Playing with Word Associations
Myers-Briggs assessments are big in the business world. They help people learn their personality type and how they work with others. The idea has its roots in Carl Jung’s theory of psychological types.
Yet this methodology has other uses in sales and marketing. When you think about your offering as an artist or entrepreneur, you can think about how your presentation of the idea speaks to the different types of brains out there.
A presentation can be your website, a course or video, or a pitch to someone in the industry.
An exercise that you can do is to play around with word associations.
Let’s say I am creating a website or app that plays music, I can write down a bunch of words that come to mind with why people seek out music or anything related to what’s going on in my mind in general.
impulsive
bored
calm
soundtrack
motivated
app
angst
lean back
shuffle mode
If I want to go another step I can divide words into two columns so I can figure out what are the polar extremes of my offering.
I reference the two columns because that is what is happening on Myers-Briggs in each of the four categories.
If we look at Judgers and Perceivers in the bottom right quadrant, there are two polarities here.
A judger might not like a website or app offering that strays from design patterns that they are familiar with. They could be the type of person who likes to line up playlists before they set out for a run or a work session.
A perceiver on the other hand might be open to something more experimental. They would likely be more ok with music playing on shuffle and not having control over what they’re listening to.
The bottom line with this technique is to write down some words associated with the problem you’re looking to solve.
If you are willing to go the next step, try to sort them into two columns so you have an idea of what the extremes are in this idea you’re working through.
You might want to offer something that only appeals to a certain personality type (likely your own), or you can try to smooth out the edges by considering the other personality types.