FOCUS FEATURE


NOSTALGIA IN MARKETING While there is a large baby-boomer demographic


receptive to nostalgia, so too, it would appear, are the millennials. Nostalgia in business doesn’t have to be marketeers taking consumers down a well-trodden path looking back at the ‘American Dream’ with images of Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio evoking a golden age or images and scenes from the Swinging Sixties here in the UK. While broader stereotypical nostalgia-focused campaigns continue to be powerful - used to such brilliant effect by the likes of Coca Cola – nostalgia can relate to a time that is altogether more recent. The second wave of ‘Pokémania’ hit the world in 2016


with the launch of the augmented reality game Pokémon Go - 20 years or so since Pokémon burst on to the scene - and by the summer of 2016 the app had been downloaded over 100 million times, with over £200m generated in revenue. What’s also interesting is the age demographic of those


downloading the game – Survey Monkey Intelligence has suggested that over 25% of the game’s players are between the ages of 30 and 50 years old. This type of statistic has led to Quentin Hardy, writing for


The New York Times, to suggest that Pokémon Go is the millennials’ first widespread foray into nostalgia, stating that: “What is new about Pokémon Go is both momentous and banal: It is proof that millennials, for years the young generation, are getting old. Pokémon Go is their first mass- consumption nostalgia product”. So it’s clear that using nostalgia to engage with


consumers is powerful insomuch as it can span practically every demographic – young and old. What also makes nostalgia such an interesting


proposition when it comes to business is its variety and ability to take many guises. Businesses that have the ability and capacity to relaunch


old products can, if done correctly, reap the rewards from a receptive consumer base. It’s done regularly with a wide variety of products from cars – think of the Mini Cooper and VW Campervan - classic retro clothes and shoes, computer games – think the Nintendo SNES and Super Mario - and even flavours of crisps. Even a modern product wrapped up in classic retro branding can be enough to trigger widespread consumer appeal and kick-start a huge conversation on social media - much to the benefit of the business/organisation concerned. Recently, and despite the advancement in mobile technology, Nokia released the iconic 3310 – a call and text only phone originally released 17 years ago – to great fanfare. For businesses not in a position to relaunch a previously-


successful product, just identifying with nostalgic trends and jumping on the bandwagon can be an effective way of promoting a brand and selling products. While it has been established that technology has taken


nostalgia to a new level, nostalgic trends have still enjoyed a long-established history of being popular with the masses. “Everywhere you look, it seems that some era or other is


being resuscitated and relived - it's the 80s now, it could be the 70s next month, and who knows, we might be looking back to the 90s before long” argued Brendan O’Neill in a piece for the BBC back in 2004. He was right about the return to the 90s – for example, just three years later the Spice Girls concluded a reunion world tour, grossing almost £100m. Even the smallest of businesses can utilise the power of


nostalgia. In a piece by Annie Pilon for the website Small Business Trends, she suggests that: “Small businesses with a little history or even a business that’s in an industry with some history can tap into the nostalgia marketing trend. How about displaying photos from when your business first opened. Or bring back a discontinued product or an older logo that customers remember. The key, as shown by the big brands’ hits and flops, is creating a unique experience that captures the emotional attachment and avoids drumming up bad memories”. Further to this, using nostalgia-based marketing tactics


doesn’t have to be expensive or strategically comprehensive – take a look at the Twitter trends any given Thursday and you’ll see a multitude of businesses – from one-person bands to multinationals – using the #TBT


42 business network November 2017


(Throwback Thursday) hashtag to engage with their customers’ sense of nostalgia. Of course, the business of nostalgia isn’t without its


limits or potential pitfalls. It’s worth acknowledging that nostalgia isn’t for


everyone and – while it may present opportunities for B2Cs - it may not necessarily be effective or appropriate for B2Bs. Also, while nostalgia can’t be pigeonholed, there may be certain sectors - such as those dealing with cutting- edge technology - that don’t lend themselves as readily to nostalgia as a selling point or as a vehicle to enhance a brand. While there are many success stories of businesses


utilising nostalgia for gain, it’s also a strategy littered with examples of nostalgia-based campaigns and product re- launches that have ultimately failed to catch the imagination. Businesses can’t simply rely on a sentimental view of something from times gone by and assume it will be met by a positive response from the consumer. Sometimes, there’s a reason a product is consigned to the past and sometimes it should remain there. It’s a point made by George Roberts in a piece for The


Drum- a global media platform – where he states that: “A name can be powerful, but you can only trade on your history for so long. Take the failed relaunch of Myspace. A social titan back in the day, it was swept away by the likes of Facebook and Twitter as it took its eye off its millennial audience. In 2013 the network relaunched with a reported $20m ad spend behind it – but its model was simply no longer relevant to its old users, and it certainly wasn’t appealing to new audiences either. And while the mere whisper of Woolworths may evoke fond memories in our hearts, it doesn’t mean that it’s a brand that consumers still need – as evidenced by the return, and eventual fall of woolworths.co.uk. It’s important that you do your research, and identify that the brand, campaign or product still has a true reason to exist”. Nostalgia can also lead to the wearing of rose-tinted


glasses. The majority of nostalgic recollections focus on positive memories which can lead to selective memories. There is many a well-known quote on nostalgia that reflects this – “Nostalgia is a file that removes the rough edges from the good old days” and “Nostalgia paints a smile on the stony face of the past” to name but two. In effect, we can paint a picture of halcyon days that were, actually, further removed from the reality at certain levels. It remains clear that nostalgia done well can be an


extremely powerful way for businesses of all shapes and sizes to engage with their customers in a way that truly resonates with them, creating trust and loyalty in the process. What is also clear is that, as seen through the apparent willingness of even the millennials to reminisce and cast their thoughts backwards as well as forwards, nostalgia is no longer the exclusive pastime of older generations. It was the English novelist Angela Carter who once


remarked: “Nostalgia, the vice of the aged”. While this may be true, it’s now a vice that is being shared by all ages and that undoubtedly presents great opportunities for the business community to tap into the hearts and minds of their customers.


Nostalgia is hitting the right notes with millennials


‘Businesses can’t simply rely on a sentimental view of something from times gone by and assume it will be met by a positive response from the consumer’


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