Understanding the buying process and the connection the consumer has with the product during and after the purchase allows the brand to market more effectively. Gathering insight into purchases and connecting it to future marketing plans will bring another level to the company and allow them to grow closer to its consumers. Let’s dive deeper into the process and refer to a real-life purchase example…

I recently went through an online buying process of a travel backpack from Osprey as I am preparing for a 2 month trip around Europe. When looking for a backpack that fit my needs, I expected the product to be sturdy, comfortable, adjustable, and spacey. Having not ever bought a backpack like this before, I relied heavily on reviews and what others said I should look for in a bag. Their expectations inspired many of me and soon lead me to the Osprey Fairpoint Travel Pack. So when the package arrived I expected that it would align with the reviews and be worth the $170 I paid for it. With such a high price there is a higher expectation of the quality of the product and the quality of the company.

I gained this expectation of quality not only from the reviews but also from the Osprey website I browsed before purchasing. The website was well organized and easy to navigate to find exactly what I was looking for. They categorized all of their bags into what is the main use the bag which allowed me to locate the long-trip backpacking packs. While I already had an idea of what I was looking for when I entered the site, there is also a Packfinder Quiz that helps buyers find the perfect backpack for them. The quiz asks about gender, the use of the backpack, pack type, length of trip, the kind of packer they are, and price. This stuck out to me as a consumer because it meant that Osprey cares about their consumer’s purchasing process. Giving recommendations and having a helper despite shopping online makes the consumer feel like they are still being taken care of. The website also immediately opens a chat with an online assistant when you open the site so the buyer is never alone. From inspecting their website, Osprey is aware of how important the buying process is and wants to make it as personal and easy for the consumer as possible.

Once I received the package I was delighted to see that the package was not damaged and the product itself was delicately packaged. While it was a plain cardboard box, the label included the Osprey logo signaling what was inside. Once opened the box, the backpack was inside a clear plastic bag to protect it from possible damage. Nothing else was included in the box besides the product.

The backpack resembled many of the reviews that I had read but I will not know its full potential until I use it this summer. Everything seems to be intact and holds a high quality of fabric and comfortability. I attempted to see how much it could hold and I was pleasantly surprised at how much it could hold. Since I will be living out of it for 2 months, there must be enough space to pack everything I need. At this time I believe I have made a good purchase and it meets my buying expectations.

The consumer insight I have created is: Consumers expect a high-quality buying experience, website, packaging, and product when the product is sold at a high cost.

To further enhance Osprey’s buying process based on consumer insight, I recommend that they create more personal packaging and stay connected with their consumers. According to The Drum article by Derek Stewart, “the best ideas are driven by both commercial value and emotional value – and by multiple levels of emotional value”. Connecting deeper to their buyers on an emotional level can also be seen as using pathos. I think Osprey effectively uses ethos and logos to sell their products but bringing in a more emotional approach could make the experience more personal for the buyer. Customizing the packaging to be more authentic to their messaging could better the emotional connection to the brand. Sending a thank-you note, travel recommendations, social media handles, or perhaps a coupon would easily make an emotional connection and make the buyer feel seen. Since the product is such a high price, the consumer expects higher quality packaging. Another recommendation is to encourage the buyer to share their travel experiences back to Osprey such as sharing images and stories on their website or social media accounts. Encouraging a continual emotional connection with the brand has a higher chance of establishing brand-loyal customers.

Establishing a functional and visual creative brief is essential for any campaign and connecting ideas to creators. A creative brief is essentially a mini project plan that creates an overview of the project, its deliverables, the due dates, and the creative concepts that need to be executed. It gets all of the team members on the same page and sets expectations for what should be created for the campaign. An effective creative brief will connect all of the artists, photographers, layout, and graphic designers, and give them a general look and creative direction they should take.

Let’s now take a look at an example of a creative brief and break down the positives and negatives of its structure and message.

The creative brief I selected is for Quaker Oatmeal.

