This was the picture my new friend chose: a watch.
We were intially quite puzzled by this picture. Honestly, the watch looked quite dreary upon first glance. For a while, the both of us were pretty stunned. We had no idea what type of user might use such a watch as it could both tend towards the traditional, old fashioned (chinese: lao tu) type of user, or it could actually be some form of cutting edge technology that we were clearly unclear of.
As we discussed, we came up with a target user profile of this item and this was what we boldly proclaimed to the class (only to find us digging our own grave as we went along, as you'll discover later):
"Imagine a person standing before you. He is average looking with average hair and an average face. He is neatly dressed with hair combed to the sides. This man works in an office - a 9 to 5 desk job. He is hardworking and goes by the book. He doesn't talk much and is more of an introvert.
He does not like to dress in audacious colours - more like white, brown, grey. Nothing bold and bright. Yes, he goes for duller colours.
(So this is when we start to go downhill)
He is around 58 years old and the family man, the sole breadwinner of the family. His wife is the same kind as him - not loud or audacious, but supports her husband silently. He does not like to break out of the mold and is the mediocre kind of guy in life. He doesn't get angry easily but he is firm. You could say he is non-descript. However, he has inner strength and is very resilient. He goes to work on time but he never does OT (over-time) as he always goes back home to his family.
In fact, he is already on the look out for retirement plans.
In his free time, he likes to read newspapers and listen to the radio, or sleep. He brings his family to the kopitiam to eat. No picnics, nothing extravagant. He lives in a three to four room flat, somewhere in either Toa Payoh or Queenstown, where the older HDB flats are.
And, he will die without a ripple. At his funeral, his friends and family will be there. But that's about it."
Well, the whole class is laughing and they seem to appreciate it. I even see Weiwei nodding his head (did he?). Then the voice of truth sounds. Mr Reddy looks in amusement and says, "Actually this watch is a top designer watch..."
And our world crumbled.
So to save myself, we actually did think of that at first but then we were too unsure to carry on down that path so we got carried away by our family man with retirement plans.
Let's try again.
"Jamie, 29, is a Brand Executive in Saatchi & Saatchi. He studied in Singapore Management University (SMU) and obtained a first class honours in Business, minoring in Corporate Communications.
Jamie has been working in Saatchi & Saatchi for the past 3 years, ever since he was headhunted by the company during a business competition organised by SMU.
Upon first impressions, people might think Jamie is laid-back and even aloof. However, he is the total opposite when it comes to his work. Jamie always delivers and does so beyond expectations. He has a lot of inner strength and is very resilient to whatever challenge thrown his way. Jamie is also very confident in all that he engages in - each business deal, each client and every of his colleagues. He is able to work them to a comfortable level before discussing whatever needs to be settled. Despite being dubbed "easy-going" at time with his friends, Jamie is firm when it comes to his work.
After work and in his free time, Jamie likes to head down to pubs and chill with his friends or colleagues. He especially likes the pubs that have live jazz bands. His music preference also stretch to lounge and a bit of bossanova. He is beginning to listen to Oliva Ong more these days. Other than music, Jamie also rears bettas, Japanese fighting fish. He buys them from a local breeder and takes very good care of them. His bettas are all produced by selective breeding. Before he goes to work and when he comes home each day, he loves to look at the brilliant colours of the fishes' fins. He often goes online to check out more about both his music and fighting fish interests.
Despite his busy schedule, Jamie tries to go home at least 2 - 3 times a week in order that he'll be able to eat dinner with his parents. His only sibling, a brother, is 10 years younger than him and is currently serving his National Service. Therefore his parents are often alone in their Bukit Timah bungalow along Sixth Avenue. He tries to spend more time with them. Jamie's parents love to have him back for dinner but the same question always pops up during each dinner, "When are you going to get married? You're not getting any younger? Girlfriend also don't have?" Jamie does not have a girlfriend currently though he did date one or two girls back in his Junior College and University days. But he was never serious about any. He maintains that he just has not found THE ONE yet.
Jamie has a group of closely bonded friends with whom he hangs out with regularly. The five of them are all relatively affluent. They all also have relatively well-paying jobs now, except for Joe, who resigned from his most recent job as an engineer at a local software company after some complications arose that might implicate his career. Jamie finds no qualms in helping Joe through this rough patch, supporting him both financially and morally. Other than Joe, Jamie and his other friends like to dabble with stocks from time to time. Jamie, however, might appear as a "wet blanket" at times as he does not like to take too much of a risk and always plays safe.
During the weekends, Jamie loves to head outdoors. On some weekends, he goes to East Coast Park to cable-ski with his pals. He managed to persuade them to go wakeboarding at Punggol once before but they prefered to stick to cable-skiing as it was slightly safer. His love for the outdoors stemmed from his younger days when he used to play soccer for his secondary school and junior college. Jamie and his close friends also try to have a short weekend getaway to Bintan for relaxation - to sip cocktails and just soak in the sun. On other weekends when his friends are too busy to go out with him, he doesn't mind working a sweat on his treadmill in his room at home. Then on weekends when he is too busy with work, he just works. But he never forgets to do at least 50 push-ups before going to bed each night."
Does it work better now? (:
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