Overview of the material and concepts learned this month.
Connecting/Synthesizing/Transforming
In this month’s course, I was given the opportunity to construct and develop a sushi restaurant (BoxPark Sushi) that is located in the East Side of Milwaukee. In week one, the goal was to research the product (sushi) and researching the competitors that was in the surrounding area. The research that was conducted in week one gave me the opportunity to focus on the branding aspect of the restaurant–trying to figure out where it was going to go. The second week focuses on understanding consumer behavior, which focuses specifically on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and Settle and Alreck’s Shopping list of needs and analyzing market segmentation, which focuses on demographics, psychographics and buying behavior. This made me explore the target audience and their motivation into why they would eat at BoxPark Sushi. Week three focuses on creating a creative brief. According to Krista Bruun, “A creative brief is a document that explains the ins and outs of a project for the creative team, agency, or designer who will be working on it” (Upwork, 2020). Developing the creative brief allowed me to make connections and synthesize information about the client’s product, competition and the target audience.
Problem Solving
One design problem that needed to be solved this month was communicating the onliness statement that was developed for the brand to the target audience with the features and benefits of the brand. I was having a hard time trying to figure out the statement (not only the statement, but the benefits and the features) that is going to carry throughout the process. I didn’t want to do what everyone else was doing, so I wanted to do something out of the box, that made sense. A feature is something that stands out from the rest of the competition and a benefit is something that the person gets out of using that feature.
My final onliness statement:
BoxPark Sushi is the only traditional sushi restaurant that will serve innovative and quality Caribbean style sushi at an affordable price for marginalized communities in East Side Milwaukee who needs better representation in their food choices.
According to Felton, “The USP is a specific promise or benefit unique to the brand, one that the competition either did not or could not claim” (Felton, 2013). While I finalized my onliness statement for BoxPark Sushi, the Unique Selling Proposition (USP) emerges. The solution to the problem was to utilize the structure of the onliness statement, which gave me a better understanding of how the brand is going to be. The statement includes the category (sushi restaurant), location (Eastside Milwaukee), Benefit (affordable pricing), target audience (marginalized communities in the Eastside of Milwaukee), and features (Caribbean-style sushi). I didn’t add more features and benefits in the statement because those benefits and features are categorized as Caribbean-style. So, when you see Caribbean-style, you should already know what is going to be included in the restaurant.
Innovative Thinking
What was very innovative through the process for this month was utilizing the Hierarchy of Needs and the Shopping List of Needs to create a design strategy for BoxPark Sushi. Utilizing those lists of needs made me understand the client’s target audience psychologically and physiologically. In the near future, I can definitely use the same process that was given to me this month into the workforce when it is time to do something similar to that.
This may not be innovative, but in the first week of the class when we were researching about Sushi, I came across researching about BoxPark. I follow somebody on Instagram who is from the UK, and he took a picture of the BoxPark Mall and I was so intrigued at the concept of the mall. It is a popup mall built with shipping containers! I personally thought that was very innovative and also creative. I can grab some inspiration from the mall for BoxPark Sushi.
Acquiring Competencies
- Unique Selling Proposition (USP). The benefit that is unique to the product or brand being sold (Felton, 2013, p. 45). (Occupational, conceptual).
- Demographic. Consumer’s physical attributes; race, age, sex, etc. (Occupational, conceptual).
- Psychographics. Consumer’s behavior. Internal thoughts and motivations to do something. (Occupational, conceptual).
- Onliness Statement. A statement that will help you understand what your brand is about, the personality of your business. (Occupational, Conceptual)
- Creative Brief. A document that explains the ins and outs of a project for the creative team. (Occupational, technical)
- Features. Something that stands out from the rest of the competition. (Occupational, conceptual)
- Benefits. Something that the person gets out of using that feature. (Occupational, conceptual)
- Brand Differentiation. Differences between similar brands that makes them unique. (Academic, conceptual)
- Making connections. Utilizing primary and secondary research for the brand and make connections from the two. (Occupational, conceptual)
- Style guides. Guidelines for the way brands should be presented. Ensuring the brand stays consistent. (Occupational, conceptual)
- Being proactive. Make it happen instead of waiting for them to happen to you. (Occupational, conceptual)
- Brand positioning. Marketing strategy that helps businesses set themselves apart. (Occupational, conceptual)
References:
Felton, G. (2013). Advertising: copy and concept. New York: W. W. Norton & Company.
Upwork. (2020, June 19). 10 key elements of a successful creative brief. In-demand talent on demand. https://www.upwork.com/resources/how-to-create-successful-creative-brief
Jerry Medireck's Mastery Journey 