Save me from Myself- Government takeover of Student Loans?

I recently published a blog about the impending Student Loan bubble if nothing is fixed. Well, there is a proposed fix out there that I have learned about since that post. The proposal is that student loan payments undergo a major overhaul and start coming out of people's paychecks, much like taxes do.

I know, I know, calm down, keep reading.

There are a lot of really great benefits built into this. The amount that you pay would be capped at 15% of your income AFTER cost of living is taken out. This would make it so that if you have a high paying job you pay off your loan more rapidly than if you have a lower paying job, but either way you are paying, and the amount isn't arbitrary, it is based on what you make. This would also make it so that if you lose your job you quit paying and when you get a new one you start again.

Also, they would put a cap on the amount of interest you can be charged. The cap would be that you can only be charged up to 50% of what your loan's valuation is at the time of graduation. So, if you owe $20,000 you cannot be charged more than $10,000 in interest. This is also, however, where a danger point lies. If they pass this they (the government) are expected to  drastically reduce the number of subsidized loans that they issue. This would make it so that you would be accruing interest the whole time you are in school, adding to the valuation of your loan at the time a graduation. The other danger here is that there is no regulation written in as to what kind of interest rates they can charge while you are in school. This is probably just an oversight and not something that they actually plan on nailing students with, but some of you will disagree, and that's ok.

I think this is a great plan. I was talking with a fellow student about this and we both agreed on this point. The biggest benefit that we saw to the graduate is that it comes out before you ever get your paycheck, so you won't really miss it. It is much harder to write a check than to just never have that money in the first place. My boyfriend has health insurance benefits through his job and he makes several payments into that each month. They come out automatically and so he never misses that money. Now, if he had to write a check to pay into those same benefits I guarantee he would almost never make that payment.

Why is this even a problem? Student loan debt has topped $1 trillion, finally beating out credit card debt. While all other consumer debt industries saw payment improvement this past year the student loan category took a major turn in the opposite direction. "Last year, 5 million borrowers were in default - meaning they had failed to make payments for at least 270 days -- on $67 billion in loans, more than twice the amount in 2003." (Collections and Credit Risk)

It is hard to pay for school. Getting loans is the only way that some people can get through school. Knowing that there was a better repayment program in place may help make it so that lenders are willing to grant funds to those people who currently struggle with finding funding for school.

Thoughts?

Wanted: Handsome Male, Responsible, Clean. Loves: Kids, Kittens, and Long Walks on the Beach in the Moonlight

Ever thought about the consumer behavior around dating sites and personal ads? Having never used one myself I am drawing off of my admittedly limited knowledge based on people (who will remain anonymous) that I know who have used them as well as stories I have heard. Oh, and I have read through the personal ads to find the funny ones, so there is that "experience" also. (and we all know that sometimes it can be QUITE the experience, there are some weird ones out there!)

How would you go about marketing yourself to an unknown future mate? Are you honest? Do you fudge the facts? Current picture or the one from 10 pounds ago? What all do you say? Do you list all of your features? Do you include all of your quirks? What level of mystery do you keep? What do you say you are looking for? What if you say something wrong and potential Mr./Mrs. Right never sees your profile? Do you know check things that aren't necessarily true but broaden your scope? Which site do you choose?

I find the whole online dating phenomena quite interesting. I have heard tremendous success stories where people were actually able to find that person in life who adds to their happiness and truly loves them. I have also heard horror stories of the fakes/frauds/loonies that people get hooked up with. (and then what does that say about you? hehe)

Then you start looking through profiles. Is he/she being honest? How do I know?? They want to meet!! Should I? Do I message them? Hope they message me?

What are your thoughts on the world of online dating?

Am I Really Turning into My Mother/Father?

Here's an interesting thought, How much influence do parental buying habits have on their children?

I have heard studies from the PEW research group that talk about how our beliefs are almost completely formed by the time we graduate high school. Whatever beliefs aren't completely solidified by the time of graduation are formed during college (or the next 3-5 years for people who don't go to college). After that time it is very difficult to change someone's beliefs.

This means that the majority of all of our beliefs are formed for life while we are still living with our parents. Does this same principle apply at all to our purchasing habits and brand preferences? While some consumption is based out of our various belief's in life others are separate from that. Are those areas influenced by our parents as well?

The only way for me to dive into this is to look at my own personal experience. What brands or buying habits do my parents have?

