In the shower

I was in the shower and suddenly I started thinking about coffee. Odd! Doubly so because I don't even drink coffee!

Want to know why not? Read this little aside*.

I never drank a lot of coffee. I used to have a cup a day, until one of my friends was training to be a homoeopath and needed subjects to practice on. It turns out that coffee antidotes the remedy (as does mint, you'd think it would be easy to avoid but you'd be surprised how often you are offered it when you're not supposed to have any). So, I didn't drink any coffee for three months, and when I went back to it, I found it made my heart race and I couldn't sleep. Now I only have it when I actually want to keep awake, such as when driving on a long motorway journey. It's a shame, because I actually do like the taste of it. But hey ho.

So, getting back to the shower. I got to wondering, what had created the link in my mind?

I walk past Costa Coffee in the High Street almost every day and there is an A-board outside with a curve of colour swatches (bear with me) showing that they sell both hot and cold drinks. Aha! The show cubicle has a similar display where you turn the arrow to choose the water temperature you want. And when I walk past Costa I think about my shower.

Just goes to show the power of visual connections in your mind. What NLP calls 'anchors'. Like the reaction you get when you see a speed camera or a spider. And how these anchors can be used within the power of advertising.

* Another little aside. I don't drink tea either, but that's another story.