DIGITAL & SOCIAL MEDIA COMMUNICATION - TASK 2
FANN WONG JING EN｜0382237
Design Principles | Bachelor of Design (Honours) in Creative Media
Digital & Social Media Communication COM61804
TABLE OF CONTENT
MODULE INFORMATION BRIEF (MIB)
LECTURE NOTE
From General Audience to Specific Users
For Task 2, our group moved from general brand research into a more focused understanding of Bask Bear Coffee's audience. In Task 1, we mainly studied the brand background, competitors, social media content, and market position. For this stage, the focus became more specific: instead of only asking who the target audience is, we needed to understand what kind of people they are, how they behave, what they need, and what motivates them.
This helped me realise that a target audience is often too broad to guide a campaign clearly. For example, saying that Bask Bear targets "young consumers" is useful, but it does not explain their daily routines, problems, emotions, or decision-making process. A user persona helps make the audience more realistic by giving the target user a name, background, lifestyle, goals, frustrations, and media habits.
Week 5
In Week 5, Mr. Max introduced persona building and explained why it is important in communication strategy. I learned that a strong persona should not be based only on imagination. It should be supported by research, such as audience behaviour, survey findings, interviews, comments, likes, shares, and social media engagement.
This lecture changed the way I understood audience research. I used to think that identifying age, gender, and occupation was enough to describe a target market. However, persona building requires deeper thinking. It asks us to consider what the audience thinks, feels, says, does, wants, and struggles with. This is important because a campaign should respond to real user needs rather than only promote a product.
We also learned about empathy mapping. An empathy map helps us see the audience from a more human perspective. By looking at what a persona thinks, feels, says, and does, we can better understand the reasons behind their behaviour. This is useful for creating messages that feel more relatable and authentic.
TASK 2
Developing Three Personas
To understand Bask Bear Coffee's audience more clearly, our group
created three user personas. Each persona represented a different
type of consumer with different habits, motivations, and
expectations.
The first persona was Alya, a university student who looks for
affordable and trendy food. She is active on social media and is
influenced by content on platforms such as TikTok and Instagram.
Alya represents students who want food and drinks that are
convenient, budget-friendly, and suitable for their campus
lifestyle.
The second persona was Daniel, a young working professional with a
busy schedule. He values efficiency, reliability, and convenience.
Daniel represents consumers who may choose Bask Bear because it is
quick and practical during workdays.
The third persona was Sofia, a student content creator who enjoys
visually appealing food and discovering trends online. She
represents consumers who are more likely to share brand experiences,
create content, and influence others through social media.
Through these personas, I learned that Bask Bear's audience cannot
be explained in only one way. Different consumers may buy from the
same brand for different reasons. Some may care more about
affordability, while others may care about convenience, trendiness,
or shareability.
Fig1.1 User Persona Report
Choosing the Main Persona
After comparing the three personas, our group found that Alya and
Sofia were the closest to Bask Bear Coffee's core audience. Both are
young, active on social media, and more likely to engage with
branded content on TikTok and Instagram. They are also more likely
to be influenced by peer recommendations, trends, and user-generated
content.
After further discussion, we chose Alya as the main persona for our
empathy map. Alya best represents the student audience that Bask
Bear can connect with through affordability, convenience, and
relatable lifestyle content. Her routine includes studying, spending
time on campus, using social media, and looking for food or drinks
that fit her budget.
Choosing one main persona helped us narrow down the campaign
direction. Instead of trying to speak to everyone, we could focus on
one clear audience and develop communication that matches her daily
life and needs.
Fig1.2 Empathy Map Report
Building the Empathy Map
After choosing Alya as our main persona, we developed an empathy map
to understand her more deeply. The empathy map helped us organise
her thoughts, feelings, actions, and spoken opinions.
From Alya's perspective, Bask Bear is not only a place to buy coffee
or food. It can become part of her daily student routine, especially
when she needs something affordable, quick, and enjoyable. She may
think about saving money, finding convenient meals between classes,
or choosing something that looks nice enough to share with friends.
The empathy map also helped us identify possible pain points. For
example, students may have limited budgets, busy schedules, and many
competing food choices around them. If Bask Bear wants to attract
this audience, the brand needs to show that it understands these
everyday situations.
This process helped me understand why empathy is important in
communication. A good campaign should not only highlight product
features. It should also connect with the audience's situation and
emotions.
Fig1.3 Empathy Map
FEEDBACK
Week 5
After presenting our personas, Mr. Max commented that the three
personas were too similar and did not show enough differences. He
suggested making each persona more distinct in terms of lifestyle,
behaviours, goals, and motivations. This feedback helped us realise
that strong personas should represent different user segments
instead of having similar characteristics. We will further refine
our personas to make them more unique and useful for developing our
campaign strategy.
Week 6
Based on Mr. Max's feedback, we revised our personas by making each
one more distinct in terms of personality, lifestyle, behaviours,
goals, and motivations. This made it easier to identify different
user needs and helped us choose a more suitable primary persona for
our campaign. I learned that creating clear differences between
personas makes audience analysis more accurate and strengthens the
overall design strategy.
Week 7
After completing our empathy map, we showed it to Mr. Max for
feedback. He was satisfied with our work and told us that it was
ready for submission.
REFLECTION
Task 2 helped me understand the importance of looking at audiences as real people rather than only as data or market segments. Through persona building, I learned how to identify different customer types and understand their lifestyles, motivations, and challenges.
The empathy map was especially useful because it helped me think from the audience's point of view. For Bask Bear Coffee, I realised that the brand's communication should not only focus on products and promotions. It should also reflect the daily life of students and young consumers, such as studying, taking breaks, saving money, discovering trends, and sharing experiences online.
This task also taught me that feedback is part of the design process. Our first version of the personas was not strong enough because the differences between them were unclear. After revising based on Mr. Max's comments, the personas became more useful for our campaign strategy. From this, I learned that a stronger communication idea comes from understanding the audience deeply and improving the work step by step.
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