Comments on: Harnessing Nostalgia

By: Jeff

Jeff — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 20:09:46 +0000

Nedra,
I am a graduate student in San Diego California and I was researching Hasbro toy company in regards to it’s recent success in 2008, even with the recession. I was researching how Hasbro had success with it’s Transformers brand after the release of the recent live-action film. I realize that a lot of companies have strategically used nostalgia campaigns to bring new cultural relevance to old trademarks and product lines. Look at Detroit and the re-release of the Thunderbird, mustang, charger, challenger, and camero. But also at Japan’s re-release of the civic SI, Datsun “Z” and the Nissan “skyline”.
I am calling this “nostalgia marketing” in my report, although I realize that this is different than using a nostalgic song in a commercial. This is a strategic move to find new markets for outdated products. Can anyone find and research on this phenomenon?

By: Nancy

Nancy — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 02:13:26 +0000

Nedra,
What a great post! Nostaglia is such a powerful thing. It’s always great to be transported back to a place we thought was somehow lost — whether the memory was happy or not!
But in marketing, effectively using that nostaglia is a tricky thing. You can evoke warm feelings, but if your product doesn’t come through, it doesn’t do much good. The payoff, when the right cord is hit, is so rewarding that marketers will undoubtedly continue to keep playing the nostaglia card.

By: Ann Handley

Ann Handley — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 01:31:39 +0000

Great post, Nedra, and well-written. What I think is interesting is the degree to which the icons of our youth are increasingly ported over to the younger generation, thereby allowing my teenage son to have a certain “ownership” of music and other cultural references that I thought MY generation owned. He watches “That 70s Show” or “I Love the Seventies” and comes away with a wholly more personal understanding of the decade. He listens to The Who (and saw them in concert last fall), something my older brother would have killed to do back in the day….
So it’s interesting the way nostalgia, once it’s aired in the modern day light, can become current.

By: Nedra Weinreich

Nedra Weinreich — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 20:27:16 +0000

Thanks, all, for your comments.
Allen, the term indexicality makes me think of the point in the book “Made to Stick” that you want your idea to attach itself to as many different connection points in people’s brains as possible, like Velcro. And you do that by connecting to the things people already know and care about.
Lewis, I think you’re right that emotions are the key to marketing’s power.
On the other hand, you’re right, B.L., that there has to be content in there as well. There may be some products or audiences for which an emotional appeal is entirely the wrong approach.
Tammy, I think you hit the nail on the head about why there is that sadness mixed in even when you may be remembering a very happy time of your life. You can’t go home again and all that stuff.

By: Tammy Strnatka

Tammy Strnatka — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 18:37:54 +0000

This is a great blog. I was just feeling the twinge of nostalgia last night and how you can time-travel to the past. I realized however that I will never be that person again, thus a twinge of heartache for lost youth.
I think the most powerful way to incorporate nostalgia without distracting your audience from what you are actually selling is to reinvent a nostalgic notion into a new message geared toward the present and the product at hand.
VW has been very clever in modernizing the graphics and hipness of the 60’s. It’s fresh and clean design with a hint of 60’s psychedelia. (if that’s a word, even if it’s not, I like it.)
I also love indexacality.

By: B.L. Ochman

B.L. Ochman — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 15:57:32 +0000

Sometimes, when I hear a song from my wild youth, and realize I still know every word, I wonder: what else is in the recesses of my mind waiting for a cue? Do I speak Italian? Know all of Rumi? Or just the lyrics to every Beatles and Stones and Kinks song?
I have mixed feelings about emotional appeals in advertising. Just tell me the features, and feel free to make me laugh, but I’m not going to cry about soup.

By: Lewis Green

Lewis Green — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 14:53:34 +0000

Great post Nedra. We marketers should focus on emotions, especially with Baby Boomers who are a huge audience with lots of spendable dollars. Emotional responses (flashbacks, what you call nostalgia) are the key triggers.

By: Allen Weiss

Allen Weiss — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 13:11:29 +0000

Hi Nedra,
Interesting topic. My wife (and academic researcher) has done studies on this topic and while she finds that nostalgia does help in consumers association with an ad and positive attitudes towards a brand, this effect can be weakened when consumers are highly involved in the product. The reason is that the nostalgia tends to distract them from the core messages of the ad. Thus, marketers need to better understand how these effects are working for their brands.
By the way, academics call nostalgia “indexicality”, which I think is a neat term since what is happening is that the song, smell, etc represents an “index” in your mind to some prior event.