Horse & hound analysis

HORSE & HOUND ANALYSISBy Louise Wilmshurst

What is Horse and Hound?• Horse and Hound is an equestrian magazine.• It is priced at £2.60- it could be argued that this is

expensive for a monthly magazine. This suggests that the target audience of the magazine is higher class people- i.e. people who can afford it.

• Inside the magazine, it is set out as if it were a newspaper, due to small writing in compact columns, which is often without images.

Ownership• The business who publish Horse and Hound are IPC

media who are the UK’s leading consumer magazine publisher.

• They are responsible for over 60 iconic media brands and claim to “engage with 26m UK adults - almost two thirds of UK women and 42% of UK men.” As well as this they predict they have 25 million viewers globally on their website each month.

Ownership• IPC categories of publication:

1) Country pursuits and equestrian

2) Fashion and beauty (e.g. Marie Claire)

3) Home interests (e.g. Ideal Home)

4) Lifestyle (e.g. Essentials)

5) Sport and Leisure (e.g. Golf Monthly)

6) Teen (e.g. Teen Now)

7) TV entertainment (TV Times)

8) Women’s weeklies (Pick Me Up)

9) Young men and Music (e.g. NME)

Ownership• IPC Media are a Time Warner company.• Time Warner is a global leader in media with businesses

in television networks, film and TV entertainment and publishing.

• They employ over 34,000 people globally.• Businesses that belong to Time Warner Inc. (either as

brands or franchises) are as follows:

Ownership• IPC’s equestrian/country division includes:

1) Horse and Hound

2) County Life

3) Eventing

4) Horse

Although IPC dominate a large amount of the magazine market so therefore cover a lot of variety within media, there are some links that are apparent between publications.• Most magazines appear to be aimed at middle classed

individuals (i.e. a high socio-economic group) except a few anomalies (e.g. Nuts and Pick Me Up)

Synergy• Horse and Hound have no achieved synergy. This is

because two organisations have not been co-operated that work towards the one brand (i.e. Horse and Hound)

• I think this is because the magazine is not targeting younger people, so therefore the audience do not expect the magazine to appear in other mediums e.g. radio.

• Furthermore, I do not think that this is a negative thing because the magazine still reaches the expectations of the audience.

The magazine- expansion• Over the years, Horse and Hound has expanded into a

global brand that is available in an increasing amount of countries, from places as far away as Korea and Australia.

• IPC has horizontally expanded Horse and Hound because as a result of Horse and Hound’s success, Horse and Eventing magazine were introduced in 1997.

The magazine- New Media Technology

• Horse and Hound have two different editors for both the magazine and the website. Therefore, there is different content between the two.

• There is also an option to sign up to “e-news” where you are sent the news letter digitally.

• Recently added ‘iPad edition’ in subscription.• However, new media technologies such as social media

(i.e. use of Twitter) has not been launched for the magazine. This may be because the target market for Horse and Hound would typically not be users of these social networking sites so advertising on them would be unnecessary.

The magazine-NMT• There are also ways to interact with the website, for

example polls.

Sans serif

Clean and well groomed horse-high class

Lower classes unlikely to have a ‘yard’

Technical language- not for amateurs

Simple layout-no extra images. i.e. wouldn’t attract teenagers

Uses technical language-e.g. “Flexion test.”Audience expected to know meaning-not more amateurs.

Suggests magazine is aimed at business owners as opposed to horses as a hobbie.

Quotes- audience can empathise

Magazine• From analysing the magazine, I have identified the target

market for Horse and Hound as:

1) High socio economic group (i.e. well educated) (i.e. A/B group)

2) Yard/business owners using horses (as opposed to owning a horse as a hobbie)

3) Females

4) Adults (30 yrs +)

5) Of White/British origin

Magazine• This is because equestrian sports are associated with the

upper classes traditionally, as horses are expensive to buy and maintain. Therefore, this targets older individuals as they’re the most likely to be able to afford horses. As well as this the articles that I’ve read have targeted business owners as opposed to amateurs as lots of technical language is used, and phrases like “whether buying or selling” suggesting it is a business. I have identified that the target market are also white British women because all articles which include images are of individuals like this, so would primarily attract only them.

Magazine• This image is taken from the Horse and Hound website,

which supports the idea that the magazine is targeted towards yard/business owners.