How has research into similar and dissimilar products helped?

The research in to similiar products has helped me a lot as I was able to look at R&B magazines as well as lifestyle magazines to see whether there are over ridding conventions between them. The over ridding conventions I found were that they both have the following:

• Big bold masthead
• USP
• Women as their wider gender
• Use recognisable people on the front cover

With these over ridding conventions I am able to create ideas for my own magazines as well as copy the conventions which have been used in my own magazine.

I also choose to research into the similar and dissimilar products to see the differences which I can find and why the differences exist.
One of the main differences I found in particular was that there are more poeple from the AB socio enconomics who read Vogue magazines than in the Hip hop weekly as well as Billboard magazine. The other difference I found was that in the lifestyle magazine there was much more advertising of designer brands of perfumes, watched and clothes, however in the R&B magazine genre there were some advertisements but they were more high street advertisements rather than designer offers whihc tells me that Vogue magazine is more targeted at people who earn a lot of more however the R&B magazines are more targeted at people who don't earn very much money.