Hearing or seeing something straight from childhood days, feelings of wanting, feeling of comfort. and feeling of joy coming through the body to the heart. This is nostalgia, a sense of happiness associated with memories – memories from the heart that remind one of childhood.
These days, companies hone in on nostalgia and use memories as a way of marketing their products. This manipulation earns money, sure, but at what price?
A good definition of nostalgia would be the feeling of joy when in any physical contact with a product of one’s childhood. Ultimately, the concept of nostalgia brings people happiness and resurrects memories of their childhood. Nostalgia creates a sort of connection with a particular product, show, or game from the past that pushes a person to want to purchase a more modern/recent item that reminds them of that core memory and provides comfort.
Before the examples come in, it is best to know why and how nostalgic marketing and products are a huge hit amongst customers. Most recently, Walmart ran a campaign that featured three of the lead actors from “Mean Girls”, a hugely successful 2004 film. The advertisements tapped into the sense of nostalgia Millennials feel for their youth.
Because of how successful this method has been throughout the years, nostalgic marketing is increasing in popularity. The year 2023 was a huge year for this kind of advertisement. Just one year saw the release of the “Super Mario Bros. Movie”, “Barbie”, “TMNT Mutant Mayhem”, “Spider-man: Across the Spider-Verse”, and “Five Nights at Freddy’s”, movies that tap into Millennials’ youth, became box office hits, making millions more than the actual movies themselves took to create.
“Emotional connection: Nostalgia marketing taps into consumers’ emotions by evoking positive memories and feelings associated with the past. This emotional bond can result in a heightened level of brand loyalty and engagement. Comfort and familiarity: Nostalgic elements can make consumers feel comfortable and at ease,” a writer for Pulp Strategy, a full-service marketing firm, said.
But is nostalgic marketing (or the return of nostalgic products) a good thing? The answer is yes: nostalgic marketing not only brings joy to the customer’s heart, but it also grants companies that may be on the way out a means of gaining revenue.
Many may not know, but nostalgia is a helpful and reliable way of dealing with problems in mental health:
- Reduced stress and anxiety
- Protection against loneliness
- Greater sense of life meaning and purpose
- Improved self confidence
- Healthier happier aging
the problem in society, More than 1 in 5 adults have illness and every 1 in 5 youth is currently diagnosed with an illness or has been through it. The pandemic from COVID-19 created a huge increase in depression that is still affecting many others to this day, believe it or not, nostalgia can cure many mental health issues which is much needed by America’s standards. Nostalgia brings people the joy they need, playing or watching a show from the best times of life touches the heart and can help them see a better time.
“Nostalgia marketing also works because it feels uniquely personal but can be used on many people at the same time. This makes it a social emotion, where people can bond over rosy memories of the past together, catalyzed by a nostalgic advertisement,” Ben Lutkevich, Technical Features Writer for the TechTarget website, said.
Nostalgia marketing should be used more often when done well, love and creativity in the products of a beloved franchise can be perfect for grabbing customers’ attention, leading to positive benefits for both sides. For the last couple of years, nostalgic marketing has been very beneficial for companies, many products such as past films have been dropping lately becoming the shine of social media. Universal Studios is actually adding a whole section for Nintendo, sorta like Nintendo World in Japan they made a huge park full of Nintendo fans with many animatronics of the characters, mascots, OST playings, and restaurants of childhood faves game characters. This is just another way that companies use to make everyone feel like a kid again even at their age is a delightful feeling that every person needs to feel at least once in their life.
Nostalgic marketing has brought a lot to the shelves, providing happiness for those who long for those early days of youth having no care in the world. Supporting this way of marketing will only be more beneficial for us so go ahead and enjoy those precious moments.
