Barrett, The Honors College Thesis/Creative Project Collection
Barrett, The Honors College at Arizona State University proudly showcases the work of undergraduate honors students by sharing this collection exclusively with the ASU community.
Barrett accepts high performing, academically engaged undergraduate students and works with them in collaboration with all of the other academic units at Arizona State University. All Barrett students complete a thesis or creative project which is an opportunity to explore an intellectual interest and produce an original piece of scholarly research. The thesis or creative project is supervised and defended in front of a faculty committee. Students are able to engage with professors who are nationally recognized in their fields and committed to working with honors students. Completing a Barrett thesis or creative project is an opportunity for undergraduate honors students to contribute to the ASU academic community in a meaningful way.
From our research, we found that for as little as $5 a day, an independent artist can make effective introductions to audiences most likely to enjoy what they have to offer without compromising artistic expression, while also learning from and engaging with their growing audience.
We found that traditional means of exposure offer little insight into an artist's growing audience and can pose several challenges when measuring their efficacy and return on investment. Through these channels, artists can spend thousands of dollars promoting themselves to disinterested individuals while learning very little about their audience in the process. If only there was a reliable method for artists to introduce themselves to the people most likely to enjoy what they have to offer…
By harnessing the power of Facebook’s audience targeting machine learning ad platform, artists have an opportunity like never before to:
1) Find an audience without compromise
2) Study and engage with said audience
3) Find millions more listeners who, based on their Facebook data, resemble their growing fanbase.
Furthermore, the more time and money artists are willing to invest in their ad campaigns, the more opportunities they create for Facebook’s machine learning algorithms to learn and optimize, thus targeting more desirable listeners more efficiently
Though access to new listeners is at an all time high, finding this audience requires strategy. In the context of driving results and creating an audience - honing one’s skills as a marketer is just as important as it is honing their skills as an artist. Before all else, artists must identify their genre and differentiating factors. A firm understanding of positioning and value proposition is necessary to inform one’s targeting, content and copy development strategies.
By harnessing the power of targeted advertising, machine learning, and brand strategy any artist can find and develop an engaged following. Furthermore, these powerful advertising platforms let independent artists circumvent the top-down system that the music industry has operated on since its inception. No longer do artists have to find a label or sign away their next five years to be successful. Through digital advertising and a small amount of ad spend, any artist can find the
right listener, a listener waiting to fall in love with their music.
“Natural” Personal Care Product and Cosmetic Marketing: An Ideographic Analysis on Product Marketing
The following thesis is a creative project that looks at all facets of the “natural” personal care product and cosmetics industry. This includes the origin, history of use, regulations, and consumers’ understanding of the word “natural” in marketing, as well as the identity of the word “natural” as an ideograph. In addition, this project illustrates in-depth analyses of the three major consumer segments of this industry. These analyses uncover each consumer type’s perceived connotations of the word “natural” in personal care product and cosmetics and their characteristics and buying behavior. Lastly, this project features a plan for a digital marketing campaign to showcase this research and incite discussion that raises awareness surrounding the word “natural” in the beauty space.