A2 Research and Planning: Magazine Cover Questionnaire Results

I handed my questionnaire out to a sample of sixteen to twenty year olds. In order to get some honest feedback on my movie magazine, I have completed this study before construction of my cover begins so that I can make necessary changes to suit my target audience.

I used a sample size of twenty people, all between the ages of sixteen and twenty. I separated my sample size into groups of four and put examples of our work on separate tables. The respondents were given five minutes to fill out an individual questionnaire on my magazine cover before they moved on to assess my movie poster.


What is your gender?



Ten males and ten females answered my questionnaire. This gives me an even distribution of boys and girls, whilst my target audience is predominantly male, my magazine caters for females too. It will give me an even and fair series of results.


Does my magazine look professional?


The majority of the respondents thought that my magazine conformed to typical codes and conventions of magazines. This is very important as I want my magazine to look authentic.

When analysing the qualitative answers to the ‘Why?’ half of the question, many of those answered listed colour scheme, the fonts, barcode, issue number and date made the cover look more professional. The minority who didn’t think my magazine looked professional thought that the colours were too bright and the editing wasn’t good.


Would you feel more or less inclined to see the movie that this magazine featured?



Eleven of the twenty respondents replied that they would feel inclined to see my movie after seeing it featured on the magazine. The reasons for this in my qualitative follow up questions said that they thought the cover looked mysterious- the two people on the cover looked sombre and they wanted to know why, and that they liked the look of it.

Nine respondents said that they felt less inclined to see the move after seeing the magazine as they didn’t find it interesting enough and thought that it looked boring. However, the majority of the respondents felt that the magazine promoted the movie well.


Which features of my magazine cover do you like?


This question was multi optional as respondents were asked to circle more than one answer, so I have thirty two answers to this question.

The majority liked the colour scheme, which consists of red, black and white. They said that the red is effective and stands out, but because it’s used in a small dose it doesn’t look too bright and busy. Eleven liked the image I used, reasoning for this as they thought it suited the genre it needed to convey. Ten responded that they thought the fonts were effective and eye catching without looking unprofessional.


Which features of my magazine cover do you dislike?



The layout is the most unpopular feature here, as they believe that there is not enough content features and it doesn’t look busy enough. Five didn’t like my image as they thought it was too dull and five didn’t like the fonts used because of their personal preference.


Taking these findings into account, I will make the necessary alterations to my movie magazine cover.