• My Mom is southern so she introduced me to certain southern dishes that I still love.
• My Dad is a potato farmer so eating potatoes is almost like a religion to me, it is one food I could never do without.
• My Parents both love Basic 4 cereal and Honey Bunches of Oats, those are my favorite cereals and I always tend to purchase those above all others.
• My Dad is a Chevy/Dodge person and NOT a Ford person, I hold to the same beliefs. I have had two cars. One was a Chevy. My current is a Dodge. I don't think I could ever buy a Ford.
• My parents always listen to oldies on the radio. While I do listen to other music that I personally like and prefer (even some that my parents do not like) oldies will always have a soft spot in my heart and a place in my musical library.
• My Mom and I have very similar tastes in fashion and whenever she falls in love with a particular brand I tend to follow along with her on most of them, there are a few I have not joined her in loving.

While this is just a list made off of the top of my head I can see how my parents lifestyles and brand choices have been passed on to me. I would make the hypothesis that parents do influence their children's consumption habits long into their adult lives if not throughout them. While there are certain things that we will change on I think that those brands that our parents love make a big impact on our long term lives.

What are your thoughts? 

Why do I love you so?

What is it about a brand that can draw people to it? Susan Fournier is a researcher who did a study on how sometimes our relationships with a brand almost start to resemble our relationships with the people in our lives. What drives this?

Have you ever identified so strongly with a brand that you started to tell everyone about it. You became fiercely loyal to it, and would do anything for it? Think about it. What brands are you in love with? Have you ever broken up with a brand? How do you feel about it now? Does it feel like that awkward ex?

I have a few brands that I am in love with. My latest affair is with a coffee shop here in Bozeman, from which I am currently writing this post. This shop, Zocalo, is incredible. I love their coffee, the people who work here, the owner, the atmosphere, and what it stands for. My love for this coffee shop is filling a void in my life that was left by another coffee house, my ex. I had another shop in town that I loved. I loved the people and the coffee. Then it got a new owner. After being wronged by this owner I broke up with that shop. I had always told everyone I knew to go there and suddenly told everyone I knew about the break up and that they shouldn't go there either. Then I met Zocalo. It was love at first sight. They won me over so quickly and I am fiercely committed to this relationship. I encourage all of you to go meet my love!! (They are located on Main between Black and Bozeman, across from US Bank.)

What drove this love? I also think about how some people fall in love with their shoe brand (Chucks, Toms, Jimmy Choo), their purse brand (Louis Vuitton, need I list more), or any number of other brands. Their consumers sing their praises. Swear by them. Wouldn't dream of cheating on them. This is the dream of every company and marketer. To create a brand with such an identifiable personality that people fall in love with it.

Borrowing Beyond Our Limits

Remember the housing bubble? Remember how it popped and sent our economy into a tailspin? Well we are creating another one. This bubble is in the Student Loan world. I work for a company that is in the financial industry and a part of my job is reading industry blogs. This last week I have seen an increase in the number of blogs on student loans. This caught my attention.

While I have been very fortunate to receive financial aid and then worked hard to make up the balance of my school bills so that I will graduate debt free, the vast majority of my fellow students are graduating with HUGE student loans. I hear them talking about how loans of $30,000 to $50,000 aren't that bad and I cringe. In my world that is a lot of money! I can't imagine having that burden on my shoulders.

The delinquency rate on student loans is up 80% from 2003. The total amount of student debt is up from $241 billion in 2003 to $956 billion this year. (Unibul) With the total amount and the delinquency rate rising so rapidly economists are estimating that we may soon have another financial crisis on our hands.

How do we avoid this? We all need to take responsibility for our finances and not borrow beyond our limits. Whether it is signing for a home loan or a student loan that you can't afford to pay back. We also need to look into the loans that we sign up for and make sure that the loan underwriting is solid and do our research on the different types of loans out there. This way we can know which loans to avoid.

It is time for us as consumers to be financially responsible. Even if it isn't a large loan that you are looking at it may be a credit card. Whatever it is know your limits. Don't spend beyond your means. Debt shouldn't be taken on unless you have a solid plan for repaying it. Obviously there are times when the unexpected happens and catches us off guard, but we need to be responsible players in the debt industry. Do your research. Know what you are signing up for and know if you can actually repay or not. It is easy to blame others for our situation, but we all need to take responsibility and do our part to be responsible citizens.

