The issues of privacy and data collection in both the online world and on mobile phones, is something I spent a lot of time working on at the Federal Trade Commission. Reading the article about the way the Apple and Google are using phones to gather location-based information, which they can then use themselves or sell to marketers, reminded me a lot about the work I did and the efforts that regulators are making to check the activities of some of the largest tech companies: Apple, Google, and especially Facebook.
At the FTC, I felt like the opinion of a lot of the people I work with is that each company takes a different approach to privacy and that some are better than others. Without saying which companies we thought were the most problematic in terms of their privacy policies, I will say that one thing we saw a lot of, and were extremely concerned with in the mobile space, was that people had absolutely no idea how to control their privacy settings, or if it was even possible to control their privacy settings on their mobile phones. Just as we saw in the article, Google and Apple collect data about location, and while many consumers know how to turn on or off their GPS tracker on their phones, what we found is that many consumers 1)have no idea that their
information is being tracked, and perhaps more problematic in my perspective 2) that they have no idea how to prevent their OS operator from doing so. At least in the online world, you know that there is a section of the Facebook website dedicated to privacy issues, as well as in all of the other social networking websites. On your smart phone, this is not available for users to control, or at least to control the type of tracking that was described in the article.
One interesting thing in this whole debate is the difference between the principle of the thing and the net result. For example: in principle, I think it is wrong for Apple to track your location without telling you or giving you the option to stop it. However, the net result of this activity is that they use the data to market coupons or local businesses that are located in the area where you are. My feeling, and the feeling of the majority of consumers according to surveys, is that if I’m going to be advertised to, I’d rather have it be ads that are relevant to me rather than completely random. This is an interesting legal distinction because traditionally consumer
protection laws, and I think this is absolutely a consumer protection issue, center around misconduct that leads to damages. For example, a business misleads consumers about being a charity, and causes them to pay money to the company that they would not have otherwise. In this example, there was misconduct that was wrong in principle, that also caused consumer damage (loss of money). Even a lot of the traditional privacy cases that were handled by the Division of Privacy and Identity Protection at the FTC had both misconduct and damage: someone would misuse personally-identifiable information about someone else in order to steal their money, or use their credit cards, or something of this nature. So there was clearly both misconduct and damage. However, as I mentioned above, while there may be misconduct regarding the way that consumer information is collected and transferred, there isn’t really damage to the consumer for the types of activity that were discussed in the article. In fact, most consumers feel they actually benefit from this activity because it means that the advertisements they receive are more meaningful. It is interesting to think that the law generally seeks to correct only the damage side of the transaction, and not the misconduct side. This might be why it is illegal to steal, but not to lie. The damage is clear in one case, and not so in the other.
So what does this mean for a marketer? I think from a legal perspective, most marketers are not liable for the collection practices of the technology companies, at least for the time being. From an ethical perspective though, should a marketer avoid using data collected by ethically-questionable means even if it means that they can do their job better? I think the answer is no because I don’t think the actual “service” that a marketer provides is in any way unethical or violating of the consumer’s rights. The act of having an advertisement placed before your eyes and your eyes only, does not cause the consumer any damage. Put differently, in a transaction
that has misconduct and no damage, I think it’s ethically OK to be confined to the piece of that transaction that has no damage, as the marketer is. I don’t think having an ad placed before you that is more specific to who you are, or where you are, is itself more offensive or inappropriate than having a random ad marketed to you. The issue that the individual being marketed to might not want anyone to know where they are, or that they have visited a certain website, or whatever the data is, isn’t necessarily relevant to the marketer. I don’t think it’s relevant because the marketer’s purpose is to put an advertisement before the eyes of that individual on their smart phone, while they have their smart phone with them. I think it would be unethical for them to place ads based on the individual’s collected data in public spaces where other people could see them. To use an extreme example, let’s say an individual frequents a lot of adult websites, and thus marketers want to advertise other adult products to that individual. If those ads were placed on that individual’s facebook page (as opposed to the way it is now on facebook, where, regardless of what page you are looking at, the advertising on the side is specific to you and your profile as long as you are signed in), then there would be damages to the consumer. Imagine if the individual’s son or boss saw those ads. There could be palpable damage, and then it would be an ethical concern. But as long as the relationship between the marketer and the individual is personal, I think the marketer is in the clear.
