P1: Explain different ideas for an original media product based on a client brief
Approaching the brief
Client Requirements:
Demographics:
Purpose:
Comparable Media:
Magazines that are comparable to what we are creating here could include:
Codes and Conventions of magazines:
The client brief is asking us to produce a magazine appealing to a younger, digital native generation who have little interest in physical media such as magazines. This means that while tackling the brief we have to be creative, and use our own knowledge as well as research about this target audience to create a product that would interest this demographic.
One good way of immediately creating this appeal is touched on in the brief, where it mentions "integrating across other media." To me, this sounds like something that could easily be done in a way that appeals to the target audience by integrating social media channels such as 'Instagram' and 'Snapchat' into the magazine experience. Perhaps this could be done through reader polls done through a social media channel, or an 'agony aunt'-type section where users send in submissions through social media. Something along these lines would help this project to meet the client brief and appeal to this demographic.
Another idea would be to research into the appeal of apps such as Youtube and Instagram, and find what kind of interests it's users have and what appeals to them. This way, you could design a magazine not only with social media in mind, but you could design the magazine to specifically focus on subjects and topics that would draw in and appeal to the desired target audience.
It is important to looks at what is currently on the market to inform our ideas as we can view similar products with similar target audiences and see which were successful and which weren't. Not only that, but we can look deeper into why certain products were/weren't successful, and which ideas were and weren't effective. using this information, we can attempt to produce a product that uses effective ideas and appeals to our intended target audience, whilst avoiding ideas that had previously been ineffective in other products.
This analysis of other magazines on the market shows trends which make up the codes and conventions of magazines. I listed some of these previously, such as a large title and logo on the front page accompanied by a picture of a model or person. Much of the time they are cluttered with pictures and articles to draw in the readers attention. These are conventions that I have identified by looking through various other magazines and magazine covers, specifically ones that I think might appeal to this audience. These codes and conventions helped greatly to inform my ideas, as I could see what the typical magazine was like and analyse the elements that I thought were appealing and the ones that I thought I should subvert. For example, I saw the conventionally big logos and titles accompanied by high quality photography of a model and decided that this was stylistically appealing and that I would conform to this convention within my project. I also saw the cluttered magazine covers and decided to subvert this convention, and go for a more sleek, stylistically appealing looking magazine.
- Magazine must be "high end."
- Must emulate the "feel" of an independent publication
Demographics:
- The term "demographics" refers to different groups of potential audiences, grouped based on elements such as age, gender, ethnicity, class etc.
- The demographics for this client brief are age 18-30, Digital natives (regular Youtube/Instagram users), and fans of independent publications.
Purpose:
- The definition and purpose of this magazine is to create an independent-style magazine to reach the above mentioned demographics using new and innovative ideas and social media integration.
- The Client "Bauer Media" are a publishing house, specifically focused on publishing magazines. They publish several famous magazines such as "Grazia" and "Take a Break."
Comparable Media:
Magazines that are comparable to what we are creating here could include:
- Vice magazine, as it is a modern publication aimed at a younger generation that uses social media integreation
- Buzzfeed, as it is a magazine that appeals to the Youtube and Instagram generation
Codes and Conventions of magazines:
- Cluttered front page with lots of catchy sensational headlines to draw in an audience
- lots of advertisement within the magazine
- various articles on different topics, usually within a theme related to target audience interests (e.g music, celebrities, etc.)
- Model on the front page - high quality photography
- Large title and logo on then front and back page
The client brief is asking us to produce a magazine appealing to a younger, digital native generation who have little interest in physical media such as magazines. This means that while tackling the brief we have to be creative, and use our own knowledge as well as research about this target audience to create a product that would interest this demographic.
One good way of immediately creating this appeal is touched on in the brief, where it mentions "integrating across other media." To me, this sounds like something that could easily be done in a way that appeals to the target audience by integrating social media channels such as 'Instagram' and 'Snapchat' into the magazine experience. Perhaps this could be done through reader polls done through a social media channel, or an 'agony aunt'-type section where users send in submissions through social media. Something along these lines would help this project to meet the client brief and appeal to this demographic.
Another idea would be to research into the appeal of apps such as Youtube and Instagram, and find what kind of interests it's users have and what appeals to them. This way, you could design a magazine not only with social media in mind, but you could design the magazine to specifically focus on subjects and topics that would draw in and appeal to the desired target audience.
