Men's Health - Audience

Men's Health - Audience blog tasks

Read the Men's Health Media Pack in full to get a good idea of the demographics and psychographics for the Men's Health target audience then answer the following questions:

1) How does the magazine introduce itself?

The men's health magazine introduces itself as a magazine that will help men get fit and maintain a healthy lifestyle. It give's suggestions on what to eat such as low calorie meals etc.

2) What does the introduction suggest about the representation of masculinity in Men's Health's?

Men’s Health is the biggest-selling men’s lifestyle magazine, both in the UK and worldwide.

It’s success is built on a winning editorial formula which combines visually-engaging health, wellbeing and
nutrition features with premium content covering fashion, grooming, watches, tech and travel.

3) How do the print statistics for Men's Health compare to GQ and Esquire?

Men's Health have the most amount of ABC1 and AB readers whereas, Esquire and GQ have the most readership and circulation.
4) What is the difference between circulation and readership?

Circulation is the number of magazines printed and distributed whereas, the readership is an estimation of how many people read the magazine in total.

5) What was the circulation of Men's Health in thousands at the time this Media Pack was published? What about the readership for ABC1 men? AB men? [Note: this Media Pack was published in 2016 and some of the figures have fallen since then. Up to date circulation figures can be found at the top of this blog post].

6) How do readers generally interact with the digital version of the magazine?

They generally interact with the digital version of the magazine through social media.
Facebook (944K) Twitter (285K) Instagram (66K)

7) How many people do Men's Health reach across social media platforms?

Men's Health reach across 1,295M people on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

8) What is the audience profile for Men's Health readers? 

905K are ABC1, Aged 25-44

700K have a degree

200K earn over 50K

9) What is the Men's Health fashion philosophy? How much do Men's Health readers collectively spend on fashion?

Men's Health readers spend £1.1bn on fashion a year (more than 3 times that of GQ) - MM

10) What is the average watch collection value for the Men's Health audience? What do the statistics about watches suggest about the Men's Health audience demographics and psychographics?  

The Men's Health audience spend £54M a year on watches (vs GQ's £22M). Average watch collection value is £4,123 and intended to spend £3,201 on their next watch.

11) What percentage of Men's Health readers use moisturiser daily? What does this suggest about Men's Health readers' view of masculinity?

The Men's Health audience are the highest spenders on grooming and fragrance. £168M a year on skincare along with £43M a year on fragrance. The average number of grooming products owned is 11. 73% of Men's Health readers use moisturisers daily.

12) What does the media pack suggest regarding the Men's Health audience for fitness and technology?

Men's Health readers spend £238M a year on sportswear, swimwear and trainers. 702K own a wearable device.

13) Men's Health luxe is a series of magazines distributed with Men's Health targeting a specific aspect of the Men's Health audience. What are these three brand extension magazines called and what do they cover?

Urban Active: Sports-luxe fashion magazine produced in partnership with Harrods showcasing the continuing trend for high-end performance fashion apparel.

Synchronised: Now in it’s 8th year, our annual watch special is produced with the industries leading horologists and is a must have buyers-guide for amateurs and aficionados.

Epicure: Showcasing the best in food, drink, restaurants and kitchen skills for the man interested in cooking from scratch, provenance and fine dining.

14) What do the Men's Health luxe magazines suggest about the demographics and psychographics of the Men's Health audience?

The Luxe version displays that the Men's Health group of spectators would be ages 26-45, keen on things, for example, style, as proposed. The psychographics of the Men's Health group of spectators, would be aspirers, this is a result of the luxury releases, crowd individuals would self improve to have an increasingly effective and more beneficial way of life.

15) What additional brand extensions do Men's Health offer?

Survival of the Fittest is the biggest urban adventure race series in the UK with 15,000 entrants across 4 events nationwide and a supporting TV, magazine, digital and social campaign reaching millions. -MM

16) What are the global statistics for Men's Health?

Global Statistics
International Editions 37
Countries Published 60
Global Circulation 4.5M
Global Readership 26.7M
Websites 25
Uniques 23.7M

Social Media Footprint 19.3M

17) What does the 2017 calendar editorial specials suggest about the Men's Health audience?

It recommends, that the Men's Health group of spectators are exceptionally unsure, this is clear because of a lot of wellness and garments publication specials, this could proposes they are attempting to improve their way of life.

18) What audience pleasures are offered by the magazine?

Visual pleasures
Visceral pleasures
Surveillance
Personal identity 

19) What lifestyle and job would you expect the average Men's Health reader to have?

Men who read Men's Health would be required to be high society, effective aspirers as the magazine itself is costly in this way they'd must be affluent to have the option to bear the cost of a magazine to peruse - consistently. Since the intended interest group is ABC1 statistic this would recommend the work they have a decent pay, about the normal pay, getting paid well.

