We were given a large class data set (henceforth CDS) of about 33,000 words. It consisted of 88 'experiences' written each by an individual person describing what their favorite beverage is, either hot or cold, and why. We had to perform a corpus analysis, conduct some field work, and use our findings to create a poster for a new up-market café targeted at men and women primarily between the ages of 18 and 30 – either students or working young adults. We ended up getting A1 on it, meaning a full 100% assessment, and normally that alone would have been reason enough for me to want to post about it here. What makes it even more appropriate though is the fact that the choice of imagery, theme, slogan and the design and editing of the poster itself is entirely my doing. I am going to write a bit more about the analysis as well, however, so credit also goes to my team mates, Raphaël Peltier and Rongyu Li.
We
started our data analysis from a quantitative point of view, and the
first observation was the amount of favorite drinks in the CDS
experiences being hot. About 44% of the experiences named either
varieties of tea or coffee as their favorites. This was in line with our
initial assumption that the typical local weather would cause for a
lot of people to make hot beverages their preferred choice. The word
“hot” was used a total of 87 times in the CDS, almost exclusively
referring to the beverage and often accompanied by the notion of
comfort. “Cold”, on the other hand, was only used a total of 39 times,
some of which was to refer to the weather and temperature outside.
Similarly, words like “warm”, “warmth”, “heat” and “heating” that were
associated with hot beverages were much more frequently used than words
like “fresh” and “refreshing” that are usually associated with cold
fizzy or still drinks.Additionally, key words like “friends” and “home” were also seen used in combination with the experience of consuming hot beverages, indicating that comfort can be achieved both at home and out in a group. The overall themes of comfort and relaxation were predominantly seen in the hot beverage consuming experiences. What gave us the idea for the final undertone of the poster was an additional notion that was suggested in some of the examples – the notion of your favorite drink being an inseparable part of one’s life, something that one cannot imagine living without, and almost an extension to one’s character.
Finally, our fieldwork allowed for additional data to be collected when it came to the customer behavior. Without going into too much detail in regards to the establishments we visited, one of the main observations we made was that the type of people paying a visit was largely determined by the café's location - both geographically and in relation to what was around it. Ultimately we identified two main types of customers that were largely influenced by where the café was - people who either went in groups to socialize and people who went in by themselves to do either some kind of work or recreational activities like watching videos or reading while drinking their beverage. We also concluded that, if chosen wisely, the location would also contribute to maximizing the chance to attracting both of these types.
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Like previously mentioned, an underlying theme that we decided to focus on was the notion that your favorite beverage is a constant part of your life, something that you cannot live without. It is something that defines you, something that is an extension of your lifestyle and personality… but it is also something that you might not always have around you. This is your morning routine, this is how you socialize. This is you. But something’s missing (notice the hands). Come get it at Café Mirali (the name was a combination of the first syllable of each of our names combined).
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The choice of white as the predominant color in the two 1-person examples is by design. White is an individualistic color. It represents goodness, innocence, purity and freedom. As we have seen in advertising before, it also symbolizes cleanness and simplicity. I wanted the color to assist in conveying our message, to contribute to the overall aforementioned clarity and simplicity of it – we offer the thing that defines you, which you don’t necessarily have with you at the moment. With the group example, on the other hand, we decided to take a different, yet still straightforward approach – a richer color palate to represent the group’s diversity.