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Sunday, March 25, 2012
Incubating the Creative Process
The article I found is a review and discussion of a book called Imagine: How Creativity Works. The author, Jonah Lehrer says that fostering creativity in the workplace is about fostering an atmosphere where employees are in a good mood and are relaxed. I thought this was interesting because it seems like some of the research we discussed in class seemed to suggest that having a time constraint (like when you have a hard deadline for a paper) can also foster creativity. These two findings seemed contradictory and thus made me wonder if the two articles were maybe talking about different types of creativity, or whether there simply is conflicting and non-conclusive research on what role deadlines and time-stress play in the creative process.
Lehrer also focuses on the idea that creativity usually happens “when you least expect it.” So, for example, rather than sitting at your desk and trying to think of the solution to a problem, you should walk away from the problem, change scenery, start thinking about something else. By doing so, you will be more likely to realize a solution to the problem you were originally thinking about. In an application of this idea, Lehrer says that one way that companies can foster creativity is by sending employees a message that they trust them and their work, and that they believe in their intelligence and creativity. He talks about 3M, who allows employees one hour a day to work on anything at all that they are interested in. The only condition is that the employees have to present the work to their bosses when the project is done. The idea is that by instilling confidence in employees, and allowing employees autonomy, a relaxed environment, and a bit of time away from their regular work, they will draw out their creative strengths.
Lehrer says, and I agree with this, that creativity is not all about the “aha!” moment, or brilliant flashes of genius, or brilliant connections that no one else sees. Often, Lehrer says, that is just the beginning of the creative process, and the people who have most success in creative fields-he uses the example of Picasso-are the ones who stick with the idea through the numerous iterations it must go through after the “aha!” moment until it becomes something useful, practical or marketable.
Finally, and I think one of the more interesting insights in this article, is that studies have shown a correlation between depression as well as bipolar disorder and creativity. Especially in writers, there is an unusually high rate of depression. This insight caused me to think about my personal experiences with creativity, since indeed, I think I have been at my most creative at the points in my life when I felt the saddest. Whenever I am extremely unhappy, or feel some sort of void in my life, I find myself compelled to write. I journal, write stories, and also tend to read a lot more creative fiction in these times. Obviously sadness-induced creativity is a difficult process to cultivate at work. However, I think realizing that the times when I feel things the most powerfully are the times when I become most creative is an interesting insight. This would certainly suggest that people without a passion for their job, or who are uninterested or unemotional on some level about their work , are going to be the least creative people in the office. Thus, maybe HR should start thinking about people who can prove a passion for the work that they do, and an emotional attachment to the work as a requirement for hiring employees.
Another thing I have noticed throughout my life is that I become especially creative when I get really caught up in interesting reading that usually centers on exciting work that other people are doing. Usually this happens when I am reading the news and find several good articles on the New York Times, or one really great long article in the New Yorker. Especially if the content is about a creative solution to a problem, or a new school of thought that is being applied, my creative juices really begin to flow. I’ll think of how this new school of thought could be expanded or applied to another field that I am interested in, or I’ll connect it back to some ideas and theories that I studied in college. This seems like an obvious one, but the notion that creativity breeds creativity I think is actually really powerful. If organizations and business can find ways to keep employees inspired by and exposed to new ideas on a regular basis I think employees will become more creative. I think a huge part of this is storytelling, and not only learning exciting new ideas, but having them be presented in such a way as to make them really gripping. Storytelling is a universally important skill in business, and so if companies can teach employees how to tell good stories (and thus do things like make interesting presentations), I think this will also help foster a creative environment in the workplace.
