The purpose of a magazine front cover is to attract the audiences eye in order to persuade them to buy it. Moreover, it is also used to differentiate their product from other competitive magazines on the market which is normally achieved by making it decorative, colourful and better value for money from their competitors. Therefore, taking this into account, on my magazine front cover, there will buttons, hooks, teasers, selling line and cover lines as this seemed to be highly conventional amongst those magazines I had analysed. A button, also known as a flash, is normally by itself informing the audience about something that is inside which is exclusive. Buttons are normally used to emphasis freebies. I found that there was no more then 2 buttons on one magazine front cover where some didn’t have any. Cover lines range from 3 to 8 and are all about the most exclusive information they hold inside in order to grab the audience’s interest. However, there is only one main cover line in which is about the main feature of the magazine. I will also have a selling line which is a short sentence about my main marketing point.
On my magazine front cover, I decided to have one button expressing an exclusive DVD that contains footage of an interview with the actors of The Vanishing as well as a preview of the film. The reason why I will use only one button is because I do not want to make the front cover highly congested as I felt that it will cause the audience to find it hard to follow and read the information on the cover. Moreover, I will be targeting a more mature age group of 18 – 27 where this age group are more concerned about the content of the magazine rather then quantity.
I will have four cover lines on my front cover as I felt that one or two will not be sufficient enough to gather the interest of the audience as well as making the magazine look as if it doesn’t contain much inside. I want to present value for money through my front cover, which will be gained by using a small amount of four cover lines, however, choosing the four most interesting and exclusive information from the magazine. I feel that this will have more of an impact on my age group then filling the front cover with irrelevant cover lines being used as fillers. The cover lines I will have on my front cover are below:
“Matt Samon EXCLUSIVE interview inside!”
Matt Samon stars in The Vanishing and is a very big name in the film industry. I believe that when consumers see his name, they would want to find out what the exclusive interview is about due to limited information given in the cover line.
“Tom Fruise career over?”
The above cover line will also gather interest in the magazine as Tom Fruise has been in the film industry a long time and has gathered a very high reputation. Therefore, the cover line on a question on his career will question many consumers and will persuade them to buy the magazine.
“AROA take over film industry! See inside!”
AROA is the new upcoming film production company who have a large line up of films to get released later this year. Not many people have heard of AROA and I have limited the information by not identifying who they are and what they do in order to persuade them to purchase the magazine to find these questions out.
“10 steps to becoming an actor”
As this is a film magazine, the audience I am pitching my magazine too is those who are into the film market. This is those who enjoys watching films, those who are in the drama industry and actors to see what is being said about them. I wanted to balance the content of the magazine in order to increase the audience therefore, I aimed this cover line at those who are in education or those who have a desire to become a actor in the future.
The main cover line will be “JACK SILVER IS BACK”. Jack Silver hasn’t appeared in a film for a period of 2 years 3 months due to him entering the music market and being on tour after releasing his new album in February 2009. A return in a highly rated film is a very big thing considering he hasn’t made a film in nearly 2.5 years which will gather a very big audience. Also, from a recent study carried out in 2008, researchers found out that the first element which caught the readers eye was the main picture and very closely following behind it was the main cover line. Therefore, an effective picture alongside a persuasive main cover line should increase interest majorly. ( Information gathered from IM Publishing on 18th Feb 11)
Lastly, the selling line of my magazine will be “The trusted experts for the big screen”. This selling line will gain confidence in the consumer due to the fact that the term “trusted” will build a relationship between the magazine and the audience by making them confident that this is a good magazine. Moreover, the term “experts” suggest knowledge and experience in which I am trying to express for my magazine. I want consumers to feel comfortable and confident when buying my magazine, which can be shown through the terms “trusted”, and “experts”.
