Marketing Plan

I plan to market my product as much as possible to get the most people to buy it. I would do many types of marketing, some including digital, print, email, and social media. I will do digital marketing by advertising my product on websites that would be applicable to my topic, such as  a truck part website. This would be very helpful because the same audience would like my magazine and would be interested in it. For print I would use an advertisement in another similar magazine and use their subscribers which share the same interests as my magazine. This may be challenging because it will cause competition but if I do the same with their magazine it can work in both of our favors. I would use email by sending out emails to people who subscribe or try to access the website by signing in with their email. This would be affective because it will show perseverance to gain new subscribers. Lastly I will use social media. Social media is a platform that has been taking off. I could use TikTok where is very easy to get millions of people to see your product. Apps such as Instagram and snapchat will also be very beneficial seeing that there are millions of people using social media every second.

Audience Engagement 3

This magazine, Truckin, is similar to what my magazine is. Instead of featuring the new stock trucks, it features modified truck which may not be new. This will help involve the deeper truck enthusiasts who are looking for ideas for their build or new parts for their truck. The truck on the cover photo is very out there and will definitely catch the eye of anyone who knows something about trucks. The audience being represented to this magazine has to be more centralized because some of the articles in this magazine are listing new parts and performance benefits, and it would be hard to fully get a grasp of what the author is trying to describe with no background knowledge. This will also change the age group being that most older men do not like or would never want to own a truck that you have to spend 60k+ on in mods because the resale value would make it not worth it. This means that this magazine is targeting the mid age/schoolers that are into trucks.

Audience Engagement 2

This magazine, Truck Trend, features the first year of all of the leading competitors new body styles of their vehicles. This will draw a lot of attention to the male viewers who keep up to date on the major truck companies. This magazine however, features an article directed towards women showing a sporty, luxury "mom car" which is the 2029 Range rover. The diversity shown by this magazine can help expand the audience trying to be reached. The main thing that caught me when I saw this magazine is the new body style of the ram 1500 which is starting to compete and get close to the sales of the f-150. People also know this and when Truck Trend features an article and has the Ram as the biggest truck on the cover page it will draw people in to read and debate between the two now that the ram has more and better features than the f-150.

Audience Engagement 1

In this magazine, Car and Driver focuses on how to appeal to the male audience. They feature the new reveal of how ford is bringing back an iconic car. This helps to engage older readers because they will remember it from their time and it will help engage newer readers because they will be raving about the new Bronco. In the magazine it features many car parts and tips which would be useful for the younger audience whom have time to build their project vehicles. This being because as people get older they do not have the time to build their dream car when they have many more expenses with kids, a wife, and a larger house. Car and driver also does a great job featuring male oriented ads such as chewing tobacco and hunting apparel. 

Target Audience

The audience I am aiming for is primarily males. The age range can vary being that males are primarily attracted to automotive information. Based on research from other magazines, I have also realized that ads are centralized to men showing men's clothing brands, chewing tobacco, and men's cologne. Being that the age range could vary immensely I will try to target specifically kids in college/high school who are on a budget. I will do this by featuring other high schoolers/college students who have affordable yet good looking builds. This can help inspire others and help them where to find good looking modifications for cheaper. Though I am targeting students in school, people who do not want to spend a fortune on their build will also be interested in my magazine. This will help broaden my audience and increase the amount of people who would desire my magazine.

Feedback and Revisions

There are some things I need to add to my magazine to improve its appearance and structure. One of the things I knew off the bat is that I need to schedule a new photoshoot for my cover photo. It is a very good shot but the lighting is low and if it was printed on paper it would not show up well. I also will need to add page numbers to my articles which is something that flipped my mind. Another addition would be to use a more masculine/sporty cover font which would give a more masculine apperance. I would also need to fix the edges of my article to make everything more uniform. The feedback from my magazine was decent and the camera shots I had were very nice. I have minor grammer issues that I need to fix which is also needed. In my article I would like to change the second landscape photo to show a variety of camera shots taken and not two from the same angle.

Use of Conventions

The product I submitted used conventions of other automotive magazines. The way I laid out the photos of the trucks was based off of the way MotorTrend lays out their automotive pictures. I also used the title layout to replicate TruckTrends layout by using the sub title fonts in the bottom right corner with previews. I tried to shoot my cover photo at a canted angle because that was a very common trend with all of the truck magazines I observed. The audience that would be reading my magazine will be from ages 14-30. I chose to make a magazine featuring the trucks/cars that kids around the same age built. This will demonstrate that an affordable good looking build is achievable. There still will be interest from kids under 14 years old and men over 30 because most men will appriciate a nice looking truck/car. Some children become fascinated for automotive vehicles at a young age by looking at pictures of trucks/cars which is another way my magazine could be viewed.

