Research dossier

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What this deliverable is

A research dossier (also called a landscape scan or competitive audit) is the strategic foundation for everything else you create. Before you write a single caption or design a single graphic, you need to understand the space your organization operates in: who else is there, who the audience is, what’s working, and where the gaps are.

Think of it as a living document — you start it now, and you keep adding to it throughout the semester. The February 24 submission is a directional check, not a finished product.

What to include

1. Competitor analysis

Identify 3–5 organizations that compete with (or are comparable to) yours. For each one, document:

• What they offer and who they serve
• Their social media presence (platforms, posting frequency, follower count, engagement style)
• Their pricing or positioning (premium, budget, community-focused, etc.)
• Their key messaging — what do they lead with?
• What they do well, and where they fall short

Example — Grounds for Change (specialty coffee, Montclair NJ):

Written analysis:

Watchung Booksellers Café leans heavily into community identity — their posts are about events and neighborhood culture, not coffee. That’s a strength for loyalty but a gap for attracting coffee enthusiasts. Sook posts more frequently and has stronger visual production, but their content has no voice — it reads like a template. Neither competitor owns the “knowledgeable but welcoming” space. That’s where Grounds for Change can win.

2. Audience analysis

Who is your organization currently reaching, and who could it reach? These are often different groups.

Split it into:

Current audience — who actually shows up or engages now. Use any data available (analytics, observation, reviews).

Potential audience — who you could reach with the right campaign. Be specific. “Young people” is not an audience. “Graduate students at Montclair State, 22–28, who want a focused work environment and are willing to pay $6 for a well-made latte” is an audience.

Example:

Current: Local professionals, 30–50, who stop in on weekday mornings before commuting. High loyalty, low social engagement — they don’t post about us.

Potential: MSU graduate students, 22–28, who need a third place to work. Currently going to Starbucks because they have reliable WiFi. Would prefer an independent option if they knew we existed and had seating.

3. SWOT analysis

A structured look at where your organization stands. Keep each section to 3–5 bullet points — specificity beats length.

Example — Grounds for Change:

Strengths

• Locally sourced beans with documented farm relationships — a story worth telling
• Baristas with real training — not just learned from YouTube
• Loyal morning regulars who actively recommend via word-of-mouth

Weaknesses

• No loyalty program — customers have no reason to choose us over Sook on a random afternoon
• Inconsistent posting — Instagram hasn’t been updated in 6 weeks
• No clear visual identity online — photos look different every week

Opportunities

• MSU partnership potential — student discount program or campus pop-up
• “Third wave coffee” content is performing well on TikTok — there’s an audience hungry for education
• Local press hasn’t covered specialty coffee in Montclair — a story angle available

Threats

• Sook opened three blocks away 8 months ago and has 4× our Instagram following
• Rising milk prices squeezing specialty latte margins
• Remote work declining as local employers return to office (reduces midday foot traffic)

4. Inspiration

Find 3–5 examples of content, campaigns, or brands whose work you want to learn from. These don’t have to be in your industry. Explain specifically what you’re taking from each one.

Example:

Patagonia’s “Don’t Buy This Jacket” campaign — counterintuitive messaging that built radical trust. For Grounds for Change, the lesson is: don’t be afraid to say something that sounds like it’s against your interest. “Make coffee at home on Sundays” is the kind of honest voice that builds loyalty.

Fly by Jing on Instagram — a small-batch food brand that built a huge following through founder storytelling and ingredient transparency. The model: show the work, not just the product.

5. Customer personas (draft)

At least one draft persona — a fictionalized but research-grounded profile of your ideal customer. This will be expanded into its own deliverable later. For the dossier, it just needs to be present and directional.

See the personas deliverable page for full detail on what a persona includes.

Format

Submit as a Google Doc shared with “Anyone with the link can edit.” Don’t overthink the design — this is a working document, not a presentation. Headers, tables, and bullet points are fine.

Length for the first submission: whatever you have. More important than length is whether you’ve picked an organization and started gathering real information.

Common mistakes

• Choosing a competitor because they’re easy to find. Your real competitors might be less obvious. A specialty coffee shop competes with other coffee shops, yes — but also with the college dining hall, with working from home, with the free office coffee down the street.
• Describing competitors without analyzing them. “They have 2,000 Instagram followers and post daily” is observation. “They post daily but get almost no engagement — their content isn’t resonating even with existing followers” is analysis.
• SWOT items that are too vague. “Good reputation” is not a strength. “35 unprompted 5-star Google reviews in the past 6 months, with reviewers specifically mentioning the barista training” is a strength.
• Skipping the potential audience. Most organizations know who shows up. Fewer have thought carefully about who isn’t showing up but could.