Distribution Research #1

       Magazines use traditional techniques to distribute their magazines which includes many different ways to do it. Large magazines usually use distribution departments to get their magazine to retailers since their sales and circulation and so high. On the other hand, smaller magazines use distribution agents to get their magazines to their audience. Companies in south Florida such as Magazine Subscription Service Agency, South Florida Business Journal, and Best Version Media all and distribute them to different places in the area. These companies work with the magazines to get their product to peoples door and in places, such as bookstores and publix, that sell magazines regularly. The main traditional way to distribute magazines is to get the product to the peoples door whether its being delivered or bought from a store, the goal is to have the magazine in the audiences hands. 

Marketing Plan

    After researching different magazines strategies to market their product, I found a couple of techniques I might use for my magazine. These are creating a booth or pop-up shop at an event, social media accounts, and sponsoring and being involved with things related to the topic of the magazine such as fishing tournaments. The technique I will make is a twitter account. The reason I chose to do this is because most advertising is starting to happen more and more on social media so having a twitter account will bring great exposure. The account will also allow me to market and expose the special things my magazine has and offers to the audience.
 

Target Audience/Marketing Research #3- Game&Fish

    Game&Fish has a very similar audience to the magazines I have already researched and my own magazine. This magazine is bought by 86% men and the median age of the audience is 40. The average household income is 87,000 and 85% of people are married. This magazine has the same audience as the other magazine I have already researched and has a very similar audience that I will be trying to have.

   Game&Fish is owned by the same parent company as In Fisherman. This will cause the marketing to be very similar. Game&Fish also has a print version and digital version. The only national title with custom-tailored content for its state and regional audiences. They provides state-specific coverage of hunting and fishing for core enthusiasts across the United States. Also Game&Fish attends the same events In Fisherman does such as ICAST, Sportsman Channel Outdoor Fest, and Florida Sportsman Expo to market their magazine. They hand out free samples and subscriptions at booths to get their magazine more exposure. Also, one of Game&Fish's editors had his truck wrapped to market the company. This is something companies do to market a lot whether its wrapping a car or getting a small work truck with a big ad on the side. 

Target Audience/Marketing Research #2- Bass Master

    Bass Master magazine's target audience is also very similar to mine. Their main audience is males which is 82% of the it. The average age for someone reading the magazine is 42 years of age. The average annual household income is 62,000 so this magazine is purchased by mostly middle class families. Of the readers, 63% are married. This shows that this magazine will have a similar target audience to my magazine which is middle class and males.

    Bass Master magazine is one of the best at marketing their product. Similar to the In Fisherman magazine, Bass Master appears at events such as the Bass Master Classic Expo. They show up to events like this to give samples and to spread the word about the magazine they have for sale. Also this magazine is strongly involved in one of the biggest fishing tournaments of the year, the Bassmaster Classic. The magazine is advertised throughout the whole tournament whether its print ads or televised ones on commercial breaks, the magazine gets plenty exposure. Bass Master also has a twitter account with 130k followers where they do most of their social media marketing. Their tweets also get retweeted by other fishing and outdoors accounts which will allow their audience to grow rapidly.

Target Audience/Marketing Research #1 - In Fisherman

    The magazine In Fisherman has a very similar target audience to my magazine. They target 90% males and 10% women . This is usually from 35-55. The class they are targeting is middle class. More than 65% of people reading this magazine age married and graduated college also. This is because these are people that are interested in fishing and need all the tips they can get to catch those big fish. How this is similar to my target audience is the class and age. My magazine targets middle class and mid ages just like this magazine.

   In Fisherman is one of the best in the industry at marketing. In-Fisherman was the first media brand to embrace a multi-media strategy, with television, print and web exposure. They also have the largest magazine audience of any other freshwater fishing magazine. In Fisherman has a print version, digital version, and even an In Fisherman TV show on the Sportsman channel, a TV channel in the conglomerate they belong to. The TV station is owned by the parent company so In Fisherman runs ads for their magazine on commercial breaks. Also In Fisherman attends events such as ICAST, Sportsman Channel Outdoor Fest, and Florida Sportsman Expo to market their magazine. They hand out free samples and subscriptions at booths to get their magazine more exposure.

Feedback and Revisions

 The feedback that I received on my magazine was very helpful and should allow my magazine to be improved greatly. The most common responses were that the pictures on the article pages were dark and could be brightened up. The second response that was said in an abundance was to add branding and page numbers that are easier to see. Also, I need to match my page numbers with my flat plan which I forgot to do. Last but not least, I need to get rid of the border on my cover page. To brighten up the pictures, I will have to edit them and play with the picture settings. I will also add some branding to the bottom of the pages and have the page number on the outside most part of the page in a bigger font.

Use of Conventions

       My magazine uses and challenges the conventions of the genre it is about I many ways. In my magazine, I used a tactic that most of the magazines that I researched had. This is putting a subheading under the title that explains the purpose of your magazine. In addition, I also used a convention most fishing magazines use which is having a massive fish on the cover of the magazine. This is used to catch the audiences eye and make them want to pick up your magazine and read it even more. Also, this magazine represents a popular social group. This social group is fishermen that are trying to learn more about fishing. This is shown by the abundance of tips and tricks and also the pictures. The pictures are shown to show the audience who they are trying to catch once they get more experience with fishing.