I think the times in my life when I have felt the least creative is when I am generally happy with my life, and I am left to my own devices without any structure at all for long periods of time. For example, spring break of this year (the last two weeks), were probably the creative low point of my life. I had almost no work to do over spring break for school, and I had nothing really going on in my life that was difficult or challenging, or particularly stimulating. I had a job, I had great friends, great family, a great boyfriend, and I generally felt content. In this environment, for sometimes up to two straight days in a row, I would almost shut my brain off completely. I would re-watch television shows I had already seen, g-chat with friends, and really do nothing mentally stimulating at all. I hardly read any new books or watched any new films, and I certainly didn’t come up with any interesting ideas, or create anything new like a short story. At one point I did go out and take some photographs in town, but honestly many of the ideas for the photographs had come to me at other points in time, and I felt like I was just executing an “aha!” moment that I had already had. One thought I had about this was similar to the one that was discussed in the article: do I need some sort of difficulty, sadness or struggle in my life in order to be creative? Is it possible to be creative in an environment that is purely positive? Is happiness just not creatively inspiring? I would be interested to see if my classmates, or if people in general share my insights about the types of things that have brought about creativity in me, to see if there are truly thing that universally inspire creativity. I think it’s also possible however, that creativity can come to different people for different reasons, and so the things that have inspired creativity in me, might not do so in someone else.
http://www.npr.org/2012/03/21/148607182/fostering-creativity-and-imagination-in-the-workplace
Lehrer also focuses on the idea that creativity usually happens “when you least expect it.” So, for example, rather than sitting at your desk and trying to think of the solution to a problem, you should walk away from the problem, change scenery, start thinking about something else. By doing so, you will be more likely to realize a solution to the problem you were originally thinking about. In an application of this idea, Lehrer says that one way that companies can foster creativity is by sending employees a message that they trust them and their work, and that they believe in their intelligence and creativity. He talks about 3M, who allows employees one hour a day to work on anything at all that they are interested in. The only condition is that the employees have to present the work to their bosses when the project is done. The idea is that by instilling confidence in employees, and allowing employees autonomy, a relaxed environment, and a bit of time away from their regular work, they will draw out their creative strengths.
Lehrer says, and I agree with this, that creativity is not all about the “aha!” moment, or brilliant flashes of genius, or brilliant connections that no one else sees. Often, Lehrer says, that is just the beginning of the creative process, and the people who have most success in creative fields-he uses the example of Picasso-are the ones who stick with the idea through the numerous iterations it must go through after the “aha!” moment until it becomes something useful, practical or marketable.
Finally, and I think one of the more interesting insights in this article, is that studies have shown a correlation between depression as well as bipolar disorder and creativity. Especially in writers, there is an unusually high rate of depression. This insight caused me to think about my personal experiences with creativity, since indeed, I think I have been at my most creative at the points in my life when I felt the saddest. Whenever I am extremely unhappy, or feel some sort of void in my life, I find myself compelled to write. I journal, write stories, and also tend to read a lot more creative fiction in these times. Obviously sadness-induced creativity is a difficult process to cultivate at work. However, I think realizing that the times when I feel things the most powerfully are the times when I become most creative is an interesting insight. This would certainly suggest that people without a passion for their job, or who are uninterested or unemotional on some level about their work , are going to be the least creative people in the office. Thus, maybe HR should start thinking about people who can prove a passion for the work that they do, and an emotional attachment to the work as a requirement for hiring employees.
Another thing I have noticed throughout my life is that I become especially creative when I get really caught up in interesting reading that usually centers on exciting work that other people are doing. Usually this happens when I am reading the news and find several good articles on the New York Times, or one really great long article in the New Yorker. Especially if the content is about a creative solution to a problem, or a new school of thought that is being applied, my creative juices really begin to flow. I’ll think of how this new school of thought could be expanded or applied to another field that I am interested in, or I’ll connect it back to some ideas and theories that I studied in college. This seems like an obvious one, but the notion that creativity breeds creativity I think is actually really powerful. If organizations and business can find ways to keep employees inspired by and exposed to new ideas on a regular basis I think employees will become more creative. I think a huge part of this is storytelling, and not only learning exciting new ideas, but having them be presented in such a way as to make them really gripping. Storytelling is a universally important skill in business, and so if companies can teach employees how to tell good stories (and thus do things like make interesting presentations), I think this will also help foster a creative environment in the workplace.