It is important to looks at what is currently on the market to inform our ideas as we can view similar products with similar target audiences and see which were successful and which weren't. Not only that, but we can look deeper into why certain products were/weren't successful, and which ideas were and weren't effective. using this information, we can attempt to produce a product that uses effective ideas and appeals to our intended target audience, whilst avoiding ideas that had previously been ineffective in other products.
This analysis of other magazines on the market shows trends which make up the codes and conventions of magazines. I listed some of these previously, such as a large title and logo on the front page accompanied by a picture of a model or person. Much of the time they are cluttered with pictures and articles to draw in the readers attention. These are conventions that I have identified by looking through various other magazines and magazine covers, specifically ones that I think might appeal to this audience. These codes and conventions helped greatly to inform my ideas, as I could see what the typical magazine was like and analyse the elements that I thought were appealing and the ones that I thought I should subvert. For example, I saw the conventionally big logos and titles accompanied by high quality photography of a model and decided that this was stylistically appealing and that I would conform to this convention within my project. I also saw the cluttered magazine covers and decided to subvert this convention, and go for a more sleek, stylistically appealing looking magazine.
Techniques for Generating ideas
After some deliberation, I decided on going down the route of some form of "Tech" based magazine for this project. I used ideas from the brief and a couple of different mind maps to come to this route of ideas. Mind maps were very useful in informing my ideas and their development here. I will Include the mind maps I used below:
As you can see, I came up with this direction of ideas by analysing several elements of the client brief. These include ideas about the target demographics, as I think this demographic would be drawn in by a modern technology magazine focusing on every day tech due to them being digital natives. This means that they use technology on a daily basis and it is integral to their interests. This is especially true as the brief mentions social medias, which ties in very heavily with technology and phones.
Looking at the brief it also mentions that the client wants the magazine to be "High-end" which means that the photography and print must be of a high quality. This informed my decision to use high end photography with un-cluttered pages to show off this style of photography.
These mind maps also helped me explore various branches of ideas in order to map out and narrow down which avenues would be worth exploring within my magazine project.
Looking at the brief it also mentions that the client wants the magazine to be "High-end" which means that the photography and print must be of a high quality. This informed my decision to use high end photography with un-cluttered pages to show off this style of photography.
These mind maps also helped me explore various branches of ideas in order to map out and narrow down which avenues would be worth exploring within my magazine project.
After creating mind maps and narrowing down our ideas, we presented the ideas that we had formulated so far to the rest of the class to gain insight and feedback from others, whilst also perhaps taking inspiration from the ideas others had come up with. The group helped me to close in on ideas that were effective, such as high end photography and a less cluttered approach. They also helped me by having me think more deeply about what my magazines USP could be, and why it would be appealing. This means that my idea will be more fleshed out and effective.
Techniques that I could have also used to further generate and assess ideas include surveys and focus groups. Surveys for example, are great for doing audience research, as they allow you to ask general questions and get wide responses from people within your target audience. This can give you valuable information from this audience, such as their favourite elements of similar products, how they react to certain ideas, and which elements of similar products are disliked. This can inform decisions and help to make the product tailored best to the target audience. Furthermore, surveys are easy to set up and can be easily spread to a wide number of people online through social media. It also means that you can use social media and marketing tools to target the surveys specifically to those you want to hear from.
Focus groups can give you similar kinds of feedback, but allow you to get more in-depth qualitative data. This data is harder to compile into a visual format, but it can be quite in-depth and valuable, and will be specifically tailored to the product that you are making.
If possible, visiting an industry practitioner may also be a good idea, as it would allow you to get feedback from an industry professional perspective as opposed to an audience perspective. This is valuable as it can give you ideas that have been proven to be effective, and can give you a critical analysis of your current ideas.
Techniques that I could have also used to further generate and assess ideas include surveys and focus groups. Surveys for example, are great for doing audience research, as they allow you to ask general questions and get wide responses from people within your target audience. This can give you valuable information from this audience, such as their favourite elements of similar products, how they react to certain ideas, and which elements of similar products are disliked. This can inform decisions and help to make the product tailored best to the target audience. Furthermore, surveys are easy to set up and can be easily spread to a wide number of people online through social media. It also means that you can use social media and marketing tools to target the surveys specifically to those you want to hear from.