Impression Management

I read an interesting article recently that talked about how airlines manage people's impressions. Pilots and Flight Attendants wear uniforms that resemble military or police uniforms. Why? Imagine getting onto an airplane and the pilot is wearing shorts and a cut off tank top. Would you feel confident in his/her ability to fly the plane? Many people would not. The military like uniform commands a certain level of trust and therefor boosts our confidence in the pilot and his/her abilities.

This is a tactic that is used in many different arenas. Ever noticed all of the fresh flowers that are located right as you walk into a grocery store? These stores don't sell a lot of these products so why give them such prime real estate in the store? Studies have shown that having fresh flowers in the entrance of the grocery store gives you the subconscious impression that the items in the store are good and fresh, because the flowers are fresh.

In our class we read a book called Nudge that talked about this subject and how people put things in front of us to prompt certain behavior out of us. Most of the time this is used for good, but it is somewhat manipulative. The shelves in a grocery store that are at eye level are the most expensive to have your product featured on because the mere fact that they are at eye level encourages people to favor them.

This book talked about a scenario where a superintendent for a school district conducted an experiment in her schools during lunch times. She had the staff arrange the food in different ways to see if she could influence the options that the students made. She found that whatever was at eye level and the easiest to grab is what students tended to take the most of, whether it was french fries, carrot sticks, or dessert. If she made it harder to obtain the dessert fewer students chose it.

These "nudges" are all around us every day impacting the choices that we make. Whether it is a preselected option on a form or the placement of products on a display or in a store. We are constantly being nudged towards the desired scenarios of those who design those nudges, whether on purpose or by accident.

I want you, I need you

A while back in one of our classes we talked about needs vs wants and how those play into our daily lives. How do we determine what is a need and what is a want? Some of these things are obvious. We NEED to eat. We NEED shelter. We NEED a way to stay warm when it is cold outside. But even within those categories there are wants that come into play.

You NEED to eat, but what do you eat? There are so many options for what you can consume to fulfill that need. Do you go for the cheapest? Is nutritional value the key?

You NEED shelter. Do you live in the cheapest place you could find? Is having a lot of space important? Did you go for an option that would impress your friends?

Do you say you NEED your car? You could walk, ride a bike, take public transportation, catch a ride with someone else. What car did you NEED to buy? Was it cheap? Expensive? Good fuel mileage? Luxury?

Where do we draw the line between a NEED and a WANT? When does something that we once WANTED in life become something that we NEED and can't live without? When I was in high school I really WANTED a cell phone. It became all that I could think about. My parents' refused to buy me one, so I got one on my own. After getting this phone it became a NEED very quickly. I got to a point where I couldn't imagine life without my phone and knew I would never go without one again. Then I started to WANT a smart phone. My dumb phone just wasn't as cool as those smart ones, so I made the jump and upgraded. As soon as I got one I realized that it was a NEED in my life. How had I ever gotten along without one? All of my communications in my pocket at all times. I could be completely connected yo my world at all times. I NEEDED to have this smart phone and could never imagine having a dumb phone again.

It is interesting to look at the things in our lives and see how our possessions can become a part of who we are and how we define our lives. When did your WANTS become your NEEDS?

Black Friday: Consumers at their best

Black Friday is a recent "holiday" in my life. I never understood this day, or why people loved it. I have a wonderful friend who introduced me to it three years ago and now it is one of my favorite days of the year. Some people may read that and think that I am horrible for feeling this way, but hey, I love a good deal!

This is a day that my friends and I do together mainly to have fun. We all celebrate Thanksgiving with our families and then come together to look over the ads and make game plans. We organize our lists and plan who is going to grab items that we all have on our lists. We look up the maps for the stores that publish them and work out a way to try to get everything that we are all hoping for. We love the rush of waiting in line and then finally getting into the store and rushing to find the good deals. This is the day of the year that I try to accomplish as much of my Christmas shopping as possible as well as picking up a few deals for myself. While my friends and I do it for fun, there are others who bring out their best on Black Friday.

Over the last three years I have seen people say horrible things to each other, play tug-of-war over items, make alliances to shut out other shoppers from being able to get an item that there are too few of. I have seen people get hurt in the scramble. I have seen people get angry and throw fits over not getting the item that they want. It is so interesting to observe first hand the effect that simple sales can have on people.

