Target Audiences

ARMYs all over the world were amazed when BTS popped up on the cover of Rolling Stones: India. It might not be mainstream in North America, but the magazine still blew up across Twitter and Instagram, grabbing attention left, right, and center. In a magazine with its primary focus being pop culture and music, copies of this edition were flying off shelves, not surprisingly, to young adults, more specifically girls, between the ages 13 - 25. But what exactly made it so appealing?

The biggest and most obvious reason might be the main photo of international K-pop stars, BTS. ARMYs especially were delighted to see their idols, and the magazine did a sneakily good job in choosing the picture, specifically what they were wearing. During the week of BTS celebrating their anniversary, their company releases photos from a specially designed photoshoot, in which each member is wearing different stage costumes from each era. An interesting choice in photo, where the magazine introduces the different styles of BTS, from V in his white bomber jacket from Not Today, to Jimin’s softer and fuzzy look, in his stage costume from Spring Day. It’s a clever way to not only get fans to pick up the magazine, but also to introduce potential new fans to what type of group BTS is - versatile, and fresh. On top of it all, I think that they also chose to use idols to attract a certain age group - usually, people admire idols who are around the same age of them/older, which is why they chose BTS (who’s age range is 20-25) to target an audience 25 and younger.

Moving onto the text, under the picture of the boys are the words “K-pop Explosion”, which is probably talking about not only BTS’s growing influence, but also the expansion of the genre as a whole. This also targets the (surprisingly big) fan base and/or K-pop community, which is made up mostly of those ages 13-25. When you’re as committed to a fan base like most K-pop fans are, and on top of it, have said fan base underrepresented in the media outside of East Asia, it’s exciting to see it on the front of a magazine, in big letters. This also appeals to K-pop fans outside of just BTS, as it references to K-pop as a whole, as well as also attracts people who want to know why exactly K-pop is getting so big, and what makes people like it so much.

The next subtitle builds onto the last point I made; how it attracts people who want know why people like K-pop so much. The words ‘10 K-pop Acts You Have to Check Out” implies that there’s a list of top 10 K-pop groups in the magazine. Not only does it attract people who want to see what these ‘top 10 groups are’ as well as see if their favourites are in those top 10, it also helps to get more people to see K-pop not as the niche it is, but also bring them into the craze that’s taking over the world, slowly, but surely.

Magazines target specific audiences by putting in things that will attract their specific audiences. Especially in this edition of this magazine, they played on the (for a lack of a better word) desperate want for attention in the media from K-pop fans, guaranteeing sales by using BTS, one of the biggest groups in the world, as well as using a slew of K-pop related titles, to drawn in fans of said genre, and manipulate them into buying the magazine.