First, let’s start with the layout of the brief. This is a very unorthodox structure as it does not lay out the information as straightforward as most creative briefs. It is founded more on visualization and gives short excerpts instead of long descriptive paragraphs. Depending on the creative team this could either be seen as helpful or completely unhelpful. To a very free-willed, creative team it may be an open opportunity to explore different creative avenues. But to a team that needs more direction, it could be confusing and misleading.

The brief begins with addressing “the problem” which brings attention to the overlying issue the brand is trying to combat. In this case, we see that Quaker is struggling to connect to the market of people who do not take time to eat breakfast in the morning. This establishes initially why the campaign is being conducted and what the creative team should keep in mind when creating the creative plan.

Next, we see it move into “The Big Picture” which gives a creative memo on the message that should be delivered through the creative concepts. While this is an essential part of communicating the overall idea to the team, I think this memo lacks depth and fails to highlight the path they are trying to take. To a creative team, this could be very confusing as it uses very open-end words such as “do everything that matters”. While this can be seen as an open concept this could potentially mislead the team since the objective is just to “increase sales”.

When it comes to facts, the brief effectively outlines multiple areas of insights and facts that could be important to the building of the campaign. The facts are an over lay of breakfast statistics throughout America and could give the team an idea of where the market identifies currently with the issue. While I do think it is important to mention the market insights, the creative brief fails to highlight who they are trying to market to. They claim their target audience is “the perpetually overbooked” which is very inherently large and un-specific. This could be very difficult to pinpoint media platforms without age or gender distribution. Altin explains in her Ban the Box brief creations, connecting directly to the target audience can enhance a creative brief. She addresses that the creatives should “enter the scene” of the selected target audience directly so the team can get a grasp of how the target audience lives, behaves, their habits, their desires, their flaws, and much more. With a missing direct target audience, it makes this step a lot harder.

Transitioning into the guideline, I think the challenge gives a good descriptive statement to guide the creatives. Besides that, they use many icons and short statements to describe what the campaign should convey. While it does get to the point and is visually appealing I think this would ultimately make more sense to a team after a creative briefing.

In my opinion, I think the creative brief is visually appealing but lacks directional information that will ultimately guide the creative team. First, I would actually include a target audience portion that uses insights and statistics on who they want to sell to and why. If I was the creative team I would first think of college students who skip breakfast or take only to-go foods. However, without direct research, this could be completely unfounded and fail to reach the goal of increased sales. Second, I would give a stronger big picture section that outlines the main goal of the campaign and what it would look like creatively. I think they had a very good skeleton of their ideas but lacks the depth to inform the creative team. Overall, I think it would not be the most effective creative brief to bring to a briefing of creatives and needs additional information to get an accurate campaign.

I have always identified as being a creative person. When people ask me about my attributes, creativity has always found itself on that list. While I am no master painter or well-written author, I have felt that I have always lived my life through a creative lens. I think creativity is unique to each person so let’s dive deeper into what creativity looks like to me.

Self-expression has always been the strongest form of creativity in my life and a muse to get me to keep creating. What I engrain in my personality is my love for the arts, movies, music, and theatre. I use art forms such as painting and drawing to express my emotions and relieve stress from my life. Participating in creative activities has been found to reduce things such as anxiety, depression, and stress and allows people to channel their negative emotions in a productive way. By putting so much of my emotions into my creative work I find that they are a physical creation of myself. I even use these pieces to create a space for myself as I decorate my bedroom walls with all my creations. Colorful paintings, photographs, vinyl albums, and traditional art plasters my walls and allows me to live in my creativity.

I have also channeled my creative abilities into my schooling and future occupation. Throughout years of schooling, I have always made sure to take on creative courses. From creative writing to ceramics, I continued to practice the arts in my schooling. Even as I entered college I wanted to ensure creativity was a part of my future and occupancy. That is one of the reasons I chose to pursue advertising because it brings creativity to the business world. I am now constantly handed blank pages I am asked to fill with creative ideas and ads.

