Creative Critical Reflection

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Creative Critical Reflection Question 4 Draft

For my pictures, I used a Canon Rebel T6. Although I wasn't great at operating it in the beginning, it was a learning curve and I was able to get some really great close up shots. The one I used for my cover looked so clear and the colors really stood out which made it the perfect cover image. I also used my iPhone XR for a few shots which has a camera that I am much more familiar with. Both allowed me to take really high-quality pictures that I was proud of.

As for putting together my magazine, I used Indesign and Publisher. For my cover, I set the cover image as a background which made it much easier to add text and change my formats around. While I was adding text, I decided to add some shadows and dimension to the text so the words would be easy to read over the picture. Publisher also allowed me to add the shape on the front which was a convention that I followed of having little pop-outs. In Indesign, I was able to wrap my text around my pictures in a very professional way. I formatted a dominant picture to start off my article and Indesign allowed me to do that.

Creative Critical Reflection Question 3 Draft

My skills definitely progressed throughout this project. Before, I didn't have any experience with photography, Indesign, or Publisher. With the photography element, it wasn't a skill I was already good at but I believe my skills progressed throughout the process. I went to Kazu to take pictures of the chef rolling sushi and it took me a while to figure out the right zoom to keep the picture clear and whether or not to use flash. After a few minutes, I started to get the hang of it and I got some cool pictures. A week later, I took more pictures at JPAN and these were of the food I had ordered. These pictures were close up and I played with different angles to try to make them exciting. For my table of contents, I used Publisher. Due to the limited programs I had on my home computer, I originally made my table of contents in Word. This program wasn't professional at all so I ultimately revised and finished it in Publisher. This program was much more suited for this task which made my job easier and the product came out better in the end. With Indesign, it was a learning process for sure. I ended up using it to format my article. It allowed me to size the picture correctly and wrap the text around them in a professional way. Although I don't view it as the most user-friendly program, I appreciate the product it could produce. I was proud of myself for learning so much along the way throughout the process.

Creative Critical Reflection Question 2 Draft

Target Audience Engagement Research

SRQ Magazine 

• The target audience between my magazine and SRQ Magazine is similar because we both are catering to the Sarasota demographic. Although my magazine is solely food and they cover local news, we are both attempting to grab the attention of the locals. 
• The magazine is marketed using social media. SRQ Magazine can be found on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram along with its online and print version. On the Instagram page, a link to the online version of the magazine is in the bio along with the address to find their location downtown. Also in their bio, and in many posts, are the hashtags #livelocal and #thrivelocal. These allow anybody to put these hashtags on posts and instantly be connected to the magazine. This will definitely help with their engagement and increase interactions between them and their customers.  
• I would definitely like to come up with a catchy slogan that is recognizable to my magazine specifically. Whether I do hashtags on social media or another form of advertising, something catchy that people can recognize is super important for being on the minds of your target audience.  Something like a billboard could be a good way to display a catchy slogan that draws people's attention to my magazine. 

Food Network Magazine

• Because we both have food-focused magazines, our target audience will be similar. We are both trying to appeal to the foodies through nicely-plated meals that make the reader instantly hungry! We would have very similar articles, focusing on different restaurants, recipes, and foods. 
• Food network is the #1 monthly magazine in the US, therefore, they clearly know how to market! Listed in their media kit are many ways they push their magazine to their viewers.
• Along with social media, I would like to use email blasts. Using emails to send out promotional codes and updates keeps the brand in the minds and inboxes of the reader. I check my email everyday to see what new deals and new releases. I would also utilize a digital version of my magazine to reach a wider audience. It may be easier to get access to the new editions online rather than having to pick up a new edition every time.

Hanako Magazine

• This magazine is centered around Japanese culture and my issue is a Japanese cuisine issue. Because we are focusing on the same cultural group, our articles would be focusing on similar topics. The food we cover would be incredibly similar which makes our audiences similar as well. 
• As a marketing technique, Hanako gives their first time buyers a discount as an incentive to purchase a copy. To keep these new customers, the company gives points to buyers every time they order a new issue. These points can provide customers with deals later on after they purchase many copies. 
• I think a first time customer offer is a really good idea as a way to entice new customers to give the magazine a try. This shows that you care about new readers and want them to try your magazine. On the online addition I would have a "first time customer" option that requires an email so that they can get the discount along with getting their email for my email blasts. 

