Consumer Confidence and the common wo/man

Every month the Conference Board publishes it's "Consumer Confidence Index."
This is a big time, heavyweight research program that tells business and government how confident "consumers" are toward certain economic issues. Like us with our Feel Wheel Index, we simplify it down to a number that helps you in party conversation.

From my point of view, there are a couple notable things to ponder. Who are these consumers and are they different from citizens and regular people? Are they all created equal, or do American Express Gold Card members matter more since they spend more?

At Feel Wheel we are interested in your mood and how you feel today. No baggage, no concern if you want to purchase something. So the question I have involves the relationship of your general mood and your desire to be a good customer. Maybe we should add the brief question: do you feel better before, during, or after a purchase? Should we include the "reason why question" to include your buying desires?

You should browse the Conference Board trustees list here ( or see below) and realize what big time captains of industry are involved. The point being that the consumer confidence is a major issue and one that drives economic prosperity.

Looking at this list, a couple things came to mind. First, these people are so high up, they definitely need to be told what people (aka, consumers) are thinking . They are not the people you bump into at the local Wal-mart or gas station.

Most of these Trustees are senior in age, male, American, and from a quantitative background (as opposed to a creative, art, education or interpersonal one). This is not a bad thing, just one of those country-club-entry-criteria types of things worthy of note.

Though it does beg the question: can't the Trustees offer a seat to a "regular consumer." Imagine being selected as "the common wo/man" to sit at the big table offering up pearls of wisdom from the trenches of average daily life. I'd like to nominate myself.


Conference Board Trustees as of July 9, 2007 or click here:

Samuel A. DiPiazza, Jr.Chief Executive OfficerPricewaterhouseCoopers LLP

Vice-Chairmen
Josef Ackermann,Chairman of the Management Board and the Group Executive CommitteeDeutsche Bank AG
Douglas R. Conant,President and CEO,Campbell Soup Company
Harry M. Jansen Kraemer, Jr.Executive Partner, Madison Dearborn
Nandan M. Nilekani, Chief Executive Officer, President and Managing DirectorInfosys Technologies Ltd.
Anne M. Tatlock, Chairman and CEO, Fiduciary Trust Company International

Trustees
Herbert M. Allison, Jr.Chairman, President and CEOTIAA-CREF
Alain J.P. Belda, Chairman and CEO, Alcoa Inc.
Stephanie A. Burns, President and CEO, Dow Corning Corporation
Paul W. Chellgren, Retired Chairman of the Board and CEO, Ashland Inc.
Patrick Cescau, Group Chief Executive, Unilever PLC
Ian E. L. Davis, Worldwide Managing Director, McKinsey & Company
Alan M. Dachs, President and CEO, Fremont Group, L.L.C.
Anne Golden, President and CEO, The Conference Board of Canada
Jeffrey E. Garten, Juan Trippe Professor of International Trade, Finance and Business, Yale School of Management
Klaus Kleinfeld, President and CEO, Siemens A.G.
Francisco González Rodríguez, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, BBVA
Padraig McManus, Chief Executive Officer, Electricity Supply Board
Lim Chee Onn, Executive Chairman, Keppel Corporation Limited
Hutham S. OlayanPresident and CEOOlayan America Corporation
Linda Bardo Nicholls, Retired, Chairman, Australia Post
Edward B. Rust, Jr.Chairman and CEO, State Farm Insurance Companies
Michael E. Roach, President and Chief Executive Officer, CGI Group
Samuel C. Scott IIIChairman, President and CEO, Corn Products International, Inc.
Mayo Schmidt, President and Chief Executive Officer, Saskatchewan Wheat Pool
G. J. (Hans) WijersChairman, Board of Management, Akzo Nobel NV
Anton van Rossum, Member of the Board of Directors, Crédit Suisse Group
Marjorie Yang, Chairman, Esquel Group of Companies
Ronald A. Williams, President and CEO, Aetna Inc.
Jaime A. Zobel de Ayala, President and Co-Vice Chairman, Ayala Corporation

iPhone lust

Next year, at least rev3, I will buy an iPhone. I will be happy then.

Understand, I've bought and owned and used at least 20 Apple products over 25+ years (yes, Apple2c), but what I have learned is "patience."

"What I love, I must wait."

I will feel good with the new iPhone.

Is Paris Hilton Happy?

In my household, husband and wife are divided. Obviously Ms. Hilton is happy to be out of jail and out and about as she has always been.

She should be happy to have made more than $1 million a month in income while away - without actually working and networking. Plus, she might actually be a poster-child for obeying the law. . . should a particular candidate win the oval office.

However, the pain of isolation, the change of relationships, the lasting effect of being a convict can be difficult. Did she just "buck-up", learn to cope, or will she melt?

It would have been great had she filled out a custom Feel Wheel site before, during, and after jail. (FYI - www.feelwheel.com is totally non-identifiable, but we offer private label sites anyone can use).

Would you let me track your situation?

Got this feeling. . .

Independence Day is around the corner. It's good to have some time off with the family and friends.

The Feel Wheel idea of the day to ponder: will this time off help improve the mood of people or sink it? I imagine a lot will be dependent upon the weather. Being out and about during the day, and fireworks at night should really help make some smiles.

In the mood

Over at Evolution of the Species, Raquel and Bill did a story about Fasching, a holiday in Germany where they start wearing false noses and fancy hats and begin kissing total strangers on the street amid hails of confetti and sweets and shouts of Alaaf and Helau. Guess that can put you in a good mood!

On a totally different note, the folks at Zabaware are making you happy with their AI program called HAL. As they say: "Zabaware is a company that aims at giving your computer the power of thought. Our chatterbot software will give your computer a personality using artificial intelligence technology, speech recognition technology, and real-time animation. Our software can speak and understand the English language."

I bumped into it when googling "moods and feelings." For some intense and deep commentary try this link.

Live@1:05

So today, Friday May 25, at 1:05 eastern savings time, we flipped the switch from our development servers in Romania to our Yahoo! servers, wherever they are.

We voted that we are feeling GREAT - the best ever. And we expect to bounce up and down over the coming weeks as we build traffic and take the hits of compliments, complaints, and criticism.

We hope you become a regular participannt. We would really appreciate your help in sharing the feelings by inviting your friends, family, work associates and others to come and share the feeling.

New!

We're new. Our website is about to go live at www.feelwheel.com

We want to know how you are feeling, so please help us out with a 60 second visit and answer a few questions.