This is my brother Chris.

I really like this kid.

He is 16 years old, attends a private school as a junior, and is breezing through his pre-calculus and AP biology classes.

I know this assignment works best with someone vastly different than myself, and Chris and I are siblings. However, I have always said if I could get inside anyone’s brain for just a little while it would be his, hands down. He is such a stark contrast from most 16 year olds (including myself at his age) in the way he thinks – he is very critical and analytical in his decision-making, and thinks about things in a unique way.

So I plan to share some insight into how he operates with this empathy map.

Empathy Map ~

1.      What does he Think and Feel?

What counts the most for Chris is people. He is very relational. On a positive note, he is very preoccupied with how to serve people and make their lives easier- he loves to encourage. However, he is often distracted and worried about people who don’t seem to like him.

 

Some of his other preoccupations, on a more material level, include movies and media – he spends more time that your average person reading movie reviews, articles about TV shows, and

blogs. He loves to analyze the value in things, and think critically about them to form his own opinions. Because of this fascination, he aspires to work in journalism or another entertainment field, by first attending a prestigious university. Even though he gets well above-average grades, he sometimes worries about the pressures to be set apart academically.

 

2.      See?

His primary environment (that most influences him) is his school. It is a small private school, and he is very perceptive of things that happen there, especially when it pertains to relationships. He is a very empathetic person, especially for a 16 year old boy. He has a group of really close friends, and he perceives this group as unique and setting themselves apart from whatever is “trendy.” In that way, the market offers things that can set you apart from the crowd, while still helping you to fit in (set apart from what he thinks is common in the world around, but still fitting in with his personal group of friends).

3.      Say and Do?

I know from personal experience (and from what Chris tells me, it’s still true) that outward physical appearance is not as defining as it is in other high school environments. However, Chris is at a stage in life where he is “redefining” who he is. He used to be introverted, which has changed drastically as he has matured in recent years.

So take a look at his new hairstyle!

He’s such a character.

I think new hair shows that he wants to be noticed and stand out from the crowd. He even posted this online... kids these days.

Even though that’s the case, he is not prideful in the way he talks to others- he is very kind, down-to-earth, and quick to engage in conversation. For the most part, that is. Some people who he decides would damage his “cool guy” image, he somewhat-subconsciously avoids (although never being outwardly mean or demeaning). This is a product of what I would consider a superficial, high school environment.

4.      Hear?

Chris hears a lot of approval from his friends- he would definitely consider himself pretty popular (I will speak more to the approval he desires and receives in the following two sections). He hears his friends being constantly interested in gaining unique experiences, like concerts and parties. But they are also simultaneously interested in being successful in school, because they are personally driven to get into prestigious universities. Since his friends are his major influencers in his life right now, he thinks a lot about fun experiences, but that does not overshadow the importance of school.

 

His teachers (both formal teachers and informal mentors) are of course speaking a lot to him about being motivated and hard-working so he can get into the college of his choice. One of his most respected teachers influenced him deeply by also speaking to the importance of forming and maintaining deep relationships.

A brief deviation from the empathy map:

I wanted to take a second to look at these top four questions, and think about what they mean for my brother as a consumer:

First of all, he is exposed to a lot of media, but direct attempts to influence him to buy things don’t usually work. He does, however, often look for new products to help him stay connected to media, movies, etc. And he really likes memorabilia from old movie sets.

Secondly, he wants to set himself apart from the “crowd,” and any product that can help him do that is a good one in his book. Things like unique clothes, hair gel, obscure brands…

Now back to the final two sections:

5.      Pain Points?

Chris does definitely fear failure. Some of this is because of his personal drive to succeed, but more often he is afraid to fail because of what other people will think. He deeply values approval from his loved ones.

He is most likely to be frustrated when someone doesn’t value something, especially when he put a lot of effort into it. Naturally, this happens mostly in his classes, when his teachers do not give him the grade he was expecting for something he worked hard on. This is something that really discourages him.

6.      Hope to Gain?

He strives to be independent and self-motivated, but he knows that something he desires deeply is to be approved of by people, as I mentioned in the previous section. Those people include his friends, teachers, and even complete strangers. Fortunately, he is surrounded by intellectual people for the most part and so is influenced to be that as well. And of course his family and authority figures give him approval for his dedication, hard work, and learning.

That approval is a big measure of success for him. However, he strives to change that, and be able to measure his success independent of what other’s think of him.

As far as his obstacles to success, they are tied closely to his fears from the previous section: he doubts his own ability at times, which keeps him from putting himself out there and taking risks. For example, he was discouraged last year when he did not get accepted into an honors program. Although this year he has improved his ability in many ways, he was almost too fearful of rejection to apply again. He battles between his desire to be set apart and successful, with his fear of failure.

These last two sections take some more critical thinking about how they affect Chris as a consumer. I am going to focus on approval:

Some products position themselves in the mind of their target consumers as offering status and acceptance. I believe these kinds of appeals would have an effect on my brother. I can think of a lot of expensive clothing brands or luxury cars that use these appeals.

Compounding on that, I think a wider range of emotions that are connected to feeling accepted would be valuable to him – loyalty, for example.

Maybe something like this Subaru ad:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Wa_6g9WNgU

I really like this one, and I think based on his personality, Chris would really like it too.

So that’s my expertise on who Chris is! He is a pretty intriguing character, researchers would definitely have to dig deeper and ask more questions to get further insight.

Here is my summary Empathy Map for Chris: