Task 5A- Newsstand

For part of task 5 I had to look for a newsstand where music magazines were sold. I had to look at the front cover and how each magazine was displayed.

Where I found this magazine newsstand was in WhSmith, in the store they had sections with many categories of magazines. In the music section magazines were displayed according to genre, so POP, Rock etc were displayed in each of their own section. The reasoning of why they are like this is because, customers would most likely be interested in magazines in the same genre of the one they were looking for. To add to this, it would also mean that there would be competition between magazines of the same genre, therefore each magazine would have to stand out and be eye catching.

The magazines are all spreaded out displayed in a way that the masthead id the centre of attention on every magazine. Some magazines have only the masthead shown. This shows the importance of the magazine's masthead as it will give off impressions to possible consumers.

·         From the newsstand I can see that the more further away the magazine is, the less popular it is. Magazines which don’t sell as much as others might carry on selling at a low amount due to their placement on a shelf or newsstand. This would most likely be due to the lack of recognition from customers

·         Magazine models are all also looking at the audience; direct contact. Some models are even covering part of the masthead, this shows that the model has more importance than the brand. In addition, it shows that the magazine is confident that their brand is well known.

·         Most of the magazines have white coloured mastheads; this is very big and bold against the variety of backgrounds. As I can see from the newsstand the colour red is also used a lot on magazines, these colours are common because of it being eye catching to the eye of customers.

·         The magazine ‘NME’ is behind a lot of other magazines however, it still catches the attention of buyers due to the bright red masthead.

·         On the top shelf the magazine ‘SLASH’ has a bright yellow tag underneath it stating that it has £2 off. This promotion will attract customers as they would likely be interested because of the price; the colour yellow shows that its something which is of the centre of attention.

·         The popularity of magazines can be shown as on the newsstand the names of a few magazines are printed on the shelf it self.

·         Lastly, on the bottom shelf, the magazine ‘Songlines’ comes with a free CD. This is advertises the magazine as well as the artist of the CD. When consumers see that there is a free gift with a magazine they would think it has more value for money therefore, they would purchase that magazine. This competes with other magazines which have a better price however with no promotion.