Vogue Magazine

Conde Nast bought Vogue in 1905. In 1910 they made it go overseas, after visiting Britain in
1916 he started Vogue there and France in 1920. The profit has increased dramatically since
being under Conde Nasts management.

The purpose of Vogue magazine is to educate, entertain and inform their target audience of
women aged 16-24 about the latest trends in the fashion and beauty industry.

For this Vogue magazine issued September 2016 contains many codes and conventions.
Firstly, the technical codes and conventions is the camera
shot. This is a mid shot due to the waist up of Cara
Delevingne being in the frame which I personally think is the
best shot for this magazine cover as the audience are able to
see what she is wearing. This is ideal for the genre of the
magazine. Also, she is positioned in the frame so that hardly
any of the text overwrites her, even the headline of Vogue
goes behind her head. As it is such an iconic magazine,
people will automatically know that it is for vogue.
Furthermore, mise en scene is a main feature of this
magazine as this is what causes the audience to buy the
product. Costume is a main factor for Vogue, especially
because this is the genre of the magazine so the models will
have to be well dressed in some of the top designer clothes
in the UK. Even though she is dressed simple, the clothing
will be priced very highly from leading fashion brands. The
clothing is symbolic for the particular issue. As this is an
autumn issue the clothing and colours of the magazine
symbolise that it is autumn. The clothing that she is wearing
is a coat and jumper highlighting to the audience that its
autumn but also the orange and blue tones symbolise this too. In addition, the lighting used for
this cover photo is high key lighting as everything in the shot is bright, therefore creates no
shadow apart from the definition around her face such as her defined cheekbones and jawline,
which is edited. In addition to the high key lighting, the colours used in this issue all complement
one another. The orange writing and blue clothing both coincide with each other, as does the
slight bit of red in the background. Furthermore, the white headline and some of the
subheadings work well with any colours. I like how Vogue dont stick to a theme of colours and
instead change them to suit the image.

The audience demographics for Vogue is that 81% of the buyers are females who are aged 16-
24, by statistics saying this is 38% of their audience being this age. The socio-economic
grouping for their buyers are group A. This is because 54% are in higher education, 63% work,
51% are business owners, managers, specialists and white collars and 75% have a high income
meaning they can afford to buy Vogue magazines monthly. Furthermore, the Geo-
demographics of the audience who buy Vogue magazines will be of the upper, middle class due
to having highly paid jobs resulting in them being able to invest in Vogue magazines monthly.
The uses and gratification which is an active audience theory is what the target audience for
vogue will be. This is because the audience will be actively involved whilst reading the
magazine as they have to physically read the magazine. Firstly, the audience read this
magazine for surveillance to allow them to know what is going on in the world of fashion. This
magazine will keep the audience updated on the latest fashion trends for each month. This is
why the audience is actively involved in reading the product as they want to keep their fashion
trends up to date. Furthermore, personal relationships also causes the audience to be active
readers. Vogue use celebrity endorsement to promote their product because this way they will
attract a wider audience. But by using a celebrity who is a model and who is flawless this makes
the audience envy the way she looks which could result in eating disorders which will affect this
young audience. Their lifestyle could change dramatically in order to look like the model on the
cover.The personal relationships allows the target audience to relate to the celebrities and
interact with them actively. By reading this magazine the audience are reading something that
they enjoy therefore feel a sense of belonging. Also, the idea of personal identity forms value
reinforcement causing the audience to choose vogue as a magazine that they read as they
enjoy reading this which they hold similar beliefs to. Vogue will form their identity by following
the latest fashion and beauty trends. But finally, diversion causes the active audience to escape
from reality and relax by reading the magazine.

The production process of Vogue magazines is as followed. Firstly, they go to fashion events in
London, Paris and Rome to meet with the world's top fashion designers and discuss clothing for
the next issue. Whilst this is happening, the fashion and content editors plan photo shoots and
feature articles. This provides an overall vision of the magazine.
To this present day Alexandra Shulman is the editor in chief. She began Vogue as a feature
editor in 1988 before joining GQ as editor in 1990. Furthermore, in 1992 Shulman took on
Vogue in 1992. Since then has drove it to become a very successful magazine company.

Primary Research
The audience of this questionnaire are aged between 16-24 and are 50% male, 40% female
and 10% other which is specified as non binary. This allows me to determine who enjoys
reading Vogue and who doesnt.

Nobody who completed my survey read

Vogue. They are all in the socio economic
grouping of E apart from one individual

who
defi
nes
the
mse
lf as
C2.
The
se socio economic groupings are not the target
audience of Vogue and in fact Vogues target audience is in the grouping A and B. This is the
reason that the audience of my survey do not read Vogue because they are all students.
I think their knowledge on Vogue and even other
magazines is fragmented because most of the
people who did my questionaire dont read any
magazines. Only 20% read 1-2 a month and 1
person reads between 2-5 magazines a month. This
gives me the information that they dont know a lot
about magazines, especially Vogue.

50% of people who completed my magazine thought

the target audience was 16-24 year olds which they
were correct about. 50% of people thought the target
audience were 25-34 year olds. They thought this
because
- aimed at teens/young adults who like
fashion
- It is for women who want to look good
Therefore they do know about Vogue and recognise
that it is for people who like fashion and want to
keep up to date with the trend.

Furthermore, I asked the question as to what they think the main reason is for Vogue becoming
so successful. I received these answers;
- Targeted the right audience
- because it uses celebrities and is unique
I felt these answers were the most relevant because Vogue know how to attract their target
audience by doing this. By using celebrity endorsement it makes people more inclined to want
to read the magazine. Therefore attract the target audience of young women who like beauty
and fashion. Unfortunately, my class is more male dominant which is why this survey was not
really aimed at them.

I asked the question which magazines they think are

similar to Vogue and the responses were that Elle and
Glamour were most like it. Therefore, I get the
impression that they may read other magazine that
may be more targeted at their socioeconomic grouping
which they will be able to afford.

This primary research has allowed me to to gain

information that Vogue is not targeted at the socio
economic grouping of E which is why it was difficult to
collect well informed answers from the qualitative data.