NeuroFact 2: Hardwiring

This NeuroFact will explain the age-old and very annoying conundrum - why, for certain familiar brands, people still talk about advertising campaigns from ten years ago. Or why there was such an outcry recently when KitKat changed its tagline 'Have a break, have a KitKat', first coined in 1957. Or why we still remember 'a Mars a day' even though it was succeeded by a new campaign at least three years ago.

Neuroscience has shown us that it takes a long time to create connections. But with repetition and over time, cells that fire together repeatedly become literally physically soldered together. Neuroscientists say 'cells that fire together are wired together'. This process takes at least two years and is known as hardwiring. Little wonder then, that so many modern day campaigns don't 'stick' when budgets are routinely slashed part-way through the marketing year, and the average brand manager moves jobs every 18 months.

Think of it as a fresh field of that you walk through every day. It is only after several months that a pathway will be visible. But once the path is created, it takes even longer to disappear. The brain is similar - connections can take years to form, but even longer to forget.

Franzen (8 p71), tells us that 'Brand associations that are already consolidated in long-term memory cannot be broken off. The only way this can change is by developing new associations and not activating old ones any more. The chances of success depend on the intensity of the old associations and the power with which the new ones are developed.'

Hardwiring has clear implications for marketing. Brand owners have to make a choice if they are lucky enough to be working on a hardwired brand - to build on the existing wiring, or to disrupt it and over-ride it with something else.

The Halifax is a brand building on existing hardwiring - its 'Howard' campaign takes the associations that a building society is approachable and friendly, transfering these to 'Halifax the bank'.

McDonald's, on the other hand, is trying to override its existing wiring. It takes considerable money, commitment and time to change or fight hardwiring, and the brand's recent efforts to promote 'healthy' salads and breakfasts have received massive marketing support. Can it ever change its 'fast food' associations? Perhaps for the next generation of teens who are growing up with this version of McDonald's, but for the rest of us..? The key in research is to understand whether or not a brand has hard-wired associations, what they are, and then how to work with them rather than fight them. Often it is far more effective to contemporise hardwiring, rather than to try and radically change it.
 

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