Fashion magazines are the essential creators and leaders of a vogue culture, which presents trends and information of beauty, fitness, and of course fashion. Unlike the existing fashion journals for adults in their twenties, young-fashion magazines pa...
Fashion magazines are the essential creators and leaders of a vogue culture, which presents trends and information of beauty, fitness, and of course fashion. Unlike the existing fashion journals for adults in their twenties, young-fashion magazines particularly connects beauty and fashion cultures by focusing on teenage girls.
The objective is to comprehend the influencing power of young-fashion magazines through an article analysis of the four major Korean publishers and a readers' survey.
An annual analysis on four major publishers was performed including a readers' survey from five major cities.
Summary on Results
First, magazine analysis results are as follows:
i. Beauty care articles represent 20.0% of an entire issue. Basically, young-fashion magazine articles consist four main categories: beauty, culture & life-style, entertainment and fashion. According to a readers' survey, the most frequently read categories are in the following order-fashion(44.6%), beauty(33.0%), entertainment(17.8%) and culture & life-style(3.9%). The interest with beauty care has exceeded the percentage of its articles being published.
ⅱ. Within beauty articles, the most repeatedly dealt sub-categories are cosmetics(28.9%), make-up trends(20.2%), skin care(18.1%), hairstyle(9.5%), diet & fitness(9.0%), the industry(7.2%) and interviews(5.8%). The contents for cosmetics mainly stimulate the consumers' interest such as new products, use, attributes, effects, etc.
ⅲ. The most frequently dealt products are in the following order: color tone, foundation, hair-care, perfume and body-care products.
Second, survey results are as follows:
ⅰ. 33.0% showed interest on the beauty articles where 83.0% of them had a positive view as young-fashion magazines plays a major role in beauty information media.
ⅱ. 43.4% sees the articles informative and 56.6% views them as publicity, which shows their advertising effectiveness.
ⅲ. After receiving product information, 39.5% of the readers' purchase them at department stores, 11.0% through internet shopping, 4.2% at corporate supermarkets, 3.9% through television home-shopping and 2.2% from door-to-door sales.
ⅳ. On make-up trends 51.0% prefer natural, 29.8% pearl, 11.6% glossy, 4.0% retro and 3.1% answered glamorous. This result shows that the main readers-late teens to early twenties-prefer clean and natural make-ups rather than trendy styles.
Third, analysis results between Young-fashion Magazines and Customers' Interest are as follows:
ⅰ. According to the polls, readers show high interest on trends, however, they do not accept directly but try to blend it with their characteristics.
ⅱ. Compared to the publication rate of the products-color tone(46.1%), foundation(30.0%), perfumes(5.8%), body-care products(1.9%)-consumers have purchased as the following: color tone(45.6%), foundation(33.5%), perfumes(12.6%), body-care products(4.2%). However, hair-care products have only sold 3.3% compared to its 11.6% advertisement. Therefore, consumers are less triggered by hair-care ads than of the other four categories.
ⅲ. Readers were more affected by ads than the articles when purchasing color-tones. Since they are sensitive with colors and trends, it is effective to provide visual satisfaction.
The study was conducted on four publishers, which has been in the industry for over five years, and the survey was limited to 100 readers from thefive major cities in Korea. The results may lack objectivity, where extensive and definite research is required to understand the preference of readers and consumers, and the articles' effectiveness.