Conversations With Consumers

Over the past couple of weeks we interviewed 10 consumers between the ages of 19 to 49 years old from across the country. The bulk of our conversations centered around two different but somewhat related topics - Obama and the concept of free time. Here is what we heard.

Obama
Before the election, we as an agency talked a lot about Obama, the brand. We discussed what a great job he did in not only capturing the attention of the youth market but also about his ability to convert that attention to loyalty and support. So while he has only been in office for a few weeks, we wanted to see if that support and loyalty was still strong. We asked consumers how they felt about Obama's first few weeks as president. We found that expectations are high but the jury is still out, for the most part.

- "I feel that while Obama has hit the ground running and I want to support him, his recent appointments are making it hard for me to do so." (Joe, 21 years old, New York City, NY. Note: Joe made it pretty clear that he voted for McCain)

- "There is a lot of pressure on him, a lot to be expected so I am very curious to see how the rest of the year pans out." (Meredith, 20 years old, Boston, MA)

- "His early address to the nation was proof enough of how much he is putting into solving our economic crisis at a very fast pace." (Tara, 23 years old, Minneapolis, MN)

Most of the consumers that we spoke with were prepared to give the President time to deliver on his message of hope and change but they are expecting change. We will watch how Obama the brand continues to evolve is his message and communicates with the nation.

Free Time
More time seems to be the one thing that all consumers want. We asked consumers if they had more of this precious commodity what would they do. Not surprisingly, in a world where we are constantly connected the people that we spoke to simply want more time for themselves.

- "I wish that I could spend more time outside. Between the weather and work, I get frustrated." (Emilie, 49 years old, Rochester, NY)

- "I wish I had more time and money to spend going back to school again." (James, 28 years old, Sand Diego, CA)

- "I definitely wish I had more time to read just for the fun of it. With all the texts [books] that I am required to read for college, there's no time to actually read something that I enjoy." (Nick, 24 years old, Rochester, NY)

Every month, we will be having these types of conversations with consumers. If you have a topic you want us to explore or a question to ask - let us know!