When learning to channel my creativity I have learned that it takes time and does not come to me immediately. My creative thinking process comes from a lot of thinking. When given a creative prompt I have to give myself time to think over different routes and alternatives. This is how I find myself taking on not only my art pieces but also my school work. At the beginning of the semester, I was tasked to write a self-reflective poem. At first, I was thrilled at the creative opportunity but it took me about a week of constant thinking to understand what I wanted to write. Even when I was not working on the poem I would have creative ideas come to me and I will write them down to return to them later. This is my strongest process that has allowed me to dedicate my time and effort to creative works.

In Hugh MacLeod’s article “How To Be Creative“, he gives the tip: “Nobody cares. Do it for yourself. Everyone is too busy with their own lives to give a damn”. Just like this advice, I live the lifestyle that my creative expression is not based on others’ opinions but rather on my own. I am my own worst critic in life which is both a blessing and a curse. Because I live a creative lifestyle it does comes with its highs and lows. However, I would not trade it for anything because creativity brings color to my life. I encourage all to embrace their creative side no matter what that means to them. Do it for yourself and don’t forget to be your authentic self.

Questions are a large part of how we communicate and learn things from those around us. They are what keep us connected with the world around us and allow us to advance further as a society. Understanding the different types of questions will not only advance your communication levels with others leading to stronger and more clear relationships. But it can also keep you from having a stale conversation or misleading those you talk to. So what makes a good question? And how does using the different types shape the conversation?

While there are many ways to ask questions, the two main forms of questions are open-ended questions and closed-ended questions. Closed-ended questions usually only invite the respondent to answer with a one-word answer such as ‘yes’ or ‘no’. An example of this style of question could be, ‘do you like coffee?’ or ‘can I borrow your pen?’ Close-ended questions can also generate answers to multiple-choice questions such as ‘how old are you?” or “what is your name?’ These kinds of questions are usually best when you are first meeting someone since they are simple to answer and do not take much thought process for the responder. However, with one-word answers, there is not much in-depth communication but most close-ended questions can be opened up for further discussion.

This leads to the other common form of a question, open-ended questions. Open-ended questions require both the asker and the answerer to put more thought into their question and response. They generally encourage the expansion into deeper conversation and more elaboration on the topics talked about. Open-ended questions can not be answered with a simple one-word answer but rather require more in-depth elaboration. An example of this type of question could be ‘what do you think about your professor?’ or ‘why did you choose to go to WSU?’ Open-ended questions are more insightful than closed-ended questions and generally generate more interesting and collaborative conversations.

When looking at the sample questions below, it is apparent that they are closed-ended questions and will not be as effective as open-ended questions for our research. Let us convert each question into more conversational based questions that will help us advance our communication!

• Have you ever sent a text message while driving?

Option 1: What are some ways you prevent yourself from looking at your cellphone when driving or operating a vehicle?

Option 2: If you received text notifications while driving, what would you do?

• Would you say you travel abroad frequently?

Option 1: Where have you traveled outside of the United States?

Option 2: What are some tips you could give someone who is traveling outside of the country for the first time?

• Do you post a lot of pictures on Instagram?

Option 1: What is the most common kind of post you like to share on Instagram and why?

Option 2: How important to you is it to constantly keep your Instagram feed updated?

• Do you prefer to shop at big boxes of locally owned stores?

Option 1: What kind of locally owned stores do you frequently like to visit?

Option 2: Why is it important for people to shop small instead of from big chain companies?

• Do you have an iPhone or Android phone?

Option 1: what are the positive aspects of owning an iPhone over an Android did you consider when buying your phone?

Option 2: what kind of case do you recommend for your kind of phone?

• how often do you eat sweets?

Option 1: what do you think are the effects of eating sweets often and have you dealt with the consequences before?

Option 2: what makes you crave sweets?

• Do you tend to buy things that are on sale?