Focus groups can give you similar kinds of feedback, but allow you to get more in-depth qualitative data. This data is harder to compile into a visual format, but it can be quite in-depth and valuable, and will be specifically tailored to the product that you are making.
If possible, visiting an industry practitioner may also be a good idea, as it would allow you to get feedback from an industry professional perspective as opposed to an audience perspective. This is valuable as it can give you ideas that have been proven to be effective, and can give you a critical analysis of your current ideas.
Considerations when creating new ideas
There are several things to consider in the production of a magazine such as this one. One of the main considerations would be budgeting and potential profits. This has to be correct, as it has to be a realistically achievable budget, whilst also allowing enough to produce a high-end product that meets the needs of the client.
To come up with a reasonable budget figure for this, I needed to break down the cost of producing the magazine into different areas. One major area I looked at was the actual printing and shipping costs of the magazine. I used an online price calculator tool which takes into account elements such as the size, colour printing, finish, weight, number of pages and binding type to provide a quote for the price of printing the product: https://mixam.co.uk/magazines?fbclid=IwAR3q2FfylI079jGANEfGUYVv0P8_tyDjxzmrKTBwkBDVPwgp8iV6aBHyMeY
To come up with a reasonable budget figure for this, I needed to break down the cost of producing the magazine into different areas. One major area I looked at was the actual printing and shipping costs of the magazine. I used an online price calculator tool which takes into account elements such as the size, colour printing, finish, weight, number of pages and binding type to provide a quote for the price of printing the product: https://mixam.co.uk/magazines?fbclid=IwAR3q2FfylI079jGANEfGUYVv0P8_tyDjxzmrKTBwkBDVPwgp8iV6aBHyMeY
I entered the details of my magazine, using my previous research and my planned ideas to inform my decisions, and came up with this figure. the calculator came out with roughly £430 in printing costs with a 7 day delivery time. This is a figure for 100 copies of the magazine, which gives us a rough idea of the cost of printing a small, low budget magazine of this quality. However, with the publishing company behind this project being quite large, and the project wanting to reach a large market and become successful, we will likely need to print a lot more than 100 copies.
I found that generally, magazines of this kind usually print around 4,000-5,000 copies per issue, and if we were going for this upper figure of around 5000 copies, the cost of printing and delivery comes to roughly £3,900.
from my research I discovered that typically in big production, high-end magazines, printing and shipping take up around 20% of the total budget. Therefore we can estimate a ballpark figure for the budget by dividing this figure by 20 and multiplying by 100. doing this simple calculation gives us a rough figure of £19,500 budget per issue. This budget can vary based on many factors including how many copies are printed, how far the magazine is shipped, how much photographers, editors etc. are paid and where costs are cut. This budget can be divided up into several elements, such as of course printing and shipping, but also photography, design, illustration, editing, distribution etc.
I found that generally, magazines of this kind usually print around 4,000-5,000 copies per issue, and if we were going for this upper figure of around 5000 copies, the cost of printing and delivery comes to roughly £3,900.
from my research I discovered that typically in big production, high-end magazines, printing and shipping take up around 20% of the total budget. Therefore we can estimate a ballpark figure for the budget by dividing this figure by 20 and multiplying by 100. doing this simple calculation gives us a rough figure of £19,500 budget per issue. This budget can vary based on many factors including how many copies are printed, how far the magazine is shipped, how much photographers, editors etc. are paid and where costs are cut. This budget can be divided up into several elements, such as of course printing and shipping, but also photography, design, illustration, editing, distribution etc.
Conceptualising my idea
In the process of conceptualising my magazine, I considered two very different styles or "Routes," that I could potentially use for the final product. This helped me to analyse and assess different styles of magazine presentation, their strengths and weaknesses and ultimately decide which I would be most effective for my final product.
The overall theme of my magazine is modern and future technology, which I have chosen as I believe it is a topic and theme that suits the brief very well in terms of it's target demographic, and it allows for easy integration of social media components. Staying within this theme, here are the two routes that I came up with.
Route 1: The first route I had in mind for my magazine was a traditional technology magazine filled with lots of information about the latest technology and cluttered with in-depth articles relating to technology and it's progression. This would include articles, interviews with technology producers, users and influencers, reviews of the latest technology and other in depth information. This magazines USP would be that it is very informative and has a lot of social media interaction sections. For example, It could include a Question and Answer section for interviews where readers can send in their questions for influential figures, tech companies, etc. through a social media channel such as twitter or Instagram and have the best/most up-voted questions answered. Due to the fact that this magazine would be very informative, it would be aimed at a niche, "Tech-Geek" market.
