The e-magazine ‘Travel Super!’ is an electronic information provider with the core subject being travel and holidays. Is it not an estate agent or holiday provider, and therefore this underline that its intention is to be an education medium to inform the user/reader about travel topics covered.
It is used by the audience to search for and research holiday destination, find activities to do in certain locations, and seek advice and learn more about local landmarks and attractions that may be of interest to them. While the site’s primary purpose is informative and educational, it does allow it’s users to see prices of different holidays from partner providers and gives the users links to allow them to follow-up their interest and actually book holidays, hotel rooms and apartments.
‘Travel Super!’ is only available for online viewing, however it is available on many different platforms such as PC/Laptop’s, Tablets and mobiles. The layout of the home screen and also the internal pages have been adapted to be visually pleasing and to ease navigation on the various access platforms. With increasing numbers of people accessing the internet on tablets/mobiles rather than traditional PC/Laptop’s the modification of the site to adapt to these viewing platforms greatly increases the appeal to a broader target audience, who might otherwise be put off it were not mobile friendly.
My judgment is that the age demographic of the target audience would be between 25 and 45, specifically younger parents looking for a family holiday. The Slogan of the site is “Cool deals, great young parents it is trying to attract, feel as though this is a site that would create an image of a “cool” lifestyle. For this reason, I feel it is less likely to attract an older, retired audience. The image on the home page reinforces the young parent target audience. I feel the income & status demographic would be C2 and above – this fits with the family middle-class profile of people who would have money to spend on holidays. The Psychographics for target audience would in my opinion be ‘Aspirers’ and ‘Explorers’. This is because the site creates an image of luxury and excitement whilst also covering many far-flung destinations that might inspire creative thought to experience new places.
The ‘Heinz Beans’ printed advert’s sole purpose is a commercial one – to promote the sale of the featured product. The printed advert is simple and striking featuring the product at its centre, but it is also cleverly portraying three additional messages to its target audience. The first being that the front of the can boldly states “One of your 5 a day” portraying to the audience that it is healthy. The second is the image of a bean-stalk growing and surrounding the can, this has two meanings – one of being Green, and implying that the beans are a healthy vegetable, the other appealing to children who would associate the beanstalk with the fairy-tale of ‘Jack and the beanstalk’ – thus evoking a fantasy feeling. The third message is the slogan at the base of the advert “for truly magical beans it has to be Heinz” reinforced the magical fantasy quality associated with the fairy-tale, and also reinforcement of the Heinz Brand evokes a feeling of tradition.
The advert would primarily be printed in hardcopy magazines and newspapers/supplements, but it may also sometimes be replicated as a final or lasting image in TV advertising or on electronic billboards. The audience interaction with the publication is purely visual, and generally they will come across it rather than seek it out.
I feel the target audience demographics are mothers with young children, and students who have an income status of E to C1. I feel these two audience groups have been targeted down to the ‘healthy’ messaging associated with the product, the fantasy fairy-tale story association as well as the fact the product is good value food for low income groups. The Psychographic classification is in my opinion quite broad, specifically it could appeal to Mainstreamers, Explorers and Strugglers. This is because they tend to respond to attractive packaging, they focus on value for money products, and are also sentimental with strong brand choices.
The ‘Keep warm, keep well’ information booklet/leaflet from Norfolk Living Well organisation is specifically produced with the aim of educating and informing a very specific target audience on how to stay warm and well over the cold winter months.
The target audience will use the leaflet to aid them in their understanding of how to maintain good health during winter and take advantage of the financial help and benefits available to them. This publications is solely educational and informative – with little emphasis being placed on the visually impactful nature of the content, although the front cover is quite bold and instantly informs the audience on the content.
Due to the leaflet being quite detailed (28 pages) I imagine this will have been printed and sent directly in hard copy format to the target audience, however it would also be available in public health centres (GP surgery’s and hospitals) as well as being available online for viewing and download. The online publication would more likely appeal to the younger audience, or children/carers of the elderly, so they can gain access to, and be educated too.
This publications is quite unusual in that it very clear who its target audience is – it does not leave it to guesswork or interpretation as it states it on the front cover of the leaflet “Over 60’s, low-income families, people living with a disability”. In my view the Psychographics of the target audience include ‘Resigned’ and ‘Strugglers’ because this matches closely the stated recipients of the leaflet Income and status would likely be E to C2.
(link to leaflet)
The use of each of the three different digitally produced publishing products is quite distinctly different from each other. ‘Travel Super!’ is a universal lifestyle information hub encouraging its potentially global audience to visit and learn about travel related topics which may enhance their life and leisure-time enjoyment. The ‘Heinz beans’ advert is very different from ‘Travel Super!’ in that its primary purpose is to raise commercial awareness of their product to entice sales by reinforcing brand loyalty and promoting healthy living, most likely limited to a UK audience. The ‘Keep warm, keep well’ booklet on the other-hand is targeted at a very specific demographic in a local geography (Norfolk) with the intent of raising public health awareness and preventing illness, loss of life and winter financial hardship – it is essentially a local public service message.
Although all three publications could be available online, or digitally rather than in printed form, this is not the primary publishing medium for Heinz or the Norfolk health material. In this way they use quite different routes to communicate to their audience, but the Norfolk health’s extension to make the leaflet available online helps to widen its audience and availability. The Heinz advert is available for viewing online through sites like Google – actually making it visible globally.
While all three publications are very different with very different target audiences in terms of age demographic as well as Psychographics they all have one common income and status demographic – that being the broad classification of C. This goes to prove that even though the publication are very different in terms of purpose and content they could all be of appeal to the same person.
Even though all three publications have been produced in order to communicate and promote their subject matter, it is clear they all have very different purposes… one to inform and broaden the audiences travel horizons, one to sell and persuade, and one to educate and drive health awareness.
