CCR Q2- How does your product engage its audience/how do you imagine it would be

distributed?
It’s hard to specify the exact audience of a computer game magazine, and to define their age,
backgrounds and gender; as these are interchangeable. Computer game fans come from every
social demographic background. Therefore, it is hard to pinpoint exactly what audience my
product would attract. However, the audience can be grouped together by one thing: they all
want to find an escape from reality, a game to distract them or to invest their time in.
Stereotypically, computer game fans are people from the ‘E’ social demographic group-
students, unemployed people; people with a lot of time on their hands. Since my product is
hand-drawn, and has a more retro feel to it, it could also attract older people- especially men
who enjoyed gaming in its prime days. These types of people usually belong to the C1 and C2
social demographic group- sometimes B.
How does the product meet their needs? What actually draws them to it?
The magazine provides information and knowledge about up and coming games on the market,
using hand-drawn illustrations to add a retro feel to it, but not necessarily advertising the
games as older and outdated. So, it can be said the magazine gives its readers a wider
knowledge about a given subject- usually for the audience who treat the subject as a hobby or
interest. It attracts survivors/explorers. My magazine aims to bring attention to under-
represented and underrated games with good reviews. The magazine will have hand-drawn
pictures featured on the front cover, 2 page spread and contents page. Hand-drawing helps the
magazine achieve a retro feel to it, which can attract a larger audience. Featuring rarely known
games is unconventional, as most computer game magazines converse about the hottest game
right now or talking about unreleased games by big video game companies like Treyarch-
creators of Call of Duty. By being unconventional, the magazine can attract a larger audience. It
informs and educates its audience, as it provides information about games and gives brief
comment regarding the actual game. A proportion of the text on the 2 page spread is about the
game featured; it talks about the games story, how it is correctly played, and the genre it is.
Retro magazines draw in older people- people belonging to generation X and the C2, C1 and B
social demographic groups. It’s conventional that as someone grows older in age, they also go
up the social demographic ladder; so older people would stereotypically belong to those groups
as they go higher up in the hierarchy.
How does your product appeal?
My product appeals because of the unconventional method of creating a front cover, 2 page
spread and contents page; because all of them were hand drawn. By hand-drawing the images
instead of using pictures of models, it successfully conveys the magazine as retro. The product
also appeals because of the front covers sophisticated-looking darker and limited color palette.
The main colors in the image are yellow, orange and black, which greatly contrast each other in
the background and character. The magazine can also attract more people because of the
unconventional appearance of a female warrior on the front cover instead of a male character.
Finally, show how your product achieves these aims?
The image on my front cover can successfully attract a larger audience- as well as more women-
since it was proven in one of my surveys that most people purchase a magazine purely from
their judgement of the front image displayed. So, it will attract mainly explorers, who want to
‘explore’ and find new things, standing out from in between other gamers. It also appeals
because the 2-page spread contains information about games that are not usually played, or
featured in magazines. Inside the 2-page spread, the information will give an overview of the
game, and a brief one-line review from a professional gamer or reviewer who experienced or
played the game itself.
Distribution:
My product would be distributed electronically, as people who play video games would most
likely rather view this product online on their devices than have to buy a physical copy. Also,
printing is very expensive, and would require a lot of funding. Printing the magazine would be
more expensive, as each copy costs a certain amount. Instead, people interested in purchasing
the magazine could simply pay for either an individual copy or subscribe to receive a monthly
issue, and download the magazine as a PDF. This is also more convenient in terms of portability,
as people are more likely to carry their smart devices around with them instead of a magazine
copy. Therefore, they will be able to easily and conveniently access the magazine on their
device rather than have to make a trip to buy a physical copy; which would also cost more than
an electronic copy.
Furthermore, online advertising would be much more advantageous. Using well-known and
commonly used applications such as Instagram or YouTube to advertise would be beneficial,
since a large proportion of younger people use these applications on a daily basis; which means
they would be exposed to these advertisements often, and would eventually be persuaded into
purchasing the magazine. People who play video games are also more likely to be active on
social media websites, which makes it more effective to distribute my magazine online rather
than investing in physical copies which might not do so well on the extremely competitive and
over-saturated market. Online advertising is also more suitable in this generations as most of
the population is on social media websites. According to one of my survey questions, younger
people from ages 10-18 make up 50% of total gamers interviewed, which justifies my statement
that distributing my product online is the most suitable method of distribution. On another
note, people belonging to the Generation X age group- who also typically belong to the C2, C1
and B social demographic groups- usually prefer for their magazine copies to be in their hand.
Older people like to collect items, and like the physical feel of them, instead of having their
magazine stored somewhere on a mobile device with a connection. For example, older people
are known to have ‘outdated’ items like vinyls, CD’s and DVD’s lying around with their music
stored on them. So, I concluded that because of this, older people might prefer to have their
own handheld copy of the magazine instead of an electronic copy. For this reason, I will have
printable versions of the magazine available alongside the purchase of an electronic copy; then,
these types of people will have the magazine suit their preferences.