Reflection of Direct Mailer Assignment

This week in class we were asked to reflect on what we have been working on over the past several days. We were to create a Segmenting Stakeholders Matrix – Mailers  in order to really think about the direct mailers we were creating from the perspective of the stakeholder. After this we were asked to create a draft of a direct mailer, but because OU had a snow day and I didn’t have access to the Gaylord computer labs I have yet to complete the draft of the mailer.

I think that I responded really well to this assignment. Before this I didn’t think about how much thought goes into the simple mailers that I received when I was applying to universities. It was interesting to look at them from the perspective of the stakeholder as well. As I worked on the matrix it was sometimes difficult to put myself in the place of the stakeholder, but I feel that the completed matrix gave me a good idea of the types of messages that would appeal to prospective undergraduate students interested in journalism programs. Once I am able to start working on the mailer I expect to have some frustration with Photoshop since I haven’t spent a lot of time with it, but I am looking forward to starting it.

I think I reacted in the way I did because I had to take a deeper look at the lives of the prospective students. Instead of jumping into designing I actually put thought into what would appeal to this stakeholder. Brainstorming and researching before designing is definitely worth the time that it takes so that the design is effective.