This route fits with the brief as it integrates social media to captivate the "Youtube and Instagram generation," as well as distinctly targeting itself towards an 18-30 year old market due to it being too sophisticated to be enjoyed by a younger age bracket, and being focused on elements that interests mainly digital natives which describes those in this age bracket well.
I do however think that this route is quite limited for several reasons. For one, this is quite a saturated market, with most magazines within the "Tech" theme having a similar approach and style, which would make it difficult to make this particular magazine stand out. The unique features and selling points will help with this, but only to a certain extent without breaking the style that I am aiming for.
Furthermore, this style is aimed at quite a niche audience and will likely not appeal to the majority of everyday people within this target market. This will make selling lots of copies and making a profit potentially difficult, as I am not sure if there is enough interest in this style of magazine for it to be an effective publication.
Due to the nature of technological developments, the great number of topics, and in the interest of keeping readers "Informed" and up-to-date, this magazine lends itself to being published at quite a high frequency of monthly or potentially even bi-weekly. This could be achieved in this style as there would be less high end model photography as the focus would be on the technology itself. This would also likely mean that there would have to be less pages per issue to keep up with this frequency.
Route 2: The second Route I have considered for my magazine is a more mass-audience aimed, high production value, almost "LookBook" style of publication. This would be a lot more simple and clean in terms of it's layout and articles, and the focus would more be on producing something visually interesting and covering a wide range of topics, as opposed to being highly informative and text-based. This would mean a lot of high end photography of models, and a focus on both everyday and advanced future technology, celebrities, influencers and personalities in the tech world.
Most of the articles within this style of magazine would be high end photography and model images accompanied by small amounts of text and potentially short and punchy interview sections, with the focus being aesthetics and personalities. Potential topics could include Important figures such as Elon Musk and the advances in technology that he had made, the technology that celebrities are using and supporting, such as Drake playing popular video games regularly and investing money into E-Sports teams, and sections about the duality of social media and how it affects society.
These will be more discussion and personality focused, and will include much less text information and more visual elements. For comparison, this would be taking more inspiration from magazines like "WIRED" with it's covers and photography, as well as taking some inspiration from high end fashion publications like i-D magazine with it's sleek and visual focus.
As such, the USP of this magazine is that it will blend technology theming with the mass audience appeal of more pop culture and celebrity focused publications, whilst employing a sleek and "LookBook" style of high end fashion magazines such as i-D. This means that the magazine will appeal to both an audience that is interested in technology, but also an audience that wants something visually appealing and a focus on personalities. With this USP I believe I have identified a gap in the market, as there are currently no other "LookBook" style magazines for an audience interested in technology. This means that there isn't much in the way of competition for this publication, and I believe it hits many of the key aspects that would draw in a large amount of the intended target audience that the brief outlines.
This route meets the brief extremely well, as it hits the 18-30, social media, digital native demographic with it's theming, style and focus. It can also be integrated with aspects of social media so that the briefs request of "Integrating with other media" is reached, and so that the "Youtube and Instagram" generation is even further drawn in. This could be done in a similar way to the first route, with readers sending in questions for QnA sections with different personalities and celebrities, where the most popular and up-voted questions will be asked and answered by the celebrity/personality/influencer. This would be even more effective in this style however, as it would have the wider appeal of being aimed at celebrities or influencers with a wider reach.
This kind of interaction with social media could also be used in several other ways, such as perhaps an agony aunt section where submissions are sent in via social media, or for competitions and giveaways where readers can submit their entries via social media. This could be made even easier with the inclusion of QR or Snap codes for easy and quick access to the magazines social media pages.
Using elements such as Snapchat could even open up the possibility for unique filters to be unlocked for each issue purchased, further incentivising people to purchase each issue of the publication.
As this kind of publication would likely need higher production quality, and has less of a focus on keeping readers "up-to-date," then it would be much more fitting for the release frequency to be lower. This ensures that each issue is visually appealing with the very best photography and design possible to achieve that "LookBook" feel. For this reason, I think that going down this route, it would make sense for the magazine to be published bi-monthly or even quarterly.