I think the times in my life when I have felt the least creative is when I am generally happy with my life, and I am left to my own devices without any structure at all for long periods of time. For example, spring break of this year (the last two weeks), were probably the creative low point of my life. I had almost no work to do over spring break for school, and I had nothing really going on in my life that was difficult or challenging, or particularly stimulating. I had a job, I had great friends, great family, a great boyfriend, and I generally felt content. In this environment, for sometimes up to two straight days in a row, I would almost shut my brain off completely. I would re-watch television shows I had already seen, g-chat with friends, and really do nothing mentally stimulating at all. I hardly read any new books or watched any new films, and I certainly didn’t come up with any interesting ideas, or create anything new like a short story. At one point I did go out and take some photographs in town, but honestly many of the ideas for the photographs had come to me at other points in time, and I felt like I was just executing an “aha!” moment that I had already had. One thought I had about this was similar to the one that was discussed in the article: do I need some sort of difficulty, sadness or struggle in my life in order to be creative? Is it possible to be creative in an environment that is purely positive? Is happiness just not creatively inspiring? I would be interested to see if my classmates, or if people in general share my insights about the types of things that have brought about creativity in me, to see if there are truly thing that universally inspire creativity. I think it’s also possible however, that creativity can come to different people for different reasons, and so the things that have inspired creativity in me, might not do so in someone else.
http://www.npr.org/2012/03/21/148607182/fostering-creativity-and-imagination-in-the-workplace
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Healthy Cheetos?: Balancing Nutrition and Taste at Frito-Lay
This summer, I will be working at Frito-Lay in Dallas. When I was applying to internships and thinking about the type of work I wanted to do post-MBA, the food industry was a natural choice. I love food-I love cooking, baking, going to restaurants, and trying new and unusual foods. But beyond that, I am fascinated by the food production process, and the politics of food in America, where we increasingly struggle to balance nutrition with our long-entrenched habits of eating mass-produced, often low-quality food.
Pepsico, Inc., is one of the world’s largest food and beverage companies. It is a company with vast global reach, and with an incredibly diversified portfolio of food and beverage brands. Its four main subsidiaries are Frito-Lay, Gatorade, Tropicana, and Quaker, though for this project, I would like to focus on Frito-Lay in particular. This is interesting to me one the one hand because I am going to be working for the company, but on the other hand, because like me, and like many Americans, Frito-Lay is struggling right now to figure out how to balance customer’s desires to be more “natural” and “nutritious,” with their identity as a snack food, whose customer base is driven primarily by taste. The question they are trying to answer is can snack food be healthy and enjoyable? And if they can be both, should they? Do snackers really want both, or does one group of snackers want a healthy snack, and another a delicious snack, regardless of its nutritional quality?
In 2010, Frito announced that was going to use only natural products in its chips by the end
of 2011. This move, which was meant to capture consumers who were becoming more health-conscious, has recently come under fire, as 2011 annual performance, released just weeks ago, was quite poor, and led to almost 9,000 layoffs at the company globally. In a recent article in the New York Times, the CEO of PepsiCo., described how 2011’s disappointing performance was caused by an attempt to expand too far into healthier products, at the expense of its score offerings. While this may be true, it doesn’t answer the question of how Frito can best appeal to both health-conscious snackers and taste-seeking snackers, without alienating either. That is what I would like to explore in my paper.
Right now, some of the questions I have are (and these would ideally be answered by actual
consumers):
- What are the most appealing features of Frito’s products? Taste? Convenience?
Nutrition?
- Do Frito’s core customers want a snack that is more natural or nutritious? Is Frito alienating people by moving in this direction?
- Are there consumers who are currently not customers but who would be if Frito offered even healthier offerings?
- Has the switch to natural ingredients appealed to any group of consumers? Who? Why?
- Are there other elements of health that the company could go after that would drive
more sales? For example, instead of using all natural ingredients, maybe they should be cutting calories, or reducing sodium.
- Is it possible to appeal to both segments simultaneously? (healthy and taste-seekers)
- As a by-product of the healthier tastes of American consumers, is snacking declining in general?
- How do people use these products? Are they meal replacements? When are they consumed during the day? Are they incorporated into meals?
I found the following two articles to be very useful in beginning to think about the current challenges the company is facing, and how they have attempted to deal with this dilemma in the past year or two. The first article gives a nice overview of the brand and their foray into natural foods, and the New York Times article gives a great explanation of how they have evaluated their attempts to move into more natural foods, and what this has done for the company and their customers.
