On a gray afternoon under the stairwell in the Daniels School of Business’ Krannert Building, a group of graduate students found themselves debating how to make a plastic storage bag more meaningful.
It sounds improbable, but that moment sparked what would become one of the most distinctive brand community projects in Purdue’s Master’s in Marketing program — a first-place, theory-driven strategy for SC Johnson’s Ziploc product line around a new identity called “Type Z.”
“The goal was to learn about the three markers of brand community: shared consciousness, rituals and traditions, and a sense of moral responsibility,” says Dan Nowak, clinical assistant professor and director of the MS Marketing program. “This was different from other experiential learning experiences because students were required to do academic research, leading to key takeaways in legitimization practices, ritual chains and social roles.”
Rather than designing a conventional advertising campaign, Nowak challenged students to apply consumer culture theory and brand community frameworks to real-world brands including Ziploc, Glade and OFF. For the winning Ziploc team, that meant rethinking what the brand stood for. “We wanted to go beyond product utility and give customers something they could identify with,” says MS Marketing student Danielle Hobson, one of the project’s leaders.
The team started with a deceptively simple question: What do people actually use Ziploc bags for? The answers went far beyond food storage. Ziplocs held craft supplies, hair ties, school materials, tools and moving essentials. In short, they were everywhere in everyday life.
“That insight is what we built on,” Hobson explains. “Ziploc already shows up in all of these real-life moments beyond just food, especially for young people who are figuring things out but are not fully organized yet.”
From that observation emerged “Type Z”: a shared identity for adults who fall somewhere between hyper-organized Type A and free-spirited Type B personalities. Type Z consumers are not perfect or chaotic but are motivated by small routines and micro-wins that make life feel manageable.
“That is how we landed on the ‘Type Z’ community,” Hobson says. “A shared identity for adults who are figuring life out in real time.” The concept became the anchor for everything that followed. Drawing directly from academic frameworks, the team built their strategy around the three core markers of brand community.
First was shared consciousness — a sense of “we-ness” among members. The students created community roles that people could see themselves in, such as “Creative Organizers,” “Meal Prep Gurus” and “Adulting (Kinda)” members. Each role reflected a different way people use Ziploc to bring order to everyday chaos.
Second were rituals and traditions. Instead of one-off campaigns, the team designed repeatable behaviors that could become part of daily life. These included “Midweek Micro-Wins,” where users share small organizing victories, and “Sunday Resets” focused on meal prep and planning for the week ahead.
Third was moral responsibility, expressed through a realistic approach to sustainability. Rather than making sweeping environmental claims, the team proposed “Zip the Loop,” a reuse and upcycling concept encouraging consumers to repurpose Ziploc bags in creative, practical ways. “We wanted sustainability to feel honest,” Hobson says. “Not big green claims, but small, participation-based actions that people can actually do.”
What set the project apart was not just the creativity but the rigor behind it. Students grounded every idea in data, theory and real consumer insight. “We used consumer culture theory and brand community frameworks to guide our decisions,” says Kevin Thomas, another member of the team along with MS Marketing students Sahithi Sripuram, Maitreyi Poornachandra and Sheza Waqar Beg. “We weren’t just designing ads — we were thinking about identity, rituals and shared meaning.”
The research process included analyzing Ziploc’s social media presence, studying competitor campaigns, running audience analytics and even reviewing legal and reputational risks. “We looked at their Instagram and TikTok pages to see what content was getting the most engagement,” Hobson says. “We also exercised crisis management by looking into any litigation and current weaknesses. If you don’t write your narrative, someone else will.”
The project mirrored professional marketing work. Students used tools like Photoshop, PowerPoint, Adobe Premiere Pro and AI platforms to build a full campaign video and pitch deck. “It honestly felt more like working in an agency,” Thomas says. “We weren’t just completing an assignment; we were pitching a strategy.”
Academic concepts translated into concrete lessons. The team learned that brand communities don’t emerge organically; they must be carefully designed through shared language, symbols, norms and participation structures.
“One big takeaway was how powerful brands can be when they connect to identity and shared experience, not just utility,” Thomas says. His teammates agree. “Ziploc can stand for a feeling, not just storage,” Hobson adds. “Even the most utility brand can become culturally relevant if you find the right human truth.”
Ultimately, the Ziploc project wasn’t just about plastic bags. It was about how brands can create meaning, belonging and value in consumers’ lives — and how future marketers can use academic theory to design strategies that feel both human and commercially viable. As the students discovered, even the most ordinary products can become extraordinary when you build a community around the way people actually live.