Option 1: how do you think using coupons or discounts helps you with your spending?

Option 2: what are sales you always look for when you go shopping or are deciding to go shopping?

So when you are starting a conversation and hoping to get more than a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ from a question, remember to bring in open-ended questions. But why is it so important to ask the right questions in conversations? Bullmore’s simple metaphor “birds don’t build their nests from scraps and straws they chance upon,” answers this question. A researcher cannot use loose questions and expect usable responses if they do not form their questions carefully. To get the results they desire, they must ask questions that convey the message and are worded for a proper response. Without proper questions, we cannot expect illuminating answers.

When finding the differences between a fact and an insight is important to start with their technical definitions. While they are similar and are both important aspects of advertising and marketing, it is key to know their differences and how to apply them.

The definition of a Fact is “something that truly exists or happens: something that has actual existence”. It is something that cannot be argued as it is backed by evidence that is supported through trial. For example, gravity is a fact because it is non-negotiable and backed by years of evidence. Synonyms include actuality, factuality, materiality, and reality.

The definition of Insight is “the ability to understand people and situations in a clear way.” An insight is more of an elaboration of a fact and how it could be and is perceived. For example, meeting someone’s parents may be a more telling communication on why the person behaves the way they do. Synonyms include discernment, perception, perceptiveness, perceptivity, and wisdom.

Both facts and insights are a way to explain a truth. When it comes to insights there is more to be found than just the truth and makes the observer decide “why is this important?” and “what can we do about it?”. When it comes to advertising and campaigns, insights can be important in finding the basis of how to approach a problem and expand the idea. However, they are harder to develop and take more time to distinguish than a fact (Lam, 2016).

Insights are one of the more important tools in finding new marketing strategies and decisions. Usually, when addressing a campaign, facts are presented as the problem that needs to be solved. For example, in the New York Public Library Insta Novels case we see facts being presented such as “library attendance rates are declining across the country, particularly amongst Millennials and Gen Z”. These are facts and are stated as so because they are backed with qualitative evidence from research.

Next comes insights, which will expand the reasoning as “it guides people to a preferred way of interacting with their audience”. In the The New York Public Library case the insights were stated as “500 million Instagram stories are watched every day” and “75% of US teens use this platform”. This is a deeper look at the specific facts that were addressed earlier but it gives a perspective look into the campaign.

It is important to understand the differences between insights and facts especially when it is applied to creative strategies and account planning. They both pose important positions in the examination and explanation process and continue to be used in the process of campaign building.

The piece of brand communication I chose to analyze is the Billie Razor “Project Body Hair” Ad. The first digital campaign began in 2018 after the company’s founding in November of 2017. The video was shared across platforms such as Instagram, Youtube, and Facebook.

This piece was created in-house by photographer and videographer Ashley Armitage. She was hired off of her body-positive visuals that centered around the female gaze.

This was the first ad of a long-running campaign that challenged the traditional razor industry by displaying women’s natural bodies with hair. Women having body hair has always been considered “unclean” by social constructs and therefore was encouraged to be shaved or waxed frequently. However, a consistent Pink Tax that raises prices for feminine products by 15%, made razors unaffordable and not manufactured for women’s needs. Georgina Gooley and her co-founder, Jason Bravman, did extensive research on the history of women’s shaving habits and when removing body hair was first pushed by the media. Gooley then decided their brand would encompass the idea that women’s body hair should be the woman’s choice since “Some of us choose to remove it, and some of us choose to wear it proudly – and either way, we shouldn’t have to apologize for our choice.” Billie has taken on this social issue by creating a razor “subscription service that reduces the cost of women’s shaving and body care products.”

With their Project Body Hair campaign, they have been able to deliver their feminist message by featuring women “proudly displaying their body hair in all of its glory, including unibrows, leg hair, and everything in between.” The brand breaks conventions by stating that shaving is a choice, aiming to normalize body hair and represent the diversity of women.

