Digital and Social Media Communication – Task 2: User Persona and Empathy Map

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DIGITAL AND SOCIAL MEDIA COMMUNICATION - TASK 2

USER PERSONA AND EMPATHY MAP: SECRET RECIPE

WANG JIHENG  0378904

Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media

Taylor's University

COM63304 Digital and Social Media Communication

Task 2: User Persona and Empathy Map



LIST

  • MIB
  • LECTURE
  • TASK 2
  • FEEDBACK
  • REFLECTION

MIB

Task 2 continued from the Secret Recipe Brand Study and Social Media Analytics Report. Our group had to create at least three realistic user personas and select one main persona for a detailed empathy map. The goal was to understand not only who the audience is, but also their needs, motivations, frustrations, buying behaviour and social media habits.

Our group submitted a User Persona Report and a separate Empathy Map Report on 3 June 2026. We selected Ryan Tan, a university student, as the main persona because the campaign opportunity identified in Task 1 was to improve Secret Recipe's relevance and digital engagement among Gen Z users.

LECTURE

The lecture explained that a persona is more than a name, age and occupation. A good persona connects demographic information to lifestyle, habits, purchase decisions, platform behaviour, motivations and problems. An empathy map then goes deeper by asking what the selected user sees, hears, says, does, thinks and feels. These tools help a campaign respond to a real communication problem instead of making random posts for a general audience.

I used the evidence from Task 1 to make each persona connected to Secret Recipe's current communication and its different audience groups. I then used Ryan's map to identify a focused Gen Z insight that could guide Task 3.

TASK 2

Week 5 - Building Three Audience Personas

We reviewed the Task 1 findings and developed three contrasting customer groups. This comparison stopped us from assuming that every Secret Recipe customer has the same reason to follow or buy from the brand.

  • Sarah: a 35-year-old millennial parent who values family celebrations, reliable cakes, clear bundles, halal dining and stress-free planning. Her strongest platform is Facebook, supported by Instagram visual discovery.
  • Julie: a 28-year-old office worker who sees food and desserts as affordable daily rewards. She responds to lunch deals, dessert content, casual hangout ideas and clear value.
  • Ryan Tan: a 21-year-old university student who uses cafés for study sessions, socialising and breaks between classes. He discovers cafés through TikTok and Instagram, compares value and peer recommendations, and responds to student-relatable short-form content.

As group leader, I helped coordinate the report structure and develop the audience details so that demographics, lifestyle, orders, motivations, pain points, buying behaviour and preferred platforms could be compared consistently.


Fig. 1: Comparison of the three Secret Recipe target personas.


Week 6 - Persona Comparison and Selection

The comparison showed that Sarah represents the dependable family and nostalgia audience, while Julie represents an affordable everyday reward audience. Ryan is different because he represents long-term Gen Z growth and social media engagement. He likes the products, including cake, coffee and casual meals, but sees the brand's online content as too traditional, promotion-heavy and not native to TikTok culture.

We selected Ryan for the empathy map because Task 2 is about digital and social media communication. This does not mean that Sarah and Julie are unimportant customers. It means that Ryan is the best main persona for solving the specific digital gap that we identified in Task 1.

Week 7 - Ryan Tan Empathy Map

Ryan is a 21-year-old undergraduate student in Kuala Lumpur. He has medium spending power from family support and part-time income. He uses a café as a "third place" for studying, resting between lectures and meeting friends. When deciding where to go, he usually discovers content on TikTok or Instagram, checks prices or promotions, asks friends through WhatsApp, and then judges whether the location is suitable for a study or social break.

In the empathy map, Ryan sees newer café brands such as ZUS Coffee, Gigi Coffee, Bask Bear and other visual dessert locations presenting relatable short videos and lifestyle content. He hears classmates talking about Wi-Fi, seating, price and photo appeal. He says that Secret Recipe cake is good, but its TikTok is not very interesting. His main pain is not simply a lack of discounts: the online communication does not feel like it speaks his language or fits his student lifestyle.

Key Insight and Communication Recommendations

Our core insight was: Ryan still recognises Secret Recipe as a familiar and reliable cake and café brand, but he does not see it as socially exciting or Gen Z-relevant because the digital content feels too promotional and not lifestyle-based enough.

Based on this, we recommended a shift from isolated product posters to student lifestyle storytelling. The communication direction included study-session reels, after-class café moments, behind-the-scenes cake preparation, relatable student POV content, clearer student-value messages and simple user-generated-content prompts. TikTok would use casual short-form videos; Instagram would show café atmosphere, reels, stories and carousels; Facebook would continue to carry detailed announcements and practical offer information.




FEEDBACK

The lecturer said that Sarah was a strong and realistic family persona, and Julie worked as a daily casual customer. Ryan was confirmed as a suitable main persona if the campaign objective is long-term Gen Z relevance, digital engagement, TikTok content and future audience growth. The lecturer also reminded us not to treat Ryan as Secret Recipe's strongest current revenue audience; Sarah and Julie can remain important secondary insights.

The main revisions required were to deepen Ryan's empathy map, clarify his decision journey, show what competing cafés look like in his feed, and explain the tension between "reliable product" and "not exciting online". The feedback sharpened our future direction: Secret Recipe should become an affordable, comfortable and shareable study-break café, not only a traditional cake-and-celebration brand.

REFLECTION

Task 2 taught me that a target audience should not be described in a general way. The persona only became useful after we connected Ryan's daily routine, budget, platform behaviour and emotional needs to a specific communication issue. The empathy map also made me understand that a campaign should solve a human problem, not only advertise a product.

The strongest lesson for me was that different users can all matter to one brand, but a campaign needs one clear priority. Selecting Ryan gave us a focused way to move from Task 1 research into the "Your New Study Break" campaign in Task 3.

 

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