Vogue is a hugely popular magazine that is seen all over the world, that is mostly common for its discussion around fashion and beauty and usually features famous celebrities on its front cover. In 2017, the well known actress, Zendaya featured on the front cover for its July coverage. The target audience for Vogue magazines is definitely focused around women, ages around teens to young adults. This is because the themes which the magazine talks about are mostly surrounding fashion and beauty, which stereotypically, more women are interested in compared to others. Zendaya herself also attracts a similar target audience to Vogue magazine, which is why she was chosen to be the front cover of the magazine. As she has starred in many television shows and films, she brings not only young women who are interested in beauty and fashion, but also people who are fans of her and the shows and films she has been in and additionally, as Zendaya is a celebrity, she also attracts people who are interested in the lives of celebrities and want to found out more about her.
The target audience for Zendaya's Vogue magazine front cover would fall under the Aspirer of Young & Rubicam's 4C's. The Aspirer is someone who is materialistic, driven by others perceptions of them, and respond to things related to image, appearance, persona and fashion. The target audience for this magazine cover would be classed as the Aspirers because of the content in the magazine. Vogue is known for giving beauty secrets and fashion ideas to make themselves look 'better', so this would align is what an aspirer looks for in a media product because they are all about their appearance and others perceptions of them. The target audience could also be argued to be Mainstreamers, who usually respond to big established brands, because Vogue is a universally known brand, so they would find security in seeking this type of media product, but also because of Zendaya as a hugely known actress, they would find security in her being on the front cover, and would be more likely to respond to the magazine.
The magazine front cover has many things which would appeal to the target audience, the main appeal being the use of elite persons. Zendaya is a very well know actress and has starred in many shows and films throughout her career and also acts as a female role model for her audiences. Many of the target audience will look up to her because she is so successful and will aspire to be like her, but also as a celebrity, most people are intrigued to know more about Zendaya as they only get to see her when she is acting. This is one of the main appeals of the magazine because it brings a big audience to the magazine and people are instantly drawn to it when they are familiar with the person on its front cover.
The preferred reading of Zendaya's front cover of Vogue
I can see how it can be argued that the target audience is for people who fall under the Aspirer persona due to the themes throughout Vogue's magazine over the years, however I believe that it is exclusively for people of the Mainstream persona, because of how mainstream Vogue has become.