My Approach:

Moving forward, the thing I wanted to know more about was the reason behind people panic buying in a disaster. I was familiar with the sudden rush to buy groceries and water when a bad storm is coming, but during the pandemic we saw, what I think, is the worst panic buying we’ve seen in a while. Since this had been a global issue, there were a lot of good scientific articles surrounding why we panic buy, and the reason is fear. I also learned that we’re creating shortages that last beyond the disaster when we panic buy.

As we started working on our solution, we focused on how we could help people be more prepared for disasters. Our CW, Selma, was friends with these two guys who founded Hawaii Tracker, and she was able to set up a Zoom call with them.

Let me tell you that these guys were some of the coolest, most knowledgeable people I’ve ever had the pleasure of interviewing. After talking with them, I felt I had more of a sense of what else I needed to be researching in terms of what people need to be prepared for a disaster.

So I started reading forums on Reddit from preppers, and there was one in r/Preppers that just opened my eyes. The question was “Female Preppers: what considerations or concerns do you have that don't get enough attention?” and it was truly a life-changing read. There was just so much good information for women that I still think about to this day.

At our next group meeting, I brought up with our group about making women the target audience. As a group of all women, it was easy to start pulling from our own experiences and lack of preparation for emergencies to figure out what a solution might look like.

During the brainstorming session, our AD, Jade, stumbled upon this brand called Judy. It already offered a number of the ideas we had come up with, and I personally just fell in love with the brand. While it did seem like they had everything you could need, they were lacking anything tailored specifically for women.

After talking with our professors, they suggested we partner Judy with another brand because they are still relatively new. So we chose Goop as our brand partner. We talked through some other options, but Goop just made the most sense.

The reasons being:

• Goop's primary audience is women, and they cover a variety of topics related to women’s wellness.

• They’re a recognizable brand.

• It would be a good PR move for them.

• People are going to talk about the collab regardless of if they approve of Goop or not.