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Just like Google, Microsoft or Coca-Cola, you too have a personal brand.
It’s your responsibility to cultivate positive associations with your brand and not leave that to chance. To learn how to create a top-notch brand, you have to learn from the dominating brands of today.
How to tap into the power of Associative Conditioning like the big brands
Top organizations spend millions of dollars on advertising to cultivate and protect their brands. They know that their brand’s image controls how people react to their products.
For example, you respond differently to Harley Davidson then you would respond to Nike. Each brand comes with different associations and feelings. These feelings and associations have been carefully selected and cultivated.
These associations get cultivated in your mind through continuous advertising. The psychological process is called Associative Conditioning.
Companies like Apple, use imagery in their advertising to elicit a positive emotional response from you, then link those feelings to their brand. When this is done over time, simply seeing or hearing the brand’s name will trigger a change in your emotional state.
You can do this…
Luckily, as a communicator, you have a chance every single today to tap into the power of Associative Conditioning. You can use the same process advertisers use to build a positive brand without having to spend a dime.
It’s really simple.
Here is how the strategy works:
1- Every time you talk about something you don’t want to have associated with yourself, point away from your body.
Here are some examples of topics at work you don’t want to be associated with you:
- Problems, disasters, bad luck, negative emotions, dysfunction, lack of productivity.
Anytime you mention these topics during a meeting, make sure you point away from yourself.
2- Every time you talk about something positive point towards yourself.
Example of things you want associated with you:
- Positive emotions, solutions, resources, progress, productivity, etc..
Anytime you mention these things (even if it’s not related to you) you point to yourself or towards your body with your hands.
If you do this, you will start to build a positive brand image at work in just a few short weeks. People will start to associate positive things to you just like they do to Apple products.
Conclusion:
Your personal brand is your responsibility. You don’t have to invest thousands of dollars to build a positive personal brand, all you have to do is leverage this unique psychological phenomenon called Associative Conditioning.
Remember a positive personal brand has a lot of power: the more you speak in front of groups at your organization, the more you get to position yourself as a thought leader and position your personal brand. And just like top brands command top dollars for their products and services, with a solid personal brand you can command higher raises, better positions, and greater opportunities.