20) Why do you think Men's Health has managed to (just) remain profitable when many other magazines have struggled due to the rise of digital media?

Men's Health don't just sell printed copies, they have moved online and have a wide social media platform which attracts advertisers. 

BFI Study Day: follow-up work

BFI Study Day: follow-up work

The BFI Study Day on critical theory was a brilliant opportunity to develop our knowledge and understanding of media theorists.

We covered a lot of ground from gender to semiotics and postmodern theory. Complete the following tasks on your Media 1 Exam blog to follow up our work from the study day:

1) Type up your notes from the day.

Patriarchal Society - Male dominated society.

Gender is a performance - Series of gestures, actions, behavioural and dress codes that construct imaginary 'man' or 'woman'

Denotation - The direct or obvious meaning. 
Connotation - What we can infer from it.
Polysemic - Meanings aren't fixed.
Culturally determined - If you live somewhere with high police corruption, the denotation may be different to you than others E.G. Creates anxiety for you however, makes others feel safe.

Negotiated reading - Audience accepts some elements of meaning, but reflect others.
Oppositional reading - Audiences understand the intended meaning but decide to re-interpret the text to deliberately create an alternative.

Simulacra - Imitation that seems more real than the thing it is imitating.
Hyperreality - 'Mediated experiences' - Intensity that surpasses 'reality'

2) Write a one-sentence summary of the ideas of the theorists Matthew Daintrey-Hall covered (you can use your notes from task 1 here if relevant):

bell hooks: Bell Hooks is a radical black feminist. She believes that women are objectified and gender roles are constructed, not 'natural'.

Liesbet van Zoonen: Van Zoonen believes that in a patriarchal society, women's bodies are sexualised as being vulnerable and weak, whilst men's bodies are sexualised but through their power and strength. This offers male spectators pleasure by making them feel strong. 

Judith Butler: Butler believes that what we think of as gender is actually just performance: a repeated system of behaviours and costumes that are used so many times they become seen as 'natural'.

Saussure: Saussure believed that significance is made inside language in the relations of contrast between its parts, for instance semiotics, He considered society to be an arrangement of organization and social standards that structure an aggregate framework that gives conditions to importance settling on and thus choices and activities for people.

Barthes: Roland Barthes believed that signs we assume are denotations are actually 'dominant connotations' that hide ideologies. He called these 'myths'.

Stuart Hall: Stuart Hall said audiences often do not decode the meanings the way a texts creator intended. Some form negotiated or even oppositional meanings.

Lyotard: Lyotard trusts a totalising social account, that sorts out idea and encounters into a 'terrific 'story' that comprehends our lives.

Baudrillard: Baudrillard says "Hyperreality – a condition where 'reality' has been supplanted by simulacra."

3) Choose one of the films we saw extracts from and watch the whole movie: Captain Fantastic (2016), Pulp Fiction (1994) or Inception (2010). Write a 300 word analysis of your chosen film using theories from the study day (use the exam paragraph structure we were shown on the day - theory introduction, examples from text, why this 'proves' or 'disproves' the theory).

The story of Inception is that the hero, Cobb is a mechanical covert operative (Spy) who as opposed to breaking into an individual's home, office, or significantly personal computer, gets the data he needs by getting into the individual's psyche through their fantasies. Somebody approaches Cobb and needs to contact him yet as opposed to getting data out, the man needs Cobb to embed something, a procedure called "commencement." Cobb is reluctant to do it, however when the man offers to help Cobb return to his youngsters, Cobb concurs. Toward the end, he prevails with the mission, and reunites with his youngsters. Stuart Hall's hypothesis, can be connected to this motion picture, as the favored perusing the chief needs to put crosswise over to the gathering of people is this is definitely not a standard government agent kind film, as it doesn't include thefts and so on, as appeared in this film it is through his brain, this subverts the typical covert agent type storyline, which could allure groups of onlookers into watching it, as it is interesting and unique. Be that as it may, the oppositional perusing for this film is that getting into individuals' brain from their fantasies, could demonstrate the unreasonable idea of this film, which in this way could be a procrastinated on for a group of people, as a general rule you can't go into somebody's psyche and control it. Additionally, as Lyotard trusts that there is a totalising social account, that arranges thought and encounters into a 'fantastic 'story' that understands our lives. He expresses that media writings, have a 'terrific account', in Inception he needs to defeat a test to be brought together with his kids, this leads into the fabulous story of this film, and the utilization of storyline of being brought together with his youngsters connects back to the gathering of people, and how they cherish their friends and family, this makes the fantastic story, and at last satisfies the 'meta-story.'