Brand Evaluation
Evaluation starts the moment you wake up.
When you get out of bed, your family evaluates you. Bad hair day? Wrong colour combination? Didn’t brush your teeth?
When you get out of the house, your neighbours evaluate you. Same outfit again…no money to buy new clothes? Or wait is that a new LV bag?
When you board the MRT or bus, strangers evaluate you. Why is this woman doing her makeup in front of everyone? Why is there hair sticking out of that man’s nostrils? Is that a fake “I’m not a plastic bag” carrier?
When you finally get to the office, your colleagues evaluate you. Late again?
On your first date, the prospective boy or girl evaluates you. Can I see myself going out with him/her again? Will he make me pay for the meal?
In an increasingly complex world, knowing how to portray ourselves in the eyes of others is an important skill to acquire. As the saying goes, ‘first impression counts’.
A first impression lasts long even after the first encounter. Research studies have shown that it takes only about 10 to 30 seconds to create a first impression.
According to Dr Albert Mehrabian, a noted psychologist from the University of California Los Angeles, image is expressed through your confidence visually, vocally and verbally. The visual element itself takes up 55% of the total image score. Bet you didn’t know this…
Even if we cannot remember his or her name, we can still recall an image in our mind. In my honours class, who could forget the Queen of the Desert? Or the long haired slut? Or the singing sausage? Or the cooking sausage? Or the praying sausage?
Images are powerful as they help us connect with the unconscious deep. A good, long lasting impression usually stems from a positive review of that person. When we achieve this, half the battle is won. We are our own walking advertisement showcasing our own brand.
Do you look like a frumpy old lady who looks like she belongs to the market place? This incidentally was the image my friend got when he saw the Korean table tennis player play Li Jiawei. “She looks like she belongs to the market place.” I could not help but chuckle away. That Korean obasan, is incidentally, the table tennis singles bronze medallist in the Athens 2004 Olympics Games.
Or are you the lao ah pek who eats with his leg rested up on the chair like a rickshaw puller?
You may laugh coz it’s funny. But it ain’t funny if you are the target of the laughs…
So what’s your brand?