Midterm Submission

I first chose to make a magazine because I take pictures of peoples cars/trucks as a hobby. I specifically chose an automobile magazine for that reason too. I also know a lot about automobiles so, I can write accurately about it. For the photoshoots I had a lot of previous knowledge on places with  good lighting and background, preset camera settings for rollers, and sunset shots. During the process of this project I also learned a lot of new skills. I learned how to get rid of a blue glare from my camera on Adobe Lightroom, I learned how to shoot a car in different angles, and I also figured out how to make my camera shoot really clear close-up shots. The reason why I chose this truck as my article and to interview the person who owns it is because I wanted to make a magazine about nice trucks that are somewhat affordable to .kid who only works 1 job. In this case that is how Matheson paid for most of the truck I chose the cover picture because I thought it was a cool way to demonstrate my camera skills with a rolling shot of the truck. It helped that I shot it in portrait because it helped me have space to add a title and where to put the captions. The next shot was also to demonstrate my camera skills, It was a very nice and clear close-up and it had space for my table of contents layout. The picture in the top third of the first page of the article was a nice picture of the whole truck, as well as a smaller picture of the back of the truck further down on that page. The next picture was to see how clean the undercarriage of the truck was and it showed all angles of the truck to get a full view of it.  

Table of Contents

The reason I am listing the 3 in the first section is because they were included in the main cover page so they should be featured in the table of contents. The reason why I picked the 3 in the last section was because they were my favorite sections on all the topics I made "just for you". I also used the Haettenschweiler font because I like the masculinity of the font and it also gives off a chill but focused vibe. I used only one photo because it was a dark contrasting photo with space to type on the top and bottom and the photo is really crisp.

Cover Template

This is the template to my cover page, I will have the title in big bold letters followed by the specific title of this issue with 3 other featured articles in the bottom left hand corner. The font I used was Haettenschweiler in all capitals which gives it a meaner more masculine look. In the real cover page I will switch the colors of the fonts to make it pop more.

Photoshoot #3

These pictures were over the course of 2 days. One was a Friday on my way to school I noticed the sunrise start to peak over the tree-line and thought to shoot it. The next time was to see if I could make my car contrast from the background a lot so I shot mid-day when there was no clouds so the lighting was good. I found an area before the parking lot which was under construction which also provided a cool background. I next shot my friends vehicles for sunset in the parking lot while the background was glowing from the sun.

Photoshoot #2

These photos were taken at the pier on a non-crowded night. I was waiting for a good sunset for weeks and I got my opportunity around 5:45pm on a colder night. I took pictures of my friends jeeps while parked on the sand so that the sunset would glow around the Jeep(s). Here are my best photos.

Photoshoot #1

These were the rolling photos from the Ringling Bridge. After I was finished interning it was dark out and the perfect time to take rollers. My friend met up with me to drive my car while the back window was rolled down to take photos. It was much harder than I thought so out of 87 photos these are my best few.

Interview

I interviewed a good friend of mine, Matheson King. The reason why I picked Matheson to interview was because he had the nicest, relatable build that I know. He doesn't drive a crazy expensive truck but he did a lot to make it nice and look the way it does today. If anyone would know the mistakes, more tips to give, or know what to do on their simple project truck, it would be Matheson.

Scouting Locations #3

The next area I scouted was all of the main beach parking lot and side streets. This area is perfect for any time of the day lighting. During the mornings the sunrise creates a golden effect over the trees, during the day the sun hits the car good and it collides with the scenery well, and during sunset it looks like the palm trees are glowing in the back. I do know more private roads that are away from people to get better, clearer shots and areas of the beach that are not too crowded.

Scouting Locations #2

The next location I scouted out was the Siesta Key broken Pier. This area is mostly only good at sunset when there is not too many clouds. My friends and I meet up here for sunset very often so I am used to a good time to take sunset photos. This location is not good during tourist season because everyone watches the sunset at the pier and it will lead to a crowded photo. I also cannot shoot here during the day because the sun is too overpowering and creates a bad glare or includes bad shadows.

Scouting Locations #1

For my first location I am picking the Ringling Bridge. I chose to shoot here at night to try to attempt a roller car shot of a vehicle. The lighting is really good on the bridge and it makes it easier to adjust settings and shoot without flash. The only trouble is other traffic with cars so we would have to shoot really late at night.

Magazine Genre Reaserch #5

This magazine is not a truck magazine but a car magazine because I was thinking about making my personal magazine a car and truck magazine. The cover has nice contrasting colors with a brand new bright orange mustang gt popping out of the grayish background. The font matches the color scheme of the car and goes with the picture nicely. The magazine has not won any awards but if famed for its lists and the grading given out for specific cars. The ads were represented towards men and occurred every 2-3 pages.

Magazine Genre Reaserch #4

The Cover of this magazine jumps out at me with a very well edited photo and shows a different type of way to modify your truck. The truck being shown in the photo is lowered which appeals to many people in florida, as well as the audio system upgrades mentioned in the bottom. One of the reasons why I picked this magazine was because I saw the advertisement of the audio system at the bottom and I had plans to include a section like that in my magazine because it appeals to many kids I know. This magazine company has not won any awards. The ads were more neutral in this magazine with some feminine vehicle accessory modifications but also had many male ads which occurred every 2-3 pages.

Magazine Genre Research #3

This Magazine is directed toward the truck enthusiast who is looking to build what truck they have. The cover is a very cool up close shot of an older diesel truck off-roading. The truck is custom built and is showing parts advertised on the cover. There is also bright contrasting lettering that pops out at you and represents the company well. The magazine company "Diesel Power" has not won any awards. The ads in the magazine are frequent and pop up every 2 pages. The ads were mainly directed towards men with lots of truck parts, tobacco products, and liquor advertising.