Target Audience Research - Good Housekeeping

In our research, we found that their target audience is very similar to ours. They too target the creative-minded with their magazine. They direct their product more towards women with the majority of their readers being middle-aged, with their average being 55. This means that their target audience is similar to ours, although it may be a bit older. We found that they created a website to advertise their product and they also have an optional sign-up for their newsletter. They also have social media, such as Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. This is successful through the use of persuasive techniques, such as, promotional material that interests the reader/viewer and interesting material advertised in the newsletter. Monthly, they utilized their newsletter and social media to advertise and remind subscribers of their issues. Overall, they relied most heavily on digital email and social media to advertise their product.

New Project Planning

I decided to change my entire article for my next submission. I felt that the project could be better. I decided to also change the layout of my article. This was a decision based on the feedback I received on my midterm draft. I talked to my partner and we decided that we should streamline the layout of the articles more so that there was unity between the different publications of the magazine. I am planning on completing the new project this weekend depending on my interviewees schedule and availability.

New Photo Shoot Location

I needed to re-shoot some of my pictures as I re-did my project, so I decided to change my location. For my previous shoot I did it in my house and on the front porch. I moved to my back porch so that I could show the craft in different locations throughout the house. I also staged some bookshelves with the mason jars so that I could provide a variety of uses for the project.

Feedback/ Revisions

I got lots of feedback on my Midterm submission of my magazine. I have decided to change quite a few things in my magazine though. I decided that, on my cover page I would like to change some of the fonts, on my table of contents I want to add some more varied pictures, on my article I need a bigger focus picture, and on my article I am going to get rid of the clip art boarder. For the cover page, I like the picture, but I would like to change up the fonts of the subheadings. I think a more varied font would look more visually appealing and would add some interest to the page. I also want to increase the font size to make them fit in with the picture and heading better. I would also like to add more pictures to my table of contents. I would like to use some more varied pictures that are slightly more "Spring" themed because at the time that the magazine draft was due, it was winter and the colors of the tress and grass was more muted than it would be in spring. For my article, I would like to increase the size of the focus picture on the first page and also increase the size of the picture on the second page. I might also do another photo shoot to take a picture of someone painting the mason jars or doing something else related to the project. For the actual article, I want to remove the clip art boarder. I am planning to either remove it altogether or to take my own picture and use photo-shop to make my own clip art so that I took the picture. I am also planning to get with my partner to format our table of content's to be more similar/ follow our template better. My partner included a small description of each of the articles in her magazine on the table of contents, which we didn't see on some of the magazines we looked at so we have to decided whether we are going to include that or not. We also need to decide how we want to lay out our articles. I put my materials at the beginning of the article while she put it towards the end. I at least want it to be on the same page for each article.

Use of Conventions

How does your product use or challenge conventions of your genre, and how does it represent social groups or issues?

For our magazine, The Crafting Corner, we researched many different magazines that were of a similar subject matter. Some of the magazines had articles that were focused on a specific topic; crafting, cooking, or decorating. Our magazine combines all of the topics that we researched. We took ideas from each of the magazines we had researched and combined it to make a magazine that covered more than just one main topic. It allowed us to diversify our articles and create an article that really incorporated all forms of "crafting." In doing this, we both challenged and used conventions in the creation of our magazine. The cover designs and table of contents layout follow the layouts of similar magazines, and our articles have aspects of the articles we looked at, but the layout is also slightly different from many of the articles we looked at.
Additionally, while our product does not have a serious or controversial tone, it allows every-day people the chance to exercise their creative side, either by themselves or with their friends and family. Our article represents "normal" people who turn to art as an escape from the stress of their daily lives.