-“Company Spotlight: Fritolay, Inc.” MarketWatch May 2011 (on Business Source Complete)
-“Pepsico to cut 8700 Jobs in a Revamping” New York Times, 2/9/2012
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/10/business/pepsico-to-cut-8700-jobs-in-a-revamping.html?_r=1&ref=pepsicoinc
As far as the format of the paper goes, I think I would like to take the approach of analyzing the current situation and making recommendations about how the company should proceed. However, I would like to draw on some of the concepts we learned in class to gain insights into
who their customers are and what they want since I think this will inform my recommendations.
I would like to come up with several personas to help me conceptualize the FritoLay customer
base, and additionally, I would like to try to rank each persona in terms of how important they are to the business. I would like to estimate the size of each persona’s segment, and then really
zone into what each group’s snacking priorities are.
Another concept from class that I would like to use in my analysis is using generative research
to gain insights. I think it will be really important to get a feel for what current consumers of Frito want in their snack, and I think the best way to get this will be by researching actual
behavior. I would want to survey, interview and potentially go into the pantries of current customers.
Pepsico, Inc., is one of the world’s largest food and beverage companies. It is a company with vast global reach, and with an incredibly diversified portfolio of food and beverage brands. Its four main subsidiaries are Frito-Lay, Gatorade, Tropicana, and Quaker, though for this project, I would like to focus on Frito-Lay in particular. This is interesting to me one the one hand because I am going to be working for the company, but on the other hand, because like me, and like many Americans, Frito-Lay is struggling right now to figure out how to balance customer’s desires to be more “natural” and “nutritious,” with their identity as a snack food, whose customer base is driven primarily by taste. The question they are trying to answer is can snack food be healthy and enjoyable? And if they can be both, should they? Do snackers really want both, or does one group of snackers want a healthy snack, and another a delicious snack, regardless of its nutritional quality?
In 2010, Frito announced that was going to use only natural products in its chips by the end
of 2011. This move, which was meant to capture consumers who were becoming more health-conscious, has recently come under fire, as 2011 annual performance, released just weeks ago, was quite poor, and led to almost 9,000 layoffs at the company globally. In a recent article in the New York Times, the CEO of PepsiCo., described how 2011’s disappointing performance was caused by an attempt to expand too far into healthier products, at the expense of its score offerings. While this may be true, it doesn’t answer the question of how Frito can best appeal to both health-conscious snackers and taste-seeking snackers, without alienating either. That is what I would like to explore in my paper.
Right now, some of the questions I have are (and these would ideally be answered by actual
consumers):
- What are the most appealing features of Frito’s products? Taste? Convenience?
Nutrition?
- Do Frito’s core customers want a snack that is more natural or nutritious? Is Frito alienating people by moving in this direction?
- Are there consumers who are currently not customers but who would be if Frito offered even healthier offerings?
- Has the switch to natural ingredients appealed to any group of consumers? Who? Why?
- Are there other elements of health that the company could go after that would drive
more sales? For example, instead of using all natural ingredients, maybe they should be cutting calories, or reducing sodium.
- Is it possible to appeal to both segments simultaneously? (healthy and taste-seekers)
- As a by-product of the healthier tastes of American consumers, is snacking declining in general?
- How do people use these products? Are they meal replacements? When are they consumed during the day? Are they incorporated into meals?
I found the following two articles to be very useful in beginning to think about the current challenges the company is facing, and how they have attempted to deal with this dilemma in the past year or two. The first article gives a nice overview of the brand and their foray into natural foods, and the New York Times article gives a great explanation of how they have evaluated their attempts to move into more natural foods, and what this has done for the company and their customers.
-“Company Spotlight: Fritolay, Inc.” MarketWatch May 2011 (on Business Source Complete)
-“Pepsico to cut 8700 Jobs in a Revamping” New York Times, 2/9/2012
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/10/business/pepsico-to-cut-8700-jobs-in-a-revamping.html?_r=1&ref=pepsicoinc
As far as the format of the paper goes, I think I would like to take the approach of analyzing the current situation and making recommendations about how the company should proceed. However, I would like to draw on some of the concepts we learned in class to gain insights into
who their customers are and what they want since I think this will inform my recommendations.
I would like to come up with several personas to help me conceptualize the FritoLay customer
base, and additionally, I would like to try to rank each persona in terms of how important they are to the business. I would like to estimate the size of each persona’s segment, and then really
zone into what each group’s snacking priorities are.