This campaign has always resonated with me due to its outspoken message and unique ads that defy anything I had seen before. Traditional women’s razor ads show skinny women shaving already hairless legs with pink, overpriced razors. Billie has taken the initiative to not only start a feminist movement towards the normality of body hair, but also retaliation against the male-run razor industry. With my belief that women should not conform their bodies to social constructs, I truly admire Billie’s ads and their overall company message.

Alike Chobani’s “Take A Break” campaign, Billie distinguished a need that their market needed and therefor became the solution. Chobani understood that if they could encourage their market to choose their yogurt over unhealthier alternatives during work breaks, they too would become a solution for the market’s snacking needs. Billie similarly noticed a gap in the razor industry and learned that if they filled it with a more feminist approach that related to women and distinguished themselves with lower prices, they would become a notable brand to the female razor market. They learned that if they could be an alley with women instead of preying on their insecurities, it would ultimately empower women and their brand.

With such a strongly opinionated campaign that stuck out from other razor ads, there was a lot of retaliation on their social media platforms. After their first advertisement was released there were many comments such as: “F*ck no. I feel physically ill. Thats just plain unAmerican,” and “Gross. And completely unhygienic. The stink must be strong.” These uneducated and degrading comments are clear indicators of the misogyny that has been engrained into the expectation for female bodies in media. Billie expected this lash-back on their campaign with founder Georgina Gooley stating, “that some people will be uncomfortable with the campaign’s visuals — but that’s exactly why it’s necessary“. While this campaign is not meant for more traditional or conservative individuals, Billie considers their ads important for everyone to see.

Description: This is a final portfolio with a collection of work from my COMSTRAT 381 class at Washington State University. I used multiple different Adobe applications that helped me advance my skills in Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, and Premiere Pro. I was able to use my creativity and lessons from the class to create each piece individually.

Date: December 8th, 2020

What I Learned: This class has taught me how to advance my Adobe skills, making my future work easier to create. Taking individual companies and ideas and making them into flyers, videos and symbols was a challenge and a teaching lesson. The time crunch of finishing in a week has also readied me for future jobs and deadlines. While creating this final portfolio I learned how to layout my work in a professional way that will help me apply to jobs in the future. This is a great start to a work application, where I can put other artwork that I do in the future. It was a good experience to create my own logo and design the portfolio in a way that reflects my personality and work.

Applications: Adobe InDesign, Adobe Illustrator

Description: This is a personal project created by after leaning new skills through Adobe Max. Using photos taken by myself I used my creativity to cut them out and draw in new additions. It is a combination of colorful art and photography. This project was reconstructed from the first with additions of more drawings.

Date: December 7th, 2020

What I Learned: I learned how to use photoshop on the iPad and expand my drawing skills. Using pure creativity and no inspiration it was a challenge to create a completely new piece.

Application: Adobe Photoshop

Description: Print Ad designed for the band Banquet Co- ors that mirrors their ongoing campaign. The campaign targets mountain men who want the original taste of Coors. The photo is taken by myself with an iPhone 11 in Anaconda, MT.

Date: September 27th, 2020

What I Learned: For this ad I learned how to frame an image to display the forefront importance while the back reflects the brand’s image. Using the actual product and target market in one photo cuts directly to the point. I also learned how to cutout using photo shop, including the Coors Logo and the mountains. I also learned about angles for my images and making sure that the proximity of the image matches the proximity of the type and logo added.

Applications: Adobe Photoshop

Description: Video designed for non-profit campaign that encourages viewers to shop
second-hand instead of contributing to fast fashion businesses. The video was directed and edited by me, using an iPhone 11 for the cam- era. The audio is a combination of a voice-over by myself as well as free music.

Date: November 30th, 2020

What I Learned: For this video I learned how to get a collection of unique shots to edit them into a full, informational video. It was also a learning point for doing a voice-over video, making sure to say the right thing at the right time.

Application: Adobe Premiere Pro