I went to school in Dallas, TX for two years and the school that I went to made a deal with WalMart where they would bring in the products that people returned or that they couldn't sell for things like broken pieces or torn packaging. It was a great place to pick up some free good like toilet paper, cleaning supplies, make-up, dishes, etc. They came in with a semi load once a month. Students would line up hours in advance, in some cases skipping classes just to be in this line. They would push each other and just load arm loads full of stuff into garbage bags trying to get as many of the FREE items as possible. Students that were normally very kind to each other suddenly turned against each other.

What is is about crazy deals and free items that make us so crazy? Things that we would normally never purchase are suddenly worth fighting over just because of a good price or no price.

Hostile Brand Take Over

Brand Image is hugely important in marketing. How your target market views your brand drives purchasing behavior as well as things like word of mouth. Consumers can help your brand by taking your desired image and making it better or sharing it with others. On the flip side of that they can take it and turn it into something completely different.

A few years ago I fell in love with a short film that relates to this subject. It is seriously one of the funniest things I have ever seen. In this film the main character developed a product that people take and dramatically change from it's original intent. It goes from a love drug to a weapon for biological warfare. I highly recommend watching this short as a great example of this concept and how things can run away from your initial intentions.

Product Placement

In the video, "The Persuaders" that we watched in class they touched on product placement in films and television. This can be a highly effective marketing tool when used correctly, but sometimes it just becomes painfully obvious.

I am the kind of person (a filmmaker myself) who looks for things like product placements in the shows and television that I watch. Labels and logos stick out to me like sore thumbs. This may come from policing shots from films and videos I have worked on to try to ensure that these things don't appear as we don't have the rights to use them. In either case I try to notice them, and usually do. Some product placements seamlessly make their way into shots. Sometimes people draw WAY too much attention to them. Talking about them, filming just the product for several seconds, or they do what one of my favorite TV shows, Fringe, did in the conclusion of season 4. Watch below.

(Sorry for the audio quality, this is the only clip of this I could find) Sprint is one of the sponsors for the show and their logo is frequently seen on the characters' phones, but generally in a much more tasteful manner. I was watching this particular episode with some friends and we all knew exactly what was happening and some people even said that they felt "violated" because of the ad. It definitely cheapened the show for all of us and put a negative taste in our mouths for Sprint with one friend even saying that it was just another reason not to like them as a company.

It is important for people who are using product placement to try to insert the logos or products in as seamless of a way as possible. If people can tell that they are being marketed to, they tend to dislike it, as my friends and I did. There are other times in watching shows when someone naturally sits down to talk with a friend and happens to be drinking out of a Pepsi/Coke can, or is getting an important phone call and the camera "looks to see who is calling" and the logo is there, but not in an obvious, let's zoom in on it sort of way. Product placement, in my opinion, is done best when you don't actively notice it, it is just something that subconsciously makes a mark.

Side note, another pet peeve of mine in movies and films is when they are drinking coffee or other beverages in to go type cups and you can tell from the way the actors are handling the cup that the cup is empty. If they held a full cup of coffee the way that they are and used those hand motions they would be covered in super hot coffee. They should at least put water in the cups! OK, rant over, sorry for that.

The Extended Self

In class we have been talking a lot about the extended self. This being that possessions, events, etc can become a part of who you are as an individual. This can be things like your car, house, favorite stuffed animal, when you got your first ___ (fill in the blank). This talk has gone into how when people loose the items that are a part of their extended selves they often report feeling violated, even as though they have been raped. It is intriguing to me how possessions can become so much a part of who we are that we loose a sense of self if we lose those things.

I have several friends who have encountered loss during this year. Things from house fires to car fires to theft. It has been interesting to talk to these people after these events happened and see how they truly do experience a deep sense of loss. One friend who was in one of these situations looked lost and confused and had a hard time making sense of things right after the event occurred.

This has had me thinking about what I would save if my house or Michael's house were burning down. I found that I was drawn first to keepsakes, then to things of great value, and then to other smaller things. For class we had to write a love story about an object that we own that we would run into a burning building to save. This made me think about this even deeper. My list was made as if I was in the house when it started on fire, but what if I arrived and it was on fire already, is there anything that I own that I would risk my life to save from a fire. We weren't allowed to write about people or computers, so the things that would really tempt me were out. I thought of two possessions.

The first is a pen that Brother Ray hand crafted for me when I graduated from High School. This is my only physical reminder of one of the greatest mentors I have ever had. It means so much to me and I treasure this pen.