Another concept from class that I would like to use in my analysis is using generative research
to gain insights. I think it will be really important to get a feel for what current consumers of Frito want in their snack, and I think the best way to get this will be by researching actual
behavior. I would want to survey, interview and potentially go into the pantries of current customers.
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Finding Qualitative Data on Social Media
One thing I might look at is trending topics on twitter. I think by looking at what topics are trending in a certain geographic area, you could begin to categorize them by interest or type, and that was you can begin to gauge what twitter users are interested in. For example, just looking at what the top trending topics are on twitter right now, and I set the location to be Austin, the top 10 trending topics: (see above)
This could be done for anywhere in the US, the whole US or world, and might, as it did in my case, require some reading to figure out what the topics are actually discussing.
The data listed in the table obviously is small sample size, and ideally you would want to collect data over a long period of time and sort it under a large number of categories. Then, once you had a significant sample size, you could begin to see trends in what twitter users in a particular area are interested in. By categorizing not only the topic of conversation, but also, the nature of the conversation (funny, ironic, silly, respectful,etc.), you would also be able to understand how they like to communicate, and what styles of communication appeal to them. Looking at the sample from today, if we wanted to use this data for marketing purposes, we might suggest an ad campaign for example that had endorsements by popular musicians and employed a quirky style of humor. Just knowing what I know about Austin, this seems like a fairly strong match for the type of campaign that would appeal to Austinites, but again, we would want to use a much larger sample size.
Another way you could use twitter to get descriptive data, and you could also use facebook here as well, is to look at the “about me” section at the top of each user’s twitter page. You could then aggregate the data based on location and start to look at adjective and interests that users find appropriate to describe themselves. For example, my about me section reads: “MBA student, raveler, runner, baker, food-lover.” An advertisement that was food-related would be much more likely to appeal to me than something weight-loss related, which it what the ads that are targeted
towards me on facebook relate to. This is probably because I haven’t described myself as a food-lover on facebook, and it probably targets all women in my age group for weight-loss ads. However, facebook has lots of other useful data, which would allow segments to be identified more easily, like network the user is on, birthday, education, job, etc. With all of this information, you would be able to identify your target segment more easily than you would be
able to on probably any another social media, and then you could look at things like the facebook groups they belong to, and the pages they have liked, and the articles they have posted to get a more accurate understanding about the types of things they are passionate about.
This could be done for anywhere in the US, the whole US or world, and might, as it did in my case, require some reading to figure out what the topics are actually discussing.
The data listed in the table obviously is small sample size, and ideally you would want to collect data over a long period of time and sort it under a large number of categories. Then, once you had a significant sample size, you could begin to see trends in what twitter users in a particular area are interested in. By categorizing not only the topic of conversation, but also, the nature of the conversation (funny, ironic, silly, respectful,etc.), you would also be able to understand how they like to communicate, and what styles of communication appeal to them. Looking at the sample from today, if we wanted to use this data for marketing purposes, we might suggest an ad campaign for example that had endorsements by popular musicians and employed a quirky style of humor. Just knowing what I know about Austin, this seems like a fairly strong match for the type of campaign that would appeal to Austinites, but again, we would want to use a much larger sample size.
Another way you could use twitter to get descriptive data, and you could also use facebook here as well, is to look at the “about me” section at the top of each user’s twitter page. You could then aggregate the data based on location and start to look at adjective and interests that users find appropriate to describe themselves. For example, my about me section reads: “MBA student, raveler, runner, baker, food-lover.” An advertisement that was food-related would be much more likely to appeal to me than something weight-loss related, which it what the ads that are targeted
towards me on facebook relate to. This is probably because I haven’t described myself as a food-lover on facebook, and it probably targets all women in my age group for weight-loss ads. However, facebook has lots of other useful data, which would allow segments to be identified more easily, like network the user is on, birthday, education, job, etc. With all of this information, you would be able to identify your target segment more easily than you would be
able to on probably any another social media, and then you could look at things like the facebook groups they belong to, and the pages they have liked, and the articles they have posted to get a more accurate understanding about the types of things they are passionate about.
Sunday, February 5, 2012
Meet Matt!
