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Digital and Social Media Communication - Task 2

 20/05/2026 - 3/6/2026 (Week 5 - Week 7)
Digital and Social Media Communication COM61804 / Bachelor in Design (Hons) in Creative Media / Taylor's University
Anggia Tsani Rachmadiyanti, (0368487)
Task 2 - Empathy Mapping & Persona

 CONTENT LIST 

 Instructions & Module Brief: 


     Lecture Notes 

    Week 5 - 6 Lecture : Persona Building
    • User persona must be specific
    • In the end of the presentation, we tell the user persona, the exact customer, not target audience.
    • Look for extroverted personas for more effectiveness
    1. Identify active brand supporters through analysing comments, likes and shares on social media
    2. Build distinct consumer personas by creating 3 personas based on real interaction/behaviours observed online.
    3. Use Empathy mapping technique: what each persona thinks, feels, says, do
    4. Apply Personas to Brand Strategy
    • Once we have done the 3 persona, we do the empathy mapping, where we find similarities from all of them.
    Why Personas are Important?
    • Reveal consumer insights, real motivations and behaviours
    • Guides creative strategy - shape brand voice, and visual identity for better impact
    • Drive brand differentiation - foster loyalty and help brand stand out in crowded markets
    What makes a good persona?
    • Represent a fictional character based on real audience data - Includes key demographics, behaviour and motivations
    • Effective persona - choose someone who often consume the product or someone close to us: family/friends. Gathering insights from interview, surveys and analytics. Identify goals, pain points.
    • Empathy mapping approach - visualise what the persona think, feel, see, do.
    - Brand should align with what the customers want so that the plan will work.
    - To make people buy your brand, you need to build empathy as they feel connected to you. They trust you.

    Steps to Create Personas:
    • Start deep research of who the age is, from insights, survey and analytics to understand their behaviours.
    • Spot patterns & segment = analyse data to identify common traits and group audience into effective segments.
    • Build Persona Profiles = make detailed profiles with names, backgrounds, goals and motivations for each segment
    • Empathy Mapping = visualise what our persona thinks, feel, see, does to guide creative strategy

    Week 7 Lecture : Task 3 Brief Calender
    • Mr Max briefed us through the whole task 3 spreadsheet and slides for the project calender timeline

     Task 2: Empathy Mapping & Persona 

    This part helps us understand how brands communicate by creating user personas and a specific empathy map. As our campaign strategy is to reposition the target audience toward Millennials, we created user personas based on reflective daily routines and struggles relatable to Millennials. The following three user personas were developed: 

    Persona 1: Chloe Chang, a Millennial who loves to spend on keeping up with fashion trends
    Persona 2: Lauren Alyssa Tan, a Millennial who finds online shopping convenient and relies on social media exposure
    Persona 3: Daniel Wei Jian, a Millennial with heavy financial responsibilities to provide for his parents, his children, and nonetheless himself

    After consultation during Week 6, we chose Lauren (Persona 2) to be developed and analyzed further. To do so, we created an empathy map reflecting her personality. Here's the summary:

    Week 5

    In class, we had to first work on the 3 persona report:

    (Fig. 1) - 3 Personas Report, PDF


    Week 6

    We came up with an empathy map report for our chosen persona: Lauren.

    (Fig. 2) - Empathy Map Report, PDF


    This was the Figjam Board of our group planning:

    (Fig. 3) - Group Figjam Planning

     Feedbacks 

    Week 5:
    General Feedback: Mr Max said we have to be specific when choosing the 3 persona. Makesure they are consumers that actually buy the products.
    Specific Feedback: For the first consultation, sir said that we should change one of the persona as the more online persona

    Week 6:
    Specific Feedback: Mr Max said it's better that our group choose Lauren since it is mainly online based and clearer direction

    Week 7:
    Specific Feedback: Mr Max told us that we need to also think of the ig stories/not just feed. try to make some motions for the outcomes later on. Makesure to finish draft of project calender by next wednesday.

    Sir emphasized that a strong August campaign proposal requires a well-structured social media calendar finalized by June 10 before any design work begins, as designing without a clear strategy leads to disconnected and purposeless posts. Every post must have a defined date, time, platform, format, content pillar, objective, and call to action, with the posting time justified by audience behaviour, following the 70/20/10 content pillar rule to avoid repetitive content. 

    The campaign should flow across four phases — awareness, education, engagement, and closing,  ensuring each post connects to the next like a story. Platform selection must align with the target persona from Task 2 and not contradict the empathy map, while visual consistency in color, typography, and layout must be maintained across all designs since each member contributes a minimum of two designs per person. The lecturer also stressed that the final presentation must be delivered with a client proposal mindset , no uncertainty, no hard selling of the brand, but instead a clear, data-backed strategy supported by Task 1 and Task 2 findings, with the calendar, mock-ups, and expected outcomes all presented cohesively to a panel by July 22.

     Reflections 

    Experience: 

    In this task 2, the process felt quite fast-paced since much of the preliminary research had already been completed during the previous assignment. The user personas and empathy maps we developed became valuable foundations that guided our design direction and communication strategy. During one of our consultations, we received feedback encouraging us to place greater emphasis on digital media exposure before exploring other aspects of the campaign. Initially, I was worried that this adjustment might conflict with the work we had previously completed. However, as we revisited our research findings and continued discussions as a group, the revised direction provided better clarity regarding our target audience and campaign objectives.

    Working together in my group taught me the importance of being open to different perspectives and constructive feedback. Each group member contributed unique insights, allowing us to refine our ideas and strengthen our understanding of the target audience. This experience helped me realise that research-based projects are often iterative processes, requiring flexibility and continuous improvement rather than strictly following initial assumptions. Overall, this task improved my confidence in applying research findings to develop a more focused and consistent communication strategy.
     
    Observations: 

    One important observation I made during this task was the need to remain adaptable when interpreting research outcomes. When our group decided to prioritise a different persona than the one we had initially focused on, I felt uncertain because it seemed like a major change in direction. However, after reviewing our previous findings, it became evident that digital presence and social media exposure were among the strongest factors influencing consumers' purchasing decisions. This insight justified our decision to shift focus and helped us concentrate on themes such as comfort, convenience, trust, and flexibility.

    I also observed that effective marketing strategies are not always based on our personal assumptions or preferences. Instead, successful strategies emerge from understanding the audience through research and identifying patterns in their behaviours, motivations, and pain points. This experience highlighted the importance of allowing data and user insights to shape communication decisions rather than relying solely on intuition.

    Findings: 


    Personally, I found the user persona development and empathy mapping stages to be the most insightful parts of this task. As members of Generation Z, my group and I initially found it challenging to understand the behaviours, lifestyles, and purchasing motivations of millennials, as their experiences and priorities differ from our own. To bridge this gap, we sought perspectives from several friends within the millennial age group, which provided useful real-life insights and helped validate our research findings.

    Through this process, we discovered that millennials often prioritise practicality, convenience, reliability, and long-term value when making purchasing decisions. Although they are influenced by digital content, social proof, and online recommendations, they tend to seek products that align with their lifestyles rather than simply following trends. This understanding enabled us to develop a more realistic and user-centred communication strategy for Padini.

    Additionally, this task strengthened my appreciation for empathy in the design and marketing process. I realised that effective communication is not only about promoting products but also about understanding users' emotions, frustrations, and everyday experiences. By putting ourselves in the audience's perspective, we were able to create strategies that feel more relevant, meaningful, and capable of building stronger connections between the brand and its consumers.
    SEM:

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