They say you never get a second chance to make a first impression. Don’t believe them. It’s too easy for brands to over-invest in first impressions and neglect what’s next.
Their NPD or product launches, onboarding experiences and even their packaging are, after all, their introductions to the world: “this is who I am, and this is what I stand for”.
All this noisy signalling is built to attract our attention. So, it’s no surprise when those activities loom large in our thoughts and our marketing budgets. But brand owners should understand that a first impression is not a foregone conclusion. It can evolve over time, for better or worse.
First things first
Focusing on first impressions does make some sense, according to neuroscientists. Behavioural science tells us that we are ‘cognitive misers’. Our brains are wired to make fast, efficient, and ‘good enough’ judgments1. These might not be 100% accurate, but evolution has shaped us to make reasonable decisions with limited cognitive resources, information and time. Our quickfire thinking helps us navigate a dangerous world – imagine if we couldn’t decide quickly if that shape at the corner of our eye was a cucumber or a snake? But it also risks distorting our evaluations of people, brands, and experiences.
So making a big deal out of a launch or a lobby can set the tone of our relationship with a brand.
The research confirms our instincts: the primacy effect suggests that the initial information we receive about a subject can carry more weight than information that follows2. A similar pattern appears in memory research, where people tend to recall the beginning of a list better than the middle.
And our early judgements can become deeply entrenched. Once we’ve formed them in our heads, they can become self-reinforcing as we actively seek out or interpret new information in ways that support our original beliefs. That’s confirmation bias3.
For instance, if your first experience of flying Ryanair is that it’s cheap and cheerless, you’re likely to remember news articles of their poor customer service and ignore any stories that show the opposite. And it works both ways. If we have a strong first impression, we look for information that supports it. Our initial response (good or bad) is the lens we apply to other experiences with that brand.
Impressions are malleable
But although first impressions matter, they’re not all that matters. The peak-end rule suggests that we judge an experience by both its most emotionally intense part (the ‘peak’ – which can be positive or negative), and by how it ends4.
Emotions shape memories. People may forget transactional details, but they remember how a company made them feel. If your holiday starts with a delayed flight but you get to achieve your life’s dream of going freediving in the Bahamas, that initial delay won’t feature highly when you share the story of your trip. So, are brands neglecting the rest of the customer journey in their obsession with the first impression?
Every interaction matters
Octopus Energy founder Greg Jackson certainly thinks so. His motivation to build the current market leader came from the way existing energy brands prioritised offers and discounts for new over existing customers.
Or think about staying at a premium hotel. When we check in, the staff can’t do enough for us! But when it’s time to leave, the experience can be a lot different – impersonal check-out with putting the card in a box and not speaking to a person or wordlessly being handed an invoice. And yet we’re still standing in the same gorgeous foyer and entering and leaving through the same beautiful ornate doors, but with a completely different emotional takeaway.
Brands love to talk about wowing customers. But no single “wow” moment is enough to build loyalty. In fact, putting too much focus on one impressive initial interaction – while neglecting everything else – can be a huge mistake.
A great first impression can win attention, but it’s consistency that earns brand love.
Memories, rewritten
Again, the reason lies in the science. Because we don’t just form impressions once – our brains re-form them time after time. In other words, we don’t hold perfect snapshots of any single moment, but memories of memories that get reconstructed and replaced in the brain. And this means brands and companies get more than one bite of the cherry.
Our early impressions can shift as we reinterpret existing ones, or experience new interactions that overwrite them. So if a product or person wins us over later, we may end up reframing the initial impression.
Remember KFC’s 2018 ‘FCK’ campaign? If you do, it’s probably with positivity. It’s a much-lauded case study of crisis comms. A way of turning a brand catastrophe into a brand triumph, using humility and humour. Yet at the heart of it was an operational disaster. A business totally failing to do the one thing we ask of it – a chicken shop that ran out of chicken! The first impression of KFC in 2018 wasn’t fondness, it was fury, where angry customers lined up on social media and at the drive-thru to berate their local outlet. If you remember FCK with fondness now, your memory may have been rewritten.
The same principle applies beyond advertising and into the world of customer experience. A lukewarm first encounter (like a slow website or a late order) isn’t necessarily the end. If a brand keeps showing up positively – through helpful service, engaging content, and seamless future interaction – scepticism can transform into trust and, eventually, loyalty.
We don’t judge a brand based on a single moment. We judge it based on every experience. The glowing welcome email means nothing if the customer service team ignores complaints. A beautifully packaged product won’t make up for a clunky website. A friendly in-store interaction won’t matter if the follow-up service is a nightmare.
Think of it like a relationship – would you trust someone who charms you on the first date but is unreliable afterward? Customers feel the same way about brands. They remember how they’re treated over time, not just how they were greeted at the door.
Hello and goodbye
So, beware. Yes, first impressions matter, but not that much. They’re the starting point, shaped by fast, intuitive brain processing. But in the fullness of time, with new information and experiences, they can be revised or even forgotten completely.
Smart brands don’t aim to impress just once – they build a continuous experience that deepens trust, fosters excitement, and creates lifelong advocates. Your customers don’t judge brands based on one moment – every interaction matters.
Each touchpoint is an opportunity to reinforce, reshape, and deepen a customer’s connection.
Chances are, your brand didn’t have me – or lose me – at hello.
If your second, third and every other impression lands well, you have every chance to build love for your brand. It’s never just about how you start, it’s about how you show up, every time, time after time.
