professional in the magazine. Also on the other side of the page the writing is white to make it contrast with the blue so it is easier for the reader to read. The picture of the man relates to what the article is about and for those people who do not know, who he is they can then see who he is which it says in both the front cover and contents page that his name is Gerard Way and also gives the band that he is from which the "My chemical romance".In the centre of an article there a pull quote positioned and it is there show the opinion of Gerard way, this is used as an interaction from the cover star towards the audience as if he is directly speaking to the audience, which comforts the audience as well as intrigues them, as they want to know what the cover star is thinking about.Overall the whole article is quite eye-catching and hold so someone who is just flicking through the magazine casually, will definitely stop on the page to see what it is about and while reading the article all the different features keep the reader engaged and wanting to read more, so it is very effective in grabbing the readers attention. The mans facial expression straight away gives the impression that he is someone who may be in a rock band but his clothes have been juxtaposed with the rock image he has been given, The image is juxtaposed as what he is wearing is smart and people assume that rockstars wear scruffy, weird and mix matched clothing but in this image the cover star is wearing a nice formal suit which goes against the stereotype of "rockstars". 

Press Pack 1

This is the Kerrang Press pack, it shows the demographics of the target audience and gives an over view of statistics of the age range, gender ration and ABC profile. The gender ration displayed in this press pack, shows that number of female readers are at a 40% ration and male readers have a percentage ration of 60% this clearly suggests that males are more likely to buy the Kerrang! magazine, as well as this it also suggests, that men are more dominant and are more engaged within the alternative and rock lifestyle. The age range displays the ages and the percentage that read Kerrang, it also reveals the target audience which are the age range between 15 - 24 as the percentage is the highest on the press pack, its a percentage of 71% which is high percentage compared to all the other age ranges and percentages which a majority of them are below 10%, I can also see a correlation on press pack, and this is the lower the age range, more the readers, as the adulthood and elderly readers are at a really low percentage. The ABC1 Profile shows that 51% of the target audience that purchases the magazine is employed and have jobs or occupations which range from professional, middle and lower middle classed jobs, and the other percentage which is 49% either have lower class jobs or are unemployed, one major factor on why the statistics for ABC1 Profile is almost equalised is because of the target audience which are ages between 15 - 21 as many of these ages are most likely to be in education, the ABC1 Profile has been equalised between employed and unemployed figures, another factor is parents, some parents of the age range between 15 - 21 are most likely to be unemployed as having children is a social factor as they may be the ones who are purchasing the kerrang! magazine for their children. Although this kerrang press pack was between 2011 - 2012, the statistics may have changed.

Press pack 2 

Here is another Kerrang press pack, as the one above was during 2011 - 2012, and this press pack is between the the months january 2012 to december 2012, In this kerrang press pack the gender ration of female readers are at a ration of 45.3% while the male kerrang readers are at a percentage of 54.7 this shows that there are more male readers in comparison to female readers.  The age range of the the target audience is between 15 - 24 as well as 25 - 34, however, the 15 - 24 is the current target due to have more of a percentage in that age group, the other age groups have a low percentage this automatically tells me that the audience is specifically aimed at teenagers and adulthood, and is NOT aimed at the late adulthood and the elderly. The ABC1 Profile is the same as the other previous press pack, and remains to be the same as there is no change in statistics. The gender ration in press pack 1 shows that there is more male readers than female reader, and that remains to be the same as their is no change, However, the percentage of female readers has increased by 5.3% and the male percentage of reader has decreased by 5.3% due to press pack 2 which shows that they have gained more of a female based, but the male fan base is still dominant. The age range in press pack 1 was at 75% from the ages of 15 - 24 and the readers between 25 - 34 were at a percentage of 12%, However, according to press pack 2, the percentage of ages 15 - 24 has decreased by 24.9% and the ages between 25 - 34 has increased by 11.5%, this suggest that as time progresses the target audience for younger ages are decreasing.

Mission Statement 

Institution and publishing 

The institution for kerrang, is Bauer Media, Bauer Media, does not only own Kerrang as a publication but own Nme and Q, all of these music magazine all specialise in a specific genre, which is Rock, specifically alternative rock or Indie rock. All publication that are published by Bauer Media are also all main stream music magazines as they all have a large fan base which supports their magazines. Aside from music magazines, Kerrang and all the other publications all have different forms of media platforms, these include apps, Ezines, subscriptions, social media websites and freemiums. This ensures that they have contact with their large fan base, and as well as that, thee fans are entitles to have access to kerrangs and other publication videos, photos, emails and many more, it also allows the fans to interact more and becoming more engaged with their publication as sometimes their are promotions, exclusives, merchandising and competitions in which makes the fans feel involved and encourages them to participate with publication. The kerrang magazine is published every week, meaning a new issue is out every week, this continuously gives the audience pleasure and satisfaction as each new issue is different and some are limited and exclusive, they have also set a price which is affordable for the target audience, which means their market research is succesful.

Overall, I think that the Kerrang magazine, is successful in every way possible, from having multiple features on every page of their magazines which always keeps the readers being entertained in the magazine, it also advertises adverts which are aimed at the target audience for instance "vans" clothing shops, on where the target audience can receive a discount. Kerrang also, has many artists and bands featured in their magazine, if a fan supports an artist they will surely buy this magazine, In addition as the Kerrang magazine is a mainstream magazine it has a large fan base and the fan base contains many people this magazine sells quickly and a rapid paste, all in all I think this magazine is truly remarkable as it contains everything needed for a perfect magazine.