Traditional Distribution 

Because of the switch to all things digital, magazines are also making the switch. Online magazine subscriptions are becoming more popular then purchasing an issue at a store. Knowing this, digital distribution strategies are what magazines are now using to push their product. According to business.com, "magazine circulation companies/web portals can help with finding and retaining subscribers." Because online products reply on pushing out to potential customers based on web searches and other forms of advertising strategies, online magazines will push out to these potential costumers. The goal of advertisers is to not waste the funds used for reaching potential customers on those who won't actually purchase the product. Therefore, strategies are used to determine who is actively searching for a similar product that the product can be distributed to. Subscription are offered to keep customers purchasing the product rather than being a one-time buyer.

Digital Distribuation Research

Food Network
According to their media kit, Food Network offers a digital copy of their magazine to multiple platforms: Apple, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Foli, Flister, Magzter, Texture, and Zino. As for their app, Food Network Magazine US has a 4.5 star rating and is number 67 in magazine and newspaper apps. In their app description, they have subscription offers in a variety of ways. They will allow you to start a subscription right in the app or you can have free timed preview of the content right in the app. The app subscription is exclusively on the app and does not offer you access to the content from the website. All charges will be done through ITunes.I like their concept of having exclusive app subscriptions. I feel that this is a really good idea as you can get revenue from different groups by having separate subscription options. Because they charge straight through ITunes, it is super convenient for the customer. This is a method I would like to use in my distribution plan of my magazine as well.

Eating Well
Eating Well distributes its product digitally as well as physically. There are options to subscribe to content both on their website and on their app. Unfortunately, the app has not received  pleasant rating, with consumer satisfaction at 1.6 out of 5. This is unfortunate because this will result in lack of revenue coming from their app and loss of money from subscriptions. As for your social media, their fan base in 4.4MM, according to their media kit.  The 'shop' tab on the website is a great way to push product to customers. You are able to purchase cookbooks (physical copies and digital), frozen meals for purchase, and events that fans can attend. I really like the idea of creating a cook book linked to the magazine. It could be recipes and instructions on how to create many of the meals that are pictured in the magazine edition. For example, on my table of contents, I have pictures of food that aren't specially mentioned in my article. Because of this, the cookbook could explain how to make these dishes. This will entice the person how has the magazine to also get the cookbook.

Southern Living

Southern Living utilizes a website and an app to distribute their product along with their physical copy. According to their 2020 media kit, they have 9.4MM unique users on their digital version of their magazine (the website) and 36MM page views. On social media, they push their content out to 3.1MM users on Facebook, 1.6MM on Instagram, 713K on Twitter, 563K on Pinterest, and 114K on Youtube. For their app, they have a 4.3 star rating. In their app description, they offer monthly and yearly subscriptions to their content that can be charged directly to your ITunes account. Southern Living really shows the benefits that having a successful website can have for a magazine company. So many users are viewing the page and interacting with it which can only be beneficial for the copy. I would like to create a really interactive website that has options for a digital version of the magazine, links to social media, website exclusive blog posts and chat rooms for customers to give suggestions.

Distribution Plan
Using what I have learned from the other magazines, my digital distribution plan will include an interactive website, social media accounts, cookbooks, and an app. All of my distribution strategies aim to reach as many groups of people as possible in order to expand on my customers. The website will be the piece that links together all of these pieces.
Website
My website will be extremely interactive and will allow for customer input. I will have a monitored forum that allows for suggestions and input on recent articles. This will make my customers feel included in the process and like their ideas are being heard. It will include links to all my other forms of distribution which will bring together customers from all sections. This is a way to unify the groups and expand on my customer reach. I also believe a fun idea would be to have a section for kids to play little games on the site. This option will make my website a place that not only interests adults, but also children. This will reach out to parents and influence them to subscribe.
Cookbooks
I really liked the idea of having cook books affiliated with my magazine. Because not all pictures will have an article attached, it would make sense that these would be elaborated on. Not only would this interest my magazine buyers, but also would encourage these who just have the cookbook to get the magazine! If customers have a way to gain more information on the food that looks so delicious in the pictures, I believe they will jump all over the opportunity.
App 
For the app, I really liked the idea of having a specific app subscription. This would mean that the magazine would format in a way that fits perfectly on a phone and would offer exclusive deals for app users. An app subscription would not be affiliated with our subscriptions, it would be its own separate entities. The payment would go directly through ITunes for convenience.

