Harpers Bazaar

Magazine: Harpers Bazaar

Harpers Bazaar June/July 2014 Cover featuring Kate Winslet

Harper's Bazaar was first published in America in 1867. The magazine primarily focuses on womens fashion and style and therefore tends to have a following of the upper/middle classes especially women.

Ever since the publication started it has featured work from various well known photographers, artists and writers such as; Richard Avedon, Andy Warhol and Carrie Donovan. The magazine was originally a weekly publication which displayed many different fashion pieces from Paris and Germany. In 1901 it was decided that the magazine should be published monthly rather than weekly.

The Cover above shows the intended target audience is women. Bags and shoes are advertised along with sexy hair styles and diet pills. They are all very cliche topics which would appeal to a female audience. The colours are also very feminine and bold which would make them stand out to women. Whilst researching the age range of the magazines readers I found that the magazine in popular with females between the ages of 18-34. The overall average age of its audience is around 41, which shows the magazine is more appealing to a more mature and sophisticated person. Its smart content supports this theory.

Target Audience Stats from the Harpers Bazaar Media Kt

Out of all the magazines I purchased for my research, This is one of the thickest ones. You get a lot of content for your money but as you can imagine a lot of this is advertisements. This shows that they make a lot of money through offering advertisements for other brands and companies. Surprisingly though, most of the advertisements aren't always products. Clothes and fashion is what a large proportion of the pages contain. The jewelry and clothing items are pretty much all high brand and expensive although in my cope of the magazine, there was one page advertising Next which is slightly more high-street in comparison to the others. I can imagine Harpers Bazaar is for a smart and maturer audience which knows a thing or two about fashion. 

References

Shaw, P. (1999). Internationalization of the women's magazine industry in Taiwan context, process and influence. Asian Journal of Communication, 9(2), pp.17-38.

Upload.wikimedia.org. (2016). [online] Available at: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/df/Kate_Winslet_June-July_2014_HB_Cover.jpg [Accessed 4 Mar. 2016].

Harpersbazaarmediakit.com. (2016). Harpers Bazaar Media Kit. [online] Available at: http://www.harpersbazaarmediakit.com/r5/showkiosk.asp?listing_id=5180841&category_id=78493 [Accessed 4 Mar. 2016].