Nostalgia Marketing
The difficult and essential job of marketers is to create a need or want that resonates with consumers. And in today’s increasingly dynamic marketplace, marketers are interminably adapting to consumer behaviors. Recently, cereal companies have found themselves fighting against the rising tide of health-conscious millennials and gluten-free eating by providing new, healthier offerings and repacking their products to be more environmentally friendly. But in order to capture the Baby Boomer and Gen-X consumers, several major companies such as Kellogg are attempting to appeal to their nostalgia using TV ads such as this one.
Is the strategy working for Kelloggs? Not according to the sales numbers. As Food Navigator’s Sarah Hill notes, “Baby Boomers are trying to eat their way to a younger complexion with fresh, natural foods which offer “ageless health and beauty.” They’re steering clear of sugary, highly processed foods in favor of organic, cholesterol-lowering options, and research indicates they’ll only continue to do so.
This begs the question, does appealing to consumer nostalgia even work as a marketing strategy? The answer is yes–IF it’s executed properly.
In this case, healthy eating and living prevails, because they’re not merely a trend but a movement. But in many cases, nostalgia marketing is enormously effective, particularly when employed via social media.
Companies are targeting millenials through nostalgia marketing initiatives like Urban Outfitter’s reintroduction of the Lisa Frank brand, Pepsi’s Throwback drink, Taco Bell’s ads about the halcyon days of teenagehood, and Nabisco’s celebration of Oreo’s 100th anniversary. Twitter and Facebook have both offered users a flash to the past – Twitter through its #FirstTweets, and Facebook through its “A Look Back” video offering for user profiles. And on every major social media site, it’s easy to scroll back through old posts and messages. Ever seen #Throwback Thursday or #TBT on Twitter or Instagram?
Scientific research has also helped marketers to determine effective applications. A compilation of studies conducted by professors around the world offers insight into methods of nostalgia induction, specifically reporting music as particularly effective. John Tierney of The New York Times reported, “In an experiment in the Netherlands, Ad J. J. M. Vingerhoets of Tilburg University and colleagues found that listening to songs made people feel not only nostalgic but also warmer physically.” Additional studies determined that “nostalgia levels tend to be high among young adults, then dip in middle age and rise again during old age.” Based on these findings, marketers would do well to use music as a means of evoking nostalgia in consumers, particularly the young adult and elderly segments.
Given the failed attempts at nostalgia marketing in the cereal industry, marketers need to carefully evaluate a potential market and industry to determine if it’s a ripe target for a nostalgia strategy prior to initiation of such a strategy. Based on the research conducted about the effectiveness and applications of nostalgia strategies, marketers can use nostalgia as a powerful, successful marketing strategy, especially when funneled to consumers through social media channels. As Hootsuite blogger Evan LePage posits, “Research indicates that nostalgia is universal, experienced across all cultures, and actually increases self-esteem and ‘social connectedness…considering many people already turn to social media for increased connectedness, to counteract boredom and to generally feel happier, why wouldn’t marketers make an effort to channel nostalgia?”