Research on Existing Products, Marketing & Pricing

My understanding of Market Research & Planning

Above shows an image of my moodboard 

Before an organisation can set a price or value for a magazine or any form of media product a lot of pre-production work is involved which includes market research. It is basically an organised strategic maneuver implied by organisations to collect information about customers and other businesses.
The main objective is to determine the needs and wants of people and by knowing such, organisations can make a decision on what to produce; how they produce it and the value of their products. 

In order for one to establish a business there are a few things which they have to put into consideration. Through Market information, an organisation or group can know the value of certain items in the Market. Such intelligence can be obtained through different origins, formats and varieties. Another important key factor is market segmentation which is the classification of the market or public into sub-groups with common interests. This method is in other words demographic statistics on certain audiences or organisations used in order to understand their common wants & needs; what most people can relate to. It's quite stereotypical but it is important as it aids to identify the demands and wants of their targets immediately.

The final and most important component is following 'market trends.' This is done in order to observe fluctuations in the market over a certain period of time. Apart from intelligence about the target market, in order for one to be successful an organisation needs to acquire information about competitors, products and audience. This can be obtained through methods like: customer analysis, risk analysis, marketing mix modeling, product research, questionnaires, surveys, promotion and so much more. 

EXISTING PRODUCTS ANALYSIS

 How often are these published and what do they cost?

Above are examples of 3 well known music publication organisations. Vibe, a music and entertainment magazine founded by producer Quincy Jones and predominantly features R&B and Hip-Hop music artists. As of June 2012 Vibe has a circulation of 300,943; 62% of which was paid and 38% unpaid. After being sold to InterMedia Partners in 2009 Vibe is published every other month and they are worth an average of $3.00 to $5.00.
Billboard magazine is a global newsweekly magazine which is solely devoted to the music industry. Billboard is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. Although its main purpose is to monitor the Billboard hot 100 and hot 200 charts (which monitors singles popularity and highest selling albums respectively) it features almost entirely Hip-Hop, R&B and Rock artists. Billboard is published weekly and costs around $6.00 to $7.00. 
XXL is a Hip-hop magazine published by Harris Productions. Launched in 1997, the magazine publishes an average of 6 issues yearly (bi-monthly) and costs as low as $2.00 per issue. 

How often will my magazine be published? 

I'm at the point now where I'm ready to make a decision as to how often will my magazine be published. I now have a much broader understanding of my target audience in relation to their needs and wants. As mentioned before in my previous posts, it is apparent that people use the 'Media' and content for gratification purposes. Maslow's Hierarchy of needs states that there are certain levels of needs; it is often represented in a form of a pyramid with needs of greatest importance at the bottom and the need for self actualization at the top. Humans have emotions; people want to feel 'accepted' in society or any particular group and want to be given a sense of security and love. The majority of people seek the media to fulfill the need for acceptance since sometimes they can't or rather not seek it elsewhere; people just want things that are totally relatable to everyday living. 

Hip-hop is no doubt one of the most popular musical genres in the world. It is known for its lyrical creativity, hype and fun. Artists produce interesting music videos to promote their songs; many of which are constructed in a way to convey powerful messages and have tremendous impact on the target audience. These Hip-Hop artists normally dress in the latest outfits & accessories on the Market. The majority of them tend to wear flashy jewelry; baggy clothing like hoodies and other accessories. Some are sterotypically known to be 'gangsters' as they wear their pants below their waist;  these type of people are known for breaking the rules. This is completely understandable as this is the way in which they represent their genre. They tend to target young folks (which look up to them as role models) typically between the ages of 14 and 30; young people want to have fun and make the best out of their lives and that is why they get involved in many different things because all they want to do is learn. 

The reader profile research helped me understand what is it that people want from a music magazine and how their needs can affect its publication frequency and price. In my recent NME reader profile research this is what I wrote: The majority of people that read their magazines are male (69%) and female (31%). The average age for readers is 24 which mean most of the people that read them are teens & young adults but what is it that makes them read these magazines? Clothing, footwear, drinks, games, accessories and electronics. These are all things the target group can relate to; NME statistics say 52% of them own a digital camera. Young people love taking pictures especially since they go out to gigs and concerts a lot they document their moments as they live and publish them on social networking sites like twitter, Facebook etc. 71% of them say that is important for them to look well dressed; 45% spend a lot of money on clothes which takes us back to why 52% of them work full time and 7% part time.

A typical NME reader spends £152 on footwear per year, that’s approximately £46,000,000 in total for readers. Individual readers spend £1229 on audio equipment each year tallying an average total of £325 million. Readers spent a total average of £18m on games in a year and £45 million on consoles alone. Lastly, 92% of the readers find it important to be notified about things 'in general.'

Conclusion:  

This proves the fact that readers spend a lot of money on electronics, games, clothing and food. These are things which are normally included in music magazines simply because they are of great demand and worth. Readers also find it important to be informed about things; they want to know what's going on especially in the Media since they all can relate to events, situations or things that accompany it. This is why if I were to produce an actual production company I would publish my magazines as often as week or month.