Creative Critical Reflection Question 1 Draft

• My cover includes a bold title that is unique for branding purposes, article blurbs that give you a sneak peek of the magazine content, and an eye-catching picture that's the main focus of the page. The 'Eating Well' magazine cover from way back in my research posts really inspired my cover. The picture on their cover was bright blue and red which really stood out to me so I took that concept and had bright orange and green really shine through on my cover.
• On my table of contents, I used a white background, multiple pictures, bolded headings, and numbered articles. I was really inspired by the Food Network table of contents. They utilized white space, yet had fun fonts that made headings stand out which I followed. Although I didn't choose to use color headings, I bolded them to make them stand out. 
• As for my article, I noticed many articles in other magazines that were focusing on specific restaurants in different places around the world so I chose to focus on two popular restaurants in Sarasota. Another concept was page number branding. I took the font for "Savory" on the cover and used it to brand the bottom corner of my article pages. I then took the font I used for "Sarasota" to do the page numbers. All magazines that I explored through my research carried their branding throughout their magazine. 

Third Quarter Submission

Cover: 

• Title- I coordinated with my group members to make a title that was brandable. All of our titles follow the same pattern of Script MT Bold for "Savory" and Impact for "Sarasota." We realized that the important word in the title is savory as it is the word that people will remember. This is also the word that we are using for all of our brandings. This being said, it needed to be the one that was in the fancier font. I arranged mine to have Savory overlapping Sarasota slightly to add a more professional look. 
• Issue name- I added the "Japanese Issue" to the bottom for clarity. Everybody in my group is doing different types of food for their issues so this needed to be specified. 
• Text Box- I added a transparent white box under my text on the right to help with reading this section better. Although I don't love the look of this quite yet, I think it is an improvement and I can figure out the best solution in time.  

Table of Contents:

I made many changes to my Table of Contents, the most noticeable change being color. On my first Table of Contents, I had a green background and bold orange text. Although I liked this color scheme, it wasn't realistic. Magazines typically utilize white space on their pages, which is what I did on this new version. Thankfully, my pictures have some bright pops of color to add color to this page. Another change that I made was picking a branding font. On my cover, I have the word 'Savory' in Script MT Bold and 'Sarasota' in Impact. To keep the consistency, I have both the words 'Contents' and 'Savory' in the same Script MT Bold font. For the page number, I have it in the same Impact font. Magazines use this technique to keep the branding of their magazine in front of the reader. Overall, I believe that this version looks much cleaner and more realistic. The white space adds a more professional feel which makes me able to picture this page in a real magazine.

Article: 

This revision deals with my two-page article. Originally, I used Publisher to create my article and it definitely wasn't professional enough. The original article lacked page numbers and organization which took away from the authenticity of the page. To revise my page, I used Indesign which was able to give me a much more professional look. I made the font cleaner as the green and wavy font that was used eventually didn't give my page a clean look. I opted for a thick black font that drew attention to the article but that wasn't distracting from the content. I also changed the font of the article to make the text easier to read and make the page look much sleeker. As for the pictures, I choose one picture to be featured right under the article name as a featured image shows up a lot in magazines. The other two pictures used are organized in a way that doesn't make the page look sloppy like in my midterm submission article. Lastly, I added page number at the bottom with branding to incorporate the branding over and over again to continue to remind the reader of the company name. This will be featured at the bottom of all articles across every issue of Savory Sarasota.

Revision #3 Cover

There are many elements of my cover that I have improved since my midterm submission.

• Title- I coordinated with my group members to make a title that was brand able. All of our titles follow the same pattern of Script MT Bold for "Savory" and Impact for "Sarasota." We realized that the important word in the title is savory as it is the word that people will remember. This is also the word that we are using for all of our branding. This being said, it needed to be the one that was in the fancier font. I arranged mine to have Savory overlapping Sarasota slightly to add a more professional look. 
• Issue name- I added "Japanese Issue" to the bottom for clarity. Everybody in my group is doing  different type of food for their issues so this needed to be specified. 
• Text Box- I added a transparent white box under my text on the right to help with reading this section better. Although I don't love the look of this quite yet, I think it is an improvement and I can figure out the best solution in time.  

Distribution Plan

Distribution Plan
Using what I have learned from the other magazines, my digital distribution plan will include an interactive website, social media accounts, cookbooks, and an app. All of my distribution strategies aim to reach as many groups of people as possible in order to expand on my customers. The website will be the piece that links together all of these pieces. 
Website
My website will be extremely interactive and will allow for customer input. I will have a monitored forum that allows for suggestions and input on recent articles. This will make my customers feel included in the process and like their ideas are being heard. It will include links to all my other forms of distribution which will bring together customers from all sections. This is a way to unify the groups and expand on my customer reach. I also believe a fun idea would be to have a section for kids to play little games on the site. This option will make my website a place that not only interests adults, but also children. This will reach out to parents and influence them to subscribe.
Cookbooks
I really liked the idea of having cook books affiliated with my magazine. Because not all pictures will have an article attached, it would make sense that these would be elaborated on. Not only would this interest my magazine buyers, but also would encourage these who just have the cookbook to get the magazine! If customers have a way to gain more information on the food that looks so delicious in the pictures, I believe they will jump all over the opportunity.
App 
For the app, I really liked the idea of having a specific app subscription. This would mean that the magazine would format in a way that fits perfectly on a phone and would offer exclusive deals for app users. An app subscription would not be affiliated with our subscriptions, it would be its own separate entities. The payment would go directly through ITunes for convenience.

