The experiments prove that it's hard to overturn negative opinions

Marketing has a touching belief that dislike is merely insufficient exposure. The customer hates us? Buy more impressions. Say the claim louder. Find a testimonial from somebody with suspiciously white teeth. Eventually, presumably, resentment will collapse under the media weight and apply for a loyalty card.

The opposite can happen. “We have transformed support” reaches somebody remembering three unanswered tickets and becomes evidence that adjectives still outrank repairs. “Now premium” lands in the hand holding the cheap hinge. Experience heckles the advert. Calling hostile reactions an “education gap” only adds a better euphemism. If thousands misunderstand the same promise, perhaps the promise deserves questioning before the population receives remedial lessons. Dislike can also become social: mocking the brand joins the group’s repertoire, so another glossy claim supplies fresh material for the joke.

Reputations change when predictions fail. The expensive hotel with famously rude service wins people back one unexpectedly warm arrival at a time. The unreliable train route earns trust through months of boring punctuality. Repair the experience and offer a low-risk encounter where the old judgement can fail privately. Nobody should have to issue a public apology for disliking you before trying again. Meanwhile, persuasion will work harder among the undecided and lightly attached, whose view has yet to become a hobby.

Some reputations need a brilliant campaign. Others need six quiet months of being less shit. That rarely wins an advertising award. It may win customers back, which used to count for something.