Media diary: Week 3

FourFourTwo magazine - Audience classification

This week, I have consumed FourFourTwo magazine. I chose to analyse the audience for this because I feel already, by saying this, I am going against the stereotype of who would read it. 

FourFourTwo is a monthly football magazine. It is priced at £4.20, and covers everything from the top leagues to the bottom, including past and present stars. To define my audience, I will look at each audience classification model individually, using them to find out who I believe the magazine is aimed at.

Income/status

Using this model, which isn't overly reliable, I would actually suggest that anyone from class E above can and, if interests were included, would consume this media. Football is a sport that reaches out to all classes, and in some cases brings many together. With the magazine being fairly cheap, most people can afford it, and it is monthly meaning it is not too much of an expenditure. It brings together the month's football and, if education comes into it, includes vastly detailed articles, or the simpler interviews or statistics for the casual reader.

Audience profiling

For me, I would suggest the general consumer of FourFourTwo would go by the following-

Gender: Male. Age group: 16 to 45. Family: I feel any type of family person could buy the magazine. Self image: Obvious football fan, open to reading about it and taking in new information. Class: As above, any class. Nation: It is now international, but I would say mainly British, as it has the most features on English football. Ethnicity: As with class, I feel ethnicity is not important and it appeals to all classes. Education: Is similar to class in a way, I feel that, as I stated in the income/class model, all qualities of education can consume it. Religion and politics: Once again, I feel it doesn't really matter. Location: I believe England is the biggest consumer of the text, so I would say they would be located here. 

Young and Rubicam's 4 Cs

Using this model, the "7 types of people in the world" idea, I would say that consumers of FourFourTwo would be

The Explorer - The explorers seek out discovery, and want to try out new experiences. Although FourFourTwo is a magazine for a popular sport in football, it highlights several things unknown to the usual football fan. It allows fans to discover new information and things such as holiday destinations near football stadia. For example, the current issue 'discovers' 20 players "on the cusp of greatness". For many football fans, keeping up to date with new things in football is key, so this magazine would be ideal for them, meaning they would be the explorer.

The Mainstream - This is pretty obvious, as football is the biggest sport in the UK, and FourFourTwo is one of the biggest, if not the biggest, sports magazine in the UK. Although it is all down to interest, those who consume FFT could be classed as mainstream because it is such a famous sport's magazine and is well-known nationwide. Although the need for security isn't necessarily fulfilled, the mainstream are secure in the knowledge that they will get a glossy, interesting football magazine each month.

Lifestyle categories

There are 12 lifestyle categories, and although this particular text is hard to classify as any of them, I would say the consumer of FFT fits into the following -

Drop-outs - I say this only because unless you are subscribed, you are not committed to any magazine in any way. There could be someone who likes the look of one article on the front cover and buys the magazine purely because of that, with no intention of buying it again in the future. 

Egoists - As with the above, it partially applies. This time it's because they want to get the best for themselves out of life. Although a football magazine, FFT includes health and lifestyle tips that people interested in bettering themselves may pay attention to and be interested to. It is not the main point of the magazine, but is a sub category in a quite mainstream magazine.