‘Mid Life’ design concept brief.
Experience - why cover up the lines that show your experience? Let others see how much you have enjoyed life.
Through a selection/range of fake beauty products, women ages 45 - 55 will be attracted to the shelf. They will think they are buying a new innovative cosmetic product however in reality they will be shocked to open an empty package.
Inside, the product will not contain the real cosmetic, but instead a note that asks them to think of a positive experience that they have had recently or in their mid life years. Perhaps an anecdote or positive emotion. This will provoke viewers to share the anecdote and thus share the concept, in a viral style campaign.
The copy on pack will use existing copy - I will need to look at a variety and pick out common ways of communicating on anti wrinkle or other cosmetics.
The branding will need to be consistent with current styling to fit in, but will not be the major focus of the package, the key area is the concept and how the concept will be shared.
Brief : To make a comment about the beauty industry in relation to Mid Life and demonstrate that happiness is formed through life, experiences and sharing.
Who: Women aged 40-50 *
Why: To change opinions about what beauty is
Where: Boots. On beauty/anti wrinkle/cosmetics shelf OR new product launch POS
How: The on shelf ‘fake’ product would attract attention in a covert way. The hope of this being it would the turn into a viral campaign allowing those who are in the target market to learn from it and also those outside.
* The main target is women aged 40 - 50, however others will also be reached through the viral campaign.
The product needs to:
1. Stand out on shelf - design wise it needs to be good enough to draw attention but still fit in with the style of current packages.
2. Use current copy and style of the beauty packages in the market.
3. Inform people of how positive mid life is.
4. Interact with the viewer by prompting them to think of an anecdote.
4. Surprise the viewer: stop them from being able to use the package for its intended purpose.
QUESTIONNAIRE [COMPETITIVE DESIGN]
Myself and Jamie Gardner worked on a final questionnaire together, which we then published on SurveyMonkey and used to ask the public in Sheffield. Neither of us felt confident enough to do this alone so decided to collaborate on this part, sharing the results. Please see the link above for Jamie’s blog.
We asked a total of 59 people various questions from their marital status, their age and different questions aimed to pick out their thoughts on mid life.
Please see this photo for a preview of what it looked like and here is the surveymonkey link for your reference.
The analysis reads:
Out of the 25 respondents aged 40 and over, 64% believe mid life begins between the ages of 50 and 59, and 68% believe old age starts at 60 to 69 showing that the majority believed mid life is between 50 and 60.
In the over all results there were more respondents aged between 18 and 39 (58%) of which 67% believed mid life starts sooner than those aged 40 and above.
Acquired Experience stands out as being an important perception of mid life throughout the over all results, whereas Lonliness and Depression scored the lowest.
Over all the results show that a there is a positive perception of mid life amongst the varying age groups.
Over all Good Health and Wellbeing is key during mid life, which stands out in 2 questions throughout. When looking at the responses for the respondents aged 40 and over, the lifestyle choices that rated highest include, health and wellbeing, exhilarating activities and relaxing activities. Surprisingly, considering the common theme of media pressure to look good, self image didn’t rate very high amongst the other considerations.
73% of all respondents believe the press, media and popular culture portray mid lif in a negative light. From this, numerous comments were given, the ones that stand out include “It feels like everything is difficult,” “It’s worse for women - we become less visible,” “Depicts no use or future in this age group.” Key themes throughout the comments include there being pressure to look younger, loss of identity or importance and fewer future prospects.
We found the results very interesting, and were pleased with how honest some respondees were. We came to the conclusion that the results were more meaty from the online survey, probably because people could answer at their leisure. We learnt that our initial ideas for projects would in fact be no good, for example a product range for anti ageing may actually alienate our market. We have a greater insight into what the respondents over 40 believe, and also how the younger audience perceive mid life.
