Thursday 21 January 2016

Case Study Part 2: Front Cover Analysis


Elle is a worldwide lifestyle magazine of french origin that focuses on fashion, beauty, health and entertainment. Elle is also the worlds best selling fashion magazine. It was founded by Pierre Lazareff and his wife Hélène Gordon in 1945.
The title, in french, means “she”.
As of the title being one word, this makes it short and snappy. It sticks with the audience as its just one word to remember. As of the title meaning “she”,  it means the magazine has a theme, which is women. This means that their target audience is obviously women as thats what the whole magazine is practically based on. Also Elle is in fact a girls name which helps people who don't know french still get the gesture that its a women theme magazine. The magazine has taken one L out of the name for space of Kylie Jenner which could have the message that she fits in with this “women” theme. The white, bold, capital letters followed by the biggest font on the front cover, help stand out remarkably helping to capture the readers eye.

The image on the front of the magazine is a portrait of Kylie Jenner, who is an American reality television personality, socialite and model. She is the centre of the magazine cover/ page with the image taking up the whole page with writing over/ around the model. As of the photo being the main focus of the page, it shows importance and thats what attracts the audience to the magazine. Magazines often use celebrities that are in the spotlight at that current time as they are in the focus of people.
The image is aspirational to the reader. Especially as the readers/ target audience are mostly women from ages 18-49, which is the same as Kylie Jenner. The photo looks a bit fierce as she isn't smiling but as of the pretty, young, female with subtle makeup and the calming soft colours on the cover, it makes the magazine more approachable. Her looking into the camera lens gives a sense of her looking at you.

The subtitles play a huge roll in drawing the audience into the magazine.
The tagline “ BRAVE, BOLD, BEAUTIFUL” helps draw in the audience as of the alliterated describing words attracting the audiences eyes to maybe help the audience become what these words are and what the model looks like (the model resembles these describing words). This also links to the fact that the only yellow writing on the cover are “Elle exclusive-model- BRAVE, BOLD, BEAUTIFUL” which is how the magazine creates also see her and want to portray her as. The colour helps it stand out most from the rest of the page.
The rest of the coverlines are about fashion and beauty which is what the main magazine theme is.
These are in white with a mixture of capitals and lowercase with some more fashion coverlines being in the colour black but standing out as of the white clothing behind the font.

The target audience would definatly be interested in this cover as women love beauty and fashion which would draw them in to want to read more about it and be up to date with the new trends.

The black represents power, sophistication and seductive with the innocence of white and elegance of grey, the meanings of them fits in well with the group of upmarket women which is exactly what the target audience is.

The language used on the cover is formal which is also presented throughout the rest of the magazine. The use of formal language represents the readers as intelligent and a higher class.
The use of direct message of the magazine saying “to conquer your world” makes you feel apart of the magazine as if they are talking directly to you. But on the other hand with “hair rebel cuts to suit everyone”,even though they are saying everyone, making the audience not feel special, the way they used it made a feel of these women being a team and having a haircut that will suit them.

The magazine costs £4.10 in the UK which is pretty expensive suggesting that their audiences are more upmarket woman as they would be in a job that pays well. As we know, the median household income of Elle’s women audience is $69,973 suggesting that they can afford this magazine.

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