Profile: John C. (Resident)

John C.
General Information

• 35, male. Married to Meghan C. Three kids, Regan, 6, Ian, 4, Gavin, 1
• Education: Bachelor’s in Fine Arts, Metals
• Occupation: Custom jewelry design
• Interests: Listening to music, political economics, E-Cigarettes

Decisions in Purchasing

• Recent purchase: Ceiling lights
• Motivations: Used to have LED fixture which provided insufficient lighting and a strange white color. Considered under-the-counter lighting but trusted contractor’s recommendation to install recessed lighting on ceiling. Motivated by price, convenience, and functionality.
• Recent purchase: LG refrigerator
• Motivations: LG items are aesthetically pleasing, so John supports that brand.
• Gets decision-making information from Internet, stores, and recommendations from friends.
• Owns an iPhone and uses new E-Cigarette technology

Routines

• Many routines center around kids: wake kids up, get ready for school, serve breakfast, drive to school. John considers daily events to be chaotic, claims that Meghan subscribes more to routine.
• John enforces structure on himself to be more productive. He works in his studio everyday from 9:00 to 6:00. He travels to Philadelphia every Tuesday on business, and also meets with his Men’s Fraternity in the evening. Every Wednesday he works on accounting with QuickBooks at 9:30, meets in a Pioneer Club at 6:00, and networks professionally every other Wednesday at 7:30. Thursdays and Fridays are usually days when he finishes up projects.
• Meghan spends a lot of time with the kids and described how she tried to instill her daughter, Reagan, with such routines a unloading her book bag when she gets home and working on homework every night. These routines benefit Meghan by preventing stressful situations from occurring. They also benefit Reagan by providing structure and fostering responsible behavior.
• Meghan’s parents maintained very structured routines; her father was a bodybuilder.

Motivations and Awareness

• John guessed that his family used 400 gallons of water this month, while Meghan guessed 15,000 gallons. Their bill did not appear to reveal the amount consumed. Meghan estimated that their bill probably costs around $85 a month.
• They use the dishwasher everyday. Meghan mentioned more than once that she has been doing a lot of laundry lately. They were not aware of how much water was consumed in these activities. They estimated they used 1 cup-1 gallon brushing their teeth in the morning, and 15-30 gallons taking a shower. Meghan also casually guessed that a bath consumed around 10 gallons of water. Overall, they were unable to accurately estimate the amount of water consumed during everyday activities.
• They do recycle because it is simple (no sorting required), they receive financial benefits through RecycleBank, and the recycling pick up day is on Tuesday while the trash pick up day is on Thursday, so they will be “punished” if they do not recycle by having a larger amount of trash to bring out on Thursday.
• Their energy and gas company, Connective, provided bills with usage history bar graphs that they pay attention to. The monetary cost of these resources motivates them to cut down on using A/C in the summer months. Meghan will also hang clothes to dry in the summer to save energy. John installed a motion sensor light switch in the bathroom because the kids kept leaving the light on. Meghan commented the at one time, she programmed the thermostat to adjust the temperature over time to save energy, but since then it has been reprogrammed by workers from Connective and she has not gotten around to programming it again.
• As we started to talk about conserving energy, Meghan turned off the main kitchen lights in the background. (Either she was reminded to conserve or she wants to appear to care about energy conservation)
• John and Meghan trust seals of approval or brands that they have experience with or have become familiar to them. They also trust the recommendations of friends. Examples include: ZAGAT rated restaurants, 3M, and Horizon, a plumbing, heating, and air conditioning service (because of branded trucks that can be seen traveling in the area often).
• John believes that raising the price of water is the best way to change America’s water consumption habits.