Why Nostalgia Marketing Works

When times are tough, there's usually a significant increase in nostalgia marketing. Have you ever noticed? As we know, trends happen, but they involve looking at the past a lot of times. The 1960s have had their rerun, as did other cool and not-so-cool decades.

Nostalgia is a big thing because humans find comfort in it. It's the "known." As a result, marketers and trendsetters often look to the past to reanimate something for the present. Let's take music, for instance. Adam Lambert is about the closest that anyone, including Queen, could come to the magic that was Freddie Mercury.

Why Does Nostalgia Marketing Work for Consumers?

According to Harvard Business Review , nostalgia sells. People will spend more to purchase products or services that remind them of something special from their past lives. And as technology (not to mention the pandemic and economy) brings so much change and uncertainty, it's only natural for people to want to have things in their lives that are familiar and comforting. Also, nostalgia elicits trust, positivity, and confidence in people.?

The best nostalgia marketing efforts combine the past with their products or services as they are today. In the next section, you'll have a chance to see what multinational brands created to get consumers to remember their products, even with the terror film The Shining.?

Examples of Companies Getting it Right with the Sentimental

Nostalgia marketing could be sentimental, but it allows brands to make an emotional connection. For example, Pepsi reintroduced limited-edition soda cans from the 1940s to the 1980s for its "Celebrating Every Generation" campaign. It was brilliant marketing, and it allowed Pepsi to give consumers something they fondly remembered from the past—even their childhoods—while commemorating its history.

A few other examples of nostalgia marketing done right include Cheetos and Mountain Dew. Cheetos brought back the memorable song "Can't Touch This" by the singer MC Hammer for its commercial. Mountain Dew Zero Sugar resurrected in its advertising Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duvall's infamous and famous characters from The Shining. This time, Bryan Cranston and Tracee Ellis Ross played a take-off on the film characters Jack and Wendy Torrance.

Tips for Incorporating Nostalgia Marketing into Your Campaigns

For years, our shoe drive fundraising social enterprise used licensed photos of Chuck Taylor sneakers for our marketing efforts. There was a reason for that strategic marketing decision. Those sneakers have been around since the early 1920s, meaning generations remember wearing them. In the 1970s and 1980s, they were very popular with kids, and if you look at young people today, it seems almost everyone's got a pair of those sneakers. In other words, the sneakers are iconic.?

If you want to get creative and use nostalgia marketing for your brand, the following are a few tips to ensure you have a hit and not a miss.

• Know your audience. As you would imagine, you've got to start by knowing your audience. You've got to have a cross-section of people who understand the references, emotions, and connections you're trying to make when promoting your nostalgia marketing campaign.?So do a little investigating about the generations and what worked, or didn't, in the past. However, remember that, if done right, you could "sell" your idea to generations who weren't born yet to connect with the nostalgia. The show Friends is an excellent example of it. Generation Z wasn't run, but many watched it last year when they were home. Usually, it starts with watching the show with a parent.
• Nostalgia works when the present invites the past. In other words, you have to know the trends right now, in the present day, to have a chance to pull off a good nostalgia marketing campaign. The worst thing you want to do is create what you think is a funny and clever campaign , only to fall flat because it's tone-deaf to current sensibilities and ideas.?Take the time to check out what's happening and getting presented by the big multinationals. Does it seem that a particular decade has made a comeback, for instance? Also, see what social media influencers and artists are doing. All of these areas could serve as sources of inspiration. You want to make the idea from the past into the culture today.
• Remember that you’re trying to evoke memories and emotions. As you develop your nostalgia marketing campaign , you want to bring familiar feelings back to your audience. For instance, many people have favorable memories of their childhood, so look to music and fun ideas to integrate with your brand (remember to make sure everything is licensed!) to bring back great memories for your supporters.

As a marketer, remember that people choose to purchase a product or service or donate to a nonprofit because you've made a positive emotional impression. And, as we've seen, they'll spend money on it, which is why record players and vinyl sales took off several years ago.

Marketing is all about building a relationship with your supporters and audience. Nostalgia marketing, especially as we charge deep into the digital age, is an idea that could make sense for your brand, assuming you’re thoughtful about it and have excellent execution.?

? 2023 Wayne Elsey . All Rights Reserved.