Nostalgia Marketing- Power of the Past

How many times have you watched your favorite movie or series or even a show you might not even like that much but you just play it just because it is a little familiar to you? 

Humans in general have a tendency to stick to their past and that is why we get filled with happiness and nostalgia whenever we see something relating to our childhood or a happy memory in the past.  

Nostalgia is our comfort food. We romanticize our past; we crave what our brain deems as simpler times. Whenever we are given a way into the past, we immediately cling to it. They might be in the form of entertainment, old wrapping or packaging or old food recipes or old retro-advertisements. Companies have now figured this out and have started capitalizing on this inherent human behavior to make profit. 

People are willing to spend a little more if it speaks to their past and gives them a warm sense of belonging and security. Using nostalgia marketing, companies try to create a connection which is on a personal level, they are essentially doing this to build trust and loyalty amongst their customers.  

What is Nostalgia Marketing and how does it work?  

In a world where everything has become so mundane and robotic, turning back to the shows, programs, games, art and the way we spent time with our loved ones is something we hold very dear to us. Nostalgia marketing taps into this very feeling.  

Nostalgia Marketing basically targets concepts which are familiar to the audience and uses this to inject new ideas of their brands which the audience has already grown to love. People remember stories more than they remember facts. So, telling stories through a nostalgic narrative could mean big things for your brand or company.  

However, to get this right, brands have to do a fair bit of research. Their ads should match the needs and wants of their target audience, moreover the nostalgia being sold should be relevant to both the brand and the customer.  

It is important to make sure that they have put genuine effort into your advertisements, to make it not seem sloppy and look like all they care about is making a quick buck. Money might be their primary concern and everyone knows that, even the audience watching, but it should never be insinuated directly to the audience. The audience should want to spend on their own, because they want to and because it came from within them, not because they were provoked to do so.  

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Why should you create an emotional hook? 

While nostalgia-centric ads have clearly worked, they do not come without risks. Some brands rush into retro-themed strategies without putting them in the modern real-world context and are seen as out of touch or irrelevant. The key to nostalgia marketing is to create an emotional hook using the past while also being able to offer something new.  

Campaigns take work and successful campaigns take twice the amount of work.  

Sometimes even the best laid out plans fail. The tricky part is trying to figure out what works and what does not. Which movie should we choose? Which cultural time period should we show? How do you pinpoint these moments in time and serve the audience? Nostalgic marketing works when brands keep a finger on the pulse of pop culture, plug into their ideas and give the audience what they want but don’t know yet. 

Nostalgia marketing works best with millennials because alongside hectic work schedules, the weight of the world on their shoulders and the pressures of modern society gets a little too much to handle sometimes and sometimes a blast from the past is exactly what you need to feel better and get back into the rat race of life that modern society has now become. In an age of impersonal media, nostalgia is an easy way for companies to hold optimistic feelings that often take you down for walk through memory lane. Forging connections with the 80’s, 90’s humanizes brand messages and creates meaningful relations between your past and present.  

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Applying Nostalgia driven strategies.  

Know your target audience- Target audience analysis is very important because it should appeal to the audience and should invoke a sense of nostalgia from their past. It should be relevant to them. Spending tons of money on something that is not relevant to your audience will cause huge losses.  

Be open to inspiration- don’t get too caught up with trying to come up with quirky and clever ideas. Keep it simple and minimal, don’t try to match or compete with your competitors. It should of your brand values and principle.  

Understand the Different Types of Nostalgia– There’s not just one type of nostalgia marketing. Businesses can use nostalgia based on old characters, historic events, classic recipes and processes, and even simply collective nostalgia based on typical memories of a set demographic. 

Nostalgia marketing is on the rise, they capture the heart and speak to the child in every person. It humanizes the way we see ads while also generating money and revenue for your company.