Target audience profile

A person representative of the target audience around whom this magazine will be centred would have to be between the ages of sixteen to forty and, evidently, would have to have a passionate interest in the indie rock genre. The reason for the vast range of ages that could be allocated to the target audience is that Symbal will be catering for a huge variety of music tastes, appraising classic music that influenced the genre as well as introducing new, fresh, exciting music – and the mixture of these approaches are likely to draw in a greater range of ages. Moreover, the representative individual is more likely to be male than female, because although the magazine isn’t gender-specified in any way, there tend to be a greater majority of male indie rock/indie rock subgenre artists and a more male-dominant readership (69% for NME). This person is also most likely to be middle class, or perhaps lower middle class, with a fairly successful job in some form of media-related industry or business. Alternately, they are also likely to be in a job/profession that promotes creativity and freedom, such as a product designer or an artist. This will be reflective of the type of music emulated in the magazines main genre and all its subgenres; music that expresses freedom, creativity, and individualism, values the representative individual would associate themselves with.

In terms of the personality aspects of this individual, he would be a creative thinker, with specific interests in a wide range of genres, although indie rock would be his primary basis for the majority of bands he likes. As opposed to mainstream, ‘typical’ bands of the genre such as The Vaccines, The Automatic, and Arctic Monkeys, the representative male would be more inclined to like more experimentally creative indie rock bands such as Arcade Fire, Radiohead, and Sigur Ros. He would be very passionate about bands such as these, with interests in their characters and professional viewpoints on their albums, and would therefore be willing to talk about them to a willing audience for extended periods of time. Because of this, he is likely to be sociable and have a good sense of humour, albeit with a rebellious streak – someone who doesn’t always necessarily abide by social expectations and general rules, representative of the music he likes. Similarly, fashion-wise, the representative male would be likely to have long hair, to hint at his creative freedom, or may sport some form of vaguely/very unique hairstyle that individualises him from others. He would not put a large amount of effort into his clothing, but despite this, he will only buy clothes he likes, and these may include chequered shirts, long trench coats, denim items and potentially bowler hats and sneakers Also, he would have friends with different opinions and beliefs to him, for the purpose of debating and having passionate arguments about music.

There are a variety of extracurricular activities the representative individual would be engaged, or have an interest, in. Though he may have an interest in sports, it would not be where his true passions lie; and instead may be a keen artist or amateur writer or taxidermist – anything that expresses the inner creativity that may be supressed by the conundrum of everyday life. He’d be a prolific reader and would therefore be appreciative of long, detailed articles about the music he likes, enjoying album reviews and interviews, and will also be active on social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook where he independently looks up these articles for his own pleasure. Likewise, the representative male is likely to have strong political views, or at least idealistic ideas of how to run a country, and may therefore be part of a political party; although he despises conformation. Ultimately, the combination of all these values and interests suggests that the representative individual is likely to be

around 30 years old, which will consequently be deemed the ideal age for the target audience to be interested in Symbal.

Proceeding on from this, the representative male is likely to enjoy films, music, and art, as he believes they are meant to be enjoyed – in their natural environment. This subsequently means that he will not engage in the illegal downloading of either music or films, due to the fact that he respects the original artists/filmmakers efforts and wishes to contribute towards them producing more of their chosen profession and benefitting from it. Necessarily, however, he also genuinely enjoys this approach, as there is a special feeling of ownership associated with actually buying a CD, and a peculiar excitement associated with old cinemas. Popular, critically acclaimed films such as Pulp Fiction, The Shawshank Redemption and There will be blood will be idolised by the representative male, but he will also possess an interest in other varieties of films, with foreign films such as Spirited Away, Amelie and Pan’s Labyrinth being prominent examples of these. Consequently, he believes the ideal day out could be spent at either a venue such as Brixton Academy for live underground music, or at a record store browsing through old movies and CDs for discounted prices. His favourite other magazine is Pitchfork, and he also enjoys NME for their exclusive interviews with bands that other magazines are unable to provide, but generally finds music magazines to be more about the presentational aspects of the genres they cover than the music itself, and he dislikes this.

In general, this representative individual would wish to be the best he/she can be when it comes to their lifestyle, and this ties in with their need for self-actualisation. Despite this need to thrive and succeed, their love of music will be put first and foremost above all priorities, demonstrating how important it is in their life and how deeply it is incorporated into their lifestyle. Therefore, Symbal would be used as a form of both escapism and also as a reminder of their love of music, satisfying the readers need to escape from the day-to-day routine of everyday life and into the one topic that they love – music. And, in accordance with the sociable, passionate nature of the representative individual, the magazine will encourage them to send in their own reviews and opinions on the music and magazine itself, allowing the reader to become an active part of the magazine and therefore be initiated into the familiarity of the readership.