The overall theme of my magazine is modern and future technology, which I have chosen as I believe it is a topic and theme that suits the brief very well in terms of it's target demographic, and it allows for easy integration of social media components. Staying within this theme, here are the two routes that I came up with.
Route 1: The first route I had in mind for my magazine was a traditional technology magazine filled with lots of information about the latest technology and cluttered with in-depth articles relating to technology and it's progression. This would include articles, interviews with technology producers, users and influencers, reviews of the latest technology and other in depth information. This magazines USP would be that it is very informative and has a lot of social media interaction sections. For example, It could include a Question and Answer section for interviews where readers can send in their questions for influential figures, tech companies, etc. through a social media channel such as twitter or Instagram and have the best/most up-voted questions answered. Due to the fact that this magazine would be very informative, it would be aimed at a niche, "Tech-Geek" market.
This route fits with the brief as it integrates social media to captivate the "Youtube and Instagram generation," as well as distinctly targeting itself towards an 18-30 year old market due to it being too sophisticated to be enjoyed by a younger age bracket, and being focused on elements that interests mainly digital natives which describes those in this age bracket well.
I do however think that this route is quite limited for several reasons. For one, this is quite a saturated market, with most magazines within the "Tech" theme having a similar approach and style, which would make it difficult to make this particular magazine stand out. The unique features and selling points will help with this, but only to a certain extent without breaking the style that I am aiming for.
Furthermore, this style is aimed at quite a niche audience and will likely not appeal to the majority of everyday people within this target market. This will make selling lots of copies and making a profit potentially difficult, as I am not sure if there is enough interest in this style of magazine for it to be an effective publication.
Due to the nature of technological developments, the great number of topics, and in the interest of keeping readers "Informed" and up-to-date, this magazine lends itself to being published at quite a high frequency of monthly or potentially even bi-weekly. This could be achieved in this style as there would be less high end model photography as the focus would be on the technology itself. This would also likely mean that there would have to be less pages per issue to keep up with this frequency.
Route 2: The second Route I have considered for my magazine is a more mass-audience aimed, high production value, almost "LookBook" style of publication. This would be a lot more simple and clean in terms of it's layout and articles, and the focus would more be on producing something visually interesting and covering a wide range of topics, as opposed to being highly informative and text-based. This would mean a lot of high end photography of models, and a focus on both everyday and advanced future technology, celebrities, influencers and personalities in the tech world.
Most of the articles within this style of magazine would be high end photography and model images accompanied by small amounts of text and potentially short and punchy interview sections, with the focus being aesthetics and personalities. Potential topics could include Important figures such as Elon Musk and the advances in technology that he had made, the technology that celebrities are using and supporting, such as Drake playing popular video games regularly and investing money into E-Sports teams, and sections about the duality of social media and how it affects society.
These will be more discussion and personality focused, and will include much less text information and more visual elements. For comparison, this would be taking more inspiration from magazines like "WIRED" with it's covers and photography, as well as taking some inspiration from high end fashion publications like i-D magazine with it's sleek and visual focus.
As such, the USP of this magazine is that it will blend technology theming with the mass audience appeal of more pop culture and celebrity focused publications, whilst employing a sleek and "LookBook" style of high end fashion magazines such as i-D. This means that the magazine will appeal to both an audience that is interested in technology, but also an audience that wants something visually appealing and a focus on personalities. With this USP I believe I have identified a gap in the market, as there are currently no other "LookBook" style magazines for an audience interested in technology. This means that there isn't much in the way of competition for this publication, and I believe it hits many of the key aspects that would draw in a large amount of the intended target audience that the brief outlines.
This route meets the brief extremely well, as it hits the 18-30, social media, digital native demographic with it's theming, style and focus. It can also be integrated with aspects of social media so that the briefs request of "Integrating with other media" is reached, and so that the "Youtube and Instagram" generation is even further drawn in. This could be done in a similar way to the first route, with readers sending in questions for QnA sections with different personalities and celebrities, where the most popular and up-voted questions will be asked and answered by the celebrity/personality/influencer. This would be even more effective in this style however, as it would have the wider appeal of being aimed at celebrities or influencers with a wider reach.
This kind of interaction with social media could also be used in several other ways, such as perhaps an agony aunt section where submissions are sent in via social media, or for competitions and giveaways where readers can submit their entries via social media. This could be made even easier with the inclusion of QR or Snap codes for easy and quick access to the magazines social media pages.