Meet Matt. Matt is a 37 year-old married male who lives in Davenport, Iowa. Matt loves football, his wife Angie, his daughter Molly, and fixing cars in his garage. His biggest concern is being able to send his daughter to college, and being able to support his family now that there is another daughter on the way. Matt doesn’t have a lot of knowledge of finance, but he has been saving in a college fund little by little from his paycheck as a floor manager in a local food packing plant. Matt hopes to one day become the regional manager for the three warehouses in his company’s Iowa region, but he sees this as 10 years down the road at least, and of course only if the company can stay in business that long. He wants his daughter to go to the Univesity of Northern Iowa like he did, or maybe even the University of Iowa. He dreams of her becoming a doctor or a lawyer.
Matt lives in a two-flat with his wife Angie. They have two cars: one Thunderbird, which Matt spends time fixing up on the weekends, and one Ford Escape, which Angie uses to take Molly to dance class, run errands, and drive to her job as an office manager at a local real estate office. Matt grew up in Davenport and has a few of the same friends that he had in high school. Most of his friends stayed around Davenport for their whole lives, though some moved regionally to go to college, for a couple of years at least. His friends are loyal and hard-working family men who enjoy good football, a Budweiser, and barbequing in the summer. They are generally handy and enjoy fixing things and being self-sufficient. They are not particularly interested in fads, though some of them do have the latest smartphone. They all have fantastic TVs and full cable packages with the extra sports channels. Primarily, Matt’s money is spent on food for the family, the mortgage, car payments, dance classes and other expenses for Molly, and the occasional splurge on power tools, or details for the car.
Matt is about 5’9, and maybe 15 lbs. overweight. He is not particularly worried about his appearance; he still has some of his boyish good-looks, and even though his belly is a bit larger than he’d like it to be, and his hairline an inch or two further back than he wishes, he still knows he is fairly attractive. He still thinks his wife is sexy and she does a fair amount to maintain her appearance. She jogs with friends in the neighborhood, and belongs to a local gym called “Fitness Gal.” Matt is generally a respectful person and has good manners. He is laid back and non-confrontational in public settings, and doesn’t get too frustrated by waiting in traffic or getting caught in line at the grocery store. He thinks that it feels good to be kind to others and so he tries to do so whenever he can, and he appreciates it when others return the favor. Then again, he has been known to get a little rowdy and even rude when he has had a few too many at Jack’s, his favorite bar, and his team-he roots for the Bears- is losing.
Matt and his friends are somewhat conservative, though he generally considers himself a moderate. Matt and his friends sometimes talk about immigration laws and other political issues, but are really only concerned with the ones that they see as directly impacting their lives or jobs. His friends discuss local political issues as well, but usually just to reaffirm each other’s beliefs and sometimes to make fun of the insincerity or appearance of some of the usual suspects on the local political scene. Matt’s boss is a much older man with whom he is very friendly. Neither are
exceptionally motivated, but both work hard and usually meet their quotas. Matt’s boss gives him positive affirmations for his good work and occasionally asks about Angie and Molly. His boss is rarely critical, but Matt believes that that is due to his lack of interest in his job. Matt watches the local news and programs like “Deal or No Deal,” “Lost,” and “Dexter.” His wife watches “Grey’s Anatomy,” “The Bachelor” and “Biggest Loser.” Matt listens to talk radio on the way to work, which is how he gets most of his national and world news. This is usually on AM and includes reports about the traffic and weather. He plays in a local bowling league with some guys a bit older than him who have lived in Davenport for even longer than he has, and he often finds himself listening to their political conversations. They tend to be a little more conservative than he is, but he often finds himself sympathizing with their point of view.
Matt feels somewhat trapped in his life, but doesn’t see much of a way out, and generally feel fairly happy, so doesn’t feel a strong impetus to make big changes. He wishes his job paid more (he makes $47,000/year) and that he could have a nicer house and better cars. He attends a Lutheran church a few times a year, and feels slightly guilty about not being more committed, and not raising his daughter to be a person of faith. He wishes he had a job that offered him more opportunities, and he feels somewhat uninspired by the work, but at the same time, he feels lucky to have a steady job, as many of his friends have been unable to hold onto theirs through the recession. He gets jealous of his friends and neighbors when they purchase something more exciting or flashy than what he owns. He gets slightly annoyed when one of his friends get promoted- even if the job in a completely different line of work. He wishes he got a little more recognition for everything he does for his family and for all of his hard work at the plant. He’d love to sit behind a desk someday instead of having to spend his days walking the floor and tiring his feet. But as long as he’s in a limited job market, with limited skills, he’ll take what he can get.
