VALS Survey

Once I completed the VALS survey online, it categorized me primarily as an INNOVATOR and secondly as an EXPERIENCER.

I completely agree with the label if Innovator; however, I like to think of it as being less-innovative as being an innovator on the consumer-product curve. That curve describes innovators as being completely product-driven and jumping right on a product as soon as it comes out in order to take advantage of its new-fangled technologies.

For myself, being a young, 21-year-old collge student, I think of the label of Innovator as describing the way we 'use' products rather than necessarily 'buy' them. We are the generation that adopts product willingly into our everyday lives: we try them out, tell our friends, start and end trends, and make sure the product is useful in all aspects of our lives. Take, for instance, cell phones. Or should I say, all-inclusive media outlets that we sometimes use to actually talk to our family and friends but moreso use them for music, movies, texting, and emailing.

I am an Innovator because I follow and start trends that are usually passed to other people in the community who may not be as willing to take on new products.

As far as being an Experiencer is concerned, I think that label is also quite fitting. I often buy things without thinking about it first - I buy for pleasure and 'the experience' more than the longterm benfits. There's no doubt that I enjoy buying the latest fashion and gadgets to make my life seem more coherent with current day interests and fads. For this reason, and the fact that I am sometimes an impulse-buyer, I would definitely agree with the fact that I am secondly categorized as an Experiencer.

Posessions and Identity

A possession that is closely tied to my sense of identity would be my...well...come to think of it, I don't really have any one item or group of items that realy exemplifies me as a person. In a way, I'm proud of that, even though it doesn't cooperate with this assignment.

The author of the article had many, many years to develop strong connections to her belongings in her home. She had three children, two dogs and two cats, all which helped to solidify and build those relationships and emotions in conjunction with her home.

I am 21-years-old, and have yet to really develop that much of an emotional connection to any items in my life. Sure, I've had special belongings that I've had throughout the years: there were the cowboy boots from my 4th birthday that I wore every day during the fall...in shorts, or the first TV and stereo system that I bought with my own money when I was in 8th grade. Each of these things were 'special' in some way, but they didn't necessarily shape ME in regards to my personality or identity.

Instead, they shaped certain phases of my life. And in that way, they may have had an overall impact on the person I am today. Do I still wish I could fit into those cowboy boots? Maybe. do I still own those cowboy boots? Yes, they're hanging on my wall in my bedroom. Do I still own that TV and stereo system? Absolutely. I think that says something about my personality: I tend to hold on to things that I am proud of and have deep meaning in my life.

Joining In/Staying Out

The group to which I am most commonly attributed membership is the homosexual community. As many people know, there are numerous symbols that are tagged onto this group of people, such as the rainbow and the purple triangle. These symbols allow others to group people, similar to our notion of pattern recognition, into specific classes that may not necessarily have positive consequences.

For example, whenever there is a rainbow in the sky, my friends often call me out, saying that the rainbow represents me in some way. How a reflected spectrum of light reprepresents me is mind-boggling. Sure, the rainbow has been a 'gay' item for quite a while, but that doesn't mean that I necessarily want to be associated with it or called out every time it rains.

Sure, I'm proud of who I am and my individulity within the society I live in, but sometimes I feel as though people hold on to old thoughts and beliefs in order to secularize others from the main population.

What if someone likes rainbows and has a rainbow sticker on their car? Are the gay? Maybe so, but what if they aren't. To people driving behind them, I'm guessing the majority would assume somewhere in their thoughts that the driver of the car is gay. This is a great example of pattern recognition that also shows how strongly this symbol of homosexuality transcends all other meanings. A rainbow is a rainbow, but not when it comes to sexuality (?). Whatever the case, similar to how
Walker describes our buying patterns as being based on "past experiences," the experiences we associate with rainbows and the homosexual community will always rule in a situation of judgment.

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A group that I am not a member of, and, for the most part, don't understand the meanings of their symbols, are fraternities. I respect Greek life for the companionship that it stands for; however, each time I see a grouping of Greek letters somewhere representing those of a fraternity, I usually don't wonder more than "What do those even mean?" It's also difficult to grasp because there are so many different combinations of letters that I never know what frat is associated with which symbols. And apparently multiple brotherhoods share the same symbols even though they are spread across the country?

Obviously, if I were involved in that 'brand' of college student, I would have a better understanding of the symbols and what they stood for, as do most consumers. However, since I am outside of that 'market,' the Greek branding letters have no true meaning to me.

The Pretty Good Problem

I bought a plain black v-neck from Old Navy and decided it was too plain for my liking after a few days. I wanted to make it different; make it stand out.

So, I took some bleach and splattered the heck out of it until it was an edgy, partially-stylish T-shirt. So, why is this 'remarkable?'

Well, to ME it's not really remarkable, but I did get plenty of comments from people about the shirt. But, according to Seth Godin, that doesn't make something truly remarkable; it has to have purpose. So, about a year later, at my internship, one of my co-workers decided she wanted a similar shirt. I told her how I made it and decided it would be a good team-building/bonding exercise.

The next week, the entire staff at the radio station was outside in the parking lot, splotting T-shirts with bleach. I like to think I brought my v-neck, and my friends' shirts, from being invisible products in the market to being product people comment on and notice and want to make themselves.

Remarkable.

Hmm...consuming silliness.

Silly bands. What? Why? What is ‘silly’ about them and what makes them any different from a normal rubber band? I mean, I can make shapes out of a rubber band: an amoeba, an ink blot, a circle. All of these things are exceptionally entertaining to me…but I guess the children of America need giraffes, sports cars, and princess wands.

Either way, when I first heard about silly bands after returning from Italy (where they have yet to penetrate the market), I was completely thrown off as to why someone would want to wear/buy these bands.

I guess that’s the nature of America’s product market: buy stuff that you won’t ever need in a year.

Consuming the Apple - iPod Nano

I remember the day when I first saw an iPod. I was on the bus during a field trip to the Boston Science Museum in middle school.

To put it nicely, it was a brick. In addition to its odd configuration, I was so used to buying CDs (usually 'Now #' CDs since, at the time, I couldn't even decide on a genre that I liked) that trying to conceptualize the purpose of having an iPod was beyond me. How could something so small hold so many songs? What was up with the plain white design and dinky white 'ear phones?' And wait, you can SEE what song is playing and SCROLL through a 'playlist'?? Insanity.

Obviously, I was still attached to my CD player, my my cool, sleek head phones and my mix-CDs that summed my life up into a small disc, so it was going to be a while before I even considered buying one of those crazy modern blocks.

But, as my music preferences were developing, Apple was working hard to make the iPod something every teenager needed (incluing myself). They made it smaller, more colorful, more convenient and overall, more cool. Bejeweled, inscribed iPods were a common sight when walking through the halls of my middle and high schools. So eventually the time came when I had to have one.

Can you believe it wasn't until my SENIOR YEAR of HIGH SCHOOL?! I was definitely a part of the late majority when it came to the iPod Nano. Anyway, it was the school trip to Florida in May 2007 that I HAD to have an iPod for -- forget dumb, bulky CD players with big, ugly head phones.

So, come my birthday in September, I had to purchase the iPod Nano: silver, with two, sleek rubber cases. I felt like I was ontop of the world; I was now a member of the Apple consumers.

Needless to say, I barely use my iPod now. I use it at the gym, or on my iHome during parties, but other than that I never use it. Sad but true.