Distribution Research- Eating Well

Eating Well distributes its product digitally as well as physically. There are options to subscribe to content both on their website and on their app. Unfortunately, the app has not received  pleasant rating, with consumer satisfaction at 1.6 out of 5. This is unfortunate because this will result in lack of revenue coming from their app and loss of money from subscriptions. As for your social media, their fan base in 4.4MM, according to their media kit.  The 'shop' tab on the website is a great way to push product to customers. You are able to purchase cookbooks (physical copies and digital), frozen meals for purchase, and events that fans can attend.

I really like the idea of creating a cook book linked to the magazine. It could be recipes and instructions on how to create many of the meals that are pictured in the magazine edition. For example, on my table of contents, I have pictures of food that aren't specially mentioned in my article. Because of this, the cookbook could explain how to make these dishes. This will entice the person how has the magazine to also get the cookbook.

Distribution Research- Food Network

According to their media kit, Food Network offers a digital copy of their magazine to multiple platforms: Apple, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Foli, Flister, Magzter, Texture, and Zino. As for their app, Food Network Magazine US has a 4.5 star rating and is number 67 in magazine and newspaper apps. In their app description, they have subscription offers in a variety of ways. They will allow you to start a subscription right in the app or you can have free timed preview of the content right in the app. The app subscription is exclusively on the app and does not offer you access to the content from the website. All charges will be done through ITunes.

I like their concept of having exclusive app subscriptions. I feel that this is a really good idea as you can get revenue from different groups by having separate subscription options. Because they charge straight through ITunes, it is super convenient for the customer. This is a method I would like to use in my distribution plan of my magazine as well.

Distribution Research- Southern Living

Southern Living utilizes a website and an app to distribute their product along with their physical copy. According to their 2020 media kit, they have 9.4MM unique users on their digital version of their magazine (the website) and 36MM page views. On social media, they push their content out to 3.1MM users on Facebook, 1.6MM on Instagram, 713K on Twitter, 563K on Pinterest, and 114K on Youtube. For their app, they have a 4.3 star rating. In their app description, they offer monthly and yearly subscriptions to their content that can be charged directly to your ITunes account. 

Southern Living really shows the benefits that having a successful website can have for a magazine company. So many users are viewing the page and interacting with it which can only be beneficial for the copy. I would like to create a really interactive website that has options for a digital version of the magazine, links to social media, website exclusive blog posts and chat rooms for customers to give suggestions.

Revision #2 Table of Contents

I made many changes to my Table of Contents, the most noticeable change being color. On my first Table of Contents, I had a green background and bold orange text. Although I liked this color scheme, it wasn't realistic. Magazines typically utilize white space on their pages, which is what I did on this new version. Thankfully, my pictures have some bright pops of color to add color to this page. Another Change that I made was picking a branding font. On my cover, I have the word 'Savory' in Script MT Bold and 'Sarasota' in Impact. To keep the consistency, I have both the words 'Contents' and 'Savory' in the same Script MT Bold font. For the page number, I have it in the same Impact font. Magazines use this technique to keep the branding of their magazine in front of the reader. Overall, I believe that this version looks much cleaner and more realistic. The white space adds a more professional feel which makes me able to picture this page in a real magazine.

Traditional Distribution

Because of the switch to all things digital, magazines are also making the switch. Online magazine subscriptions are becoming more popular then purchasing an issue at a store. Knowing this, digital distribution strategies are what magazines are now using to push their product. According to business.com, "magazine circulation companies/web portals can help with finding and retaining subscribers." Because online products reply on pushing out to potential customers based on web searches and other forms of advertising strategies, online magazines will push out to these potential costumers. The goal of advertisers is to not waste the funds used for reaching potential customers on those who won't actually purchase the product. Therefore, strategies are used to determine who is actively searching for a similar product that the product can be distributed to. Subscription are offered to keep customers purchasing the product rather than being a one-time buyer.