Matt lives in a two-flat with his wife Angie. They have two cars: one Thunderbird, which Matt spends time fixing up on the weekends, and one Ford Escape, which Angie uses to take Molly to dance class, run errands, and drive to her job as an office manager at a local real estate office. Matt grew up in Davenport and has a few of the same friends that he had in high school. Most of his friends stayed around Davenport for their whole lives, though some moved regionally to go to college, for a couple of years at least. His friends are loyal and hard-working family men who enjoy good football, a Budweiser, and barbequing in the summer. They are generally handy and enjoy fixing things and being self-sufficient. They are not particularly interested in fads, though some of them do have the latest smartphone. They all have fantastic TVs and full cable packages with the extra sports channels. Primarily, Matt’s money is spent on food for the family, the mortgage, car payments, dance classes and other expenses for Molly, and the occasional splurge on power tools, or details for the car.
Matt is about 5’9, and maybe 15 lbs. overweight. He is not particularly worried about his appearance; he still has some of his boyish good-looks, and even though his belly is a bit larger than he’d like it to be, and his hairline an inch or two further back than he wishes, he still knows he is fairly attractive. He still thinks his wife is sexy and she does a fair amount to maintain her appearance. She jogs with friends in the neighborhood, and belongs to a local gym called “Fitness Gal.” Matt is generally a respectful person and has good manners. He is laid back and non-confrontational in public settings, and doesn’t get too frustrated by waiting in traffic or getting caught in line at the grocery store. He thinks that it feels good to be kind to others and so he tries to do so whenever he can, and he appreciates it when others return the favor. Then again, he has been known to get a little rowdy and even rude when he has had a few too many at Jack’s, his favorite bar, and his team-he roots for the Bears- is losing.
Matt and his friends are somewhat conservative, though he generally considers himself a moderate. Matt and his friends sometimes talk about immigration laws and other political issues, but are really only concerned with the ones that they see as directly impacting their lives or jobs. His friends discuss local political issues as well, but usually just to reaffirm each other’s beliefs and sometimes to make fun of the insincerity or appearance of some of the usual suspects on the local political scene. Matt’s boss is a much older man with whom he is very friendly. Neither are
exceptionally motivated, but both work hard and usually meet their quotas. Matt’s boss gives him positive affirmations for his good work and occasionally asks about Angie and Molly. His boss is rarely critical, but Matt believes that that is due to his lack of interest in his job. Matt watches the local news and programs like “Deal or No Deal,” “Lost,” and “Dexter.” His wife watches “Grey’s Anatomy,” “The Bachelor” and “Biggest Loser.” Matt listens to talk radio on the way to work, which is how he gets most of his national and world news. This is usually on AM and includes reports about the traffic and weather. He plays in a local bowling league with some guys a bit older than him who have lived in Davenport for even longer than he has, and he often finds himself listening to their political conversations. They tend to be a little more conservative than he is, but he often finds himself sympathizing with their point of view.
Matt feels somewhat trapped in his life, but doesn’t see much of a way out, and generally feel fairly happy, so doesn’t feel a strong impetus to make big changes. He wishes his job paid more (he makes $47,000/year) and that he could have a nicer house and better cars. He attends a Lutheran church a few times a year, and feels slightly guilty about not being more committed, and not raising his daughter to be a person of faith. He wishes he had a job that offered him more opportunities, and he feels somewhat uninspired by the work, but at the same time, he feels lucky to have a steady job, as many of his friends have been unable to hold onto theirs through the recession. He gets jealous of his friends and neighbors when they purchase something more exciting or flashy than what he owns. He gets slightly annoyed when one of his friends get promoted- even if the job in a completely different line of work. He wishes he got a little more recognition for everything he does for his family and for all of his hard work at the plant. He’d love to sit behind a desk someday instead of having to spend his days walking the floor and tiring his feet. But as long as he’s in a limited job market, with limited skills, he’ll take what he can get.
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