The second is a painting that a dear friend of mine in Texas painted for me. It is based off of a dream that I had while in Bible school. It is a picture of a girl caught up in the storms of life and then the Lord reaching down his hand to save her and pull her up out of the storms. This dream really stood out to me when I had it and I wanted to have a visual picture of it so that I would always remember that no matter what is going on in my life I can always turn to the Lord and He will be there to help me.

This is an image of it from before it was completely finished.

It was really interesting to hear what other people in class wrote about. It was fun to hear what things people attach themselves to. What about you? What would you save?

Marketing and Self Image

I recently stumbled upon and article that talked about both the pros and the cons of the fitness revolution that is starting to spread in America. It talked about how in many ways it is good and is helping people to finally commit to getting in shape and working out. It has also spurred movements such as the "pro ana" movement. The internet is full of blogs and websites that seek to encourage people to be "healthier" but are all of these sites promoting a truly healthy lifestyle?

For those who do not know what "pro ana" is urban dictionary defines it as "Someone who thinks anorexia is a lifestyle and gets help from a web community to achieve his/her goals. Used to describe the internet anorexia movement." This is not the only movement out there that is promoting unhealthy diets and exercise plans, but it is the one that I am going to talk about here. Pro Ana sites often talk about ways that people can achieve their UGW (Ultimate Goal Weight) by doing things like b/p'ing (binge purging- eating 2,000 calories and then throwing it up), consuming ultra low amounts of calories per day, setting weekly weight loss goals of 5 lbs/per week or more. They frequently match these suggestions with photos of ultra skinny girls and "inspirational" quotes.

Coupled with photos like this one:

In writing this post I perused one pro ana blog to see the kinds of things that the author wrote and it was littered with comments such as "i b/p'ed two times this morning. really upset and disappointed in myself about that.... And it also means i probably havent lost any weight today. so screw the scale, i'm just going to hibernate in my room for today. i wish i had the strength to just not binge. but when i get stressed out, i go blind and i can't help it. i wont eat for the rest of the day today and hopefully tomorrow will be better." "I have another date tomorrow with the dude i've been talking about (a little bit excessively. apologies for that too :x) and i'm SO NERVOUS. my god.... and more than the fact that i'm nervous to actually see him, i would say what's frightening me is that fact that he's going to take me to a dinner and i have no frikkin clue where he's taking me. It could be italian, japanese, chinese, WHATEVER but i have no ideaaaa where!!! and that means i'll have to order something i'm not prepared to order and actually have to eat it to show him that i'm not nutso in the head. I'm going to die inside. literally. my god. i have not sat down for a normal meal in so long i just dont think i'll have to courage to eat something that i know NOTHING ABOUT. i will not know how much calories are in a bowl of spaghetti with whatever sauce they decide to use or some sushi rolls or ... it goes on and on. sigh... my social life down the drain thanks to this ED. whatever. life goes on. thinspo to make me feel better and keep my head up hopefully.... hope everyone else is keeping strong!!" "Finally 118. My ugw!"

In my mind none of this is healthy. In another post she talks about how glad she is that no one has discovered that she is "ana" because she watched a show about girls in recovery and could never eat as much as they are forced to (2,000 calories a day). This is a movement that is picking up steam and drawing a lot of people into it.

Then there are sites such as http://fitfluential.com/ that encourage people to be fit, not skinny. They promote eating a healthy, well balanced diet that gives your body the fuel that it needs without all of the junk. It encourages people to form a work out plan and stick to it. Some of their inspirational photos are below:

 So where does marketing fit into this? We talked in class about if marketers have a responsibility in what they market, particularly as it is related to "the self". I feel that they do. I think that for years companies, particularly in the fashion world have projected an image of what beauty and perfection is and that has been ultra skinny, and often anorexic or bulimic models. I think that marketers need to be conscious of the image that they are projecting and make sure that it is one that is healthy and beneficial to society. I'm not saying that it is marketers fault, but I do think that they have played their part in this through the images that they have presented as being perfection.

An Introduction

This is my last year of college!! I am super excited to be done, find a "real" job, and not be in school any more. While I value the time that I have spent here at MSU I am so ready to jump into the next chapter of my life and see what it has in store for me.

This blog is for one of my classes at MSU in which we are assigned to keep a blog about what we are learning in class while bringing in outside stories and examples. I hope to find some interesting things to share on here!

Well, that's all for now, time to get back to work.