Using elements such as Snapchat could even open up the possibility for unique filters to be unlocked for each issue purchased, further incentivising people to purchase each issue of the publication.
As this kind of publication would likely need higher production quality, and has less of a focus on keeping readers "up-to-date," then it would be much more fitting for the release frequency to be lower. This ensures that each issue is visually appealing with the very best photography and design possible to achieve that "LookBook" feel. For this reason, I think that going down this route, it would make sense for the magazine to be published bi-monthly or even quarterly.
M1: Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the different ideas
Here I will discuss the pros and cons of the two routes that I have chose and ultimately decide which to follow:
Strengths of route 1: This route has a specific niche market appeal, and as such marketing and content can be heavily focused on this key demographic. The demographic of "Tech Enthusiasts" is also very much within the digital native, '18-30' age bracket laid out in the brief. This type of magazine is also much easier to produce, requiring less time, effort and ultimately resources to be put into the design process. This kind of content also means that the magazine can be published more frequently, and as such potentially sell more and stay more relevant as new issues will be released very quickly. This means that reader interest is retained across issues.
Weaknesses of route 1: The niche appeal of this magazine could be considered a detriment, as it does not have the wide spread appeal that would draw in a bigger audience and target a bigger range of the intended target audience. Furthermore, this route is not particularly unique and the USP doesn't separate it enough from other magazines of the same genre. This means there is a lot of competition and not enough to sell a product effectively.
Strengths of route 2: Route 2 has a much wider appeal with the target demographic, as it is not as specialised in technology and has the extra wider appeal of the celebrity and personality focus. I feel like this is a strong USP and is a gap in the market, meaning little competition and a large target market to tap into. This route also means that the magazine will be created with high quality and good sleek design in mind, which means that the end product will be more visually appealing.
Weaknesses of route 2: This route is not as focused on the technology genre, and as such might turn off those who are only interested in this aspect. Due to it being a wider reaching and more unique market idea there isn't much else on the market like it, as such we don't know if this kind of genre of magazine will be successful, or if the traditional technology magazines will be more effective. This also means that there aren't as many similar products to draw inspiration from.
Conclusion: Overall, I think that my second route is strongest with the most interesting USP, and hits a gap in the market that route 1 does not. Route 1 may require less effort in terms of design and may have a shorter release frequency, but I feel that the high quality feel of route 2 will mean that despite a slower release schedule, we can charge more and make the same if not more profit out of the product. For this reason I will be pursuing route 2 for my final project.
Strengths of route 1: This route has a specific niche market appeal, and as such marketing and content can be heavily focused on this key demographic. The demographic of "Tech Enthusiasts" is also very much within the digital native, '18-30' age bracket laid out in the brief. This type of magazine is also much easier to produce, requiring less time, effort and ultimately resources to be put into the design process. This kind of content also means that the magazine can be published more frequently, and as such potentially sell more and stay more relevant as new issues will be released very quickly. This means that reader interest is retained across issues.
Weaknesses of route 1: The niche appeal of this magazine could be considered a detriment, as it does not have the wide spread appeal that would draw in a bigger audience and target a bigger range of the intended target audience. Furthermore, this route is not particularly unique and the USP doesn't separate it enough from other magazines of the same genre. This means there is a lot of competition and not enough to sell a product effectively.
Strengths of route 2: Route 2 has a much wider appeal with the target demographic, as it is not as specialised in technology and has the extra wider appeal of the celebrity and personality focus. I feel like this is a strong USP and is a gap in the market, meaning little competition and a large target market to tap into. This route also means that the magazine will be created with high quality and good sleek design in mind, which means that the end product will be more visually appealing.
Weaknesses of route 2: This route is not as focused on the technology genre, and as such might turn off those who are only interested in this aspect. Due to it being a wider reaching and more unique market idea there isn't much else on the market like it, as such we don't know if this kind of genre of magazine will be successful, or if the traditional technology magazines will be more effective. This also means that there aren't as many similar products to draw inspiration from.
Conclusion: Overall, I think that my second route is strongest with the most interesting USP, and hits a gap in the market that route 1 does not. Route 1 may require less effort in terms of design and may have a shorter release frequency, but I feel that the high quality feel of route 2 will mean that despite a slower release schedule, we can charge more and make the same if not more profit out of the product. For this reason I will be pursuing route 2 for my final project.