How to Use Nostalgia Marketing to Drive Sales and Growth (With Examples)? | #powerpointdesigners

We all know what happens with most cold calls, emails, and messages.

Most of us don’t like to respond to it. Why?

Because they are impersonal, and we can’t connect to most of that communication. 

The modern world operates with its pros and cons. Yes, we have technology at our behest like never before, but we also lack the simplicity of older times. With nostalgia marketing, brands are targeting exactly that. They are striving to take us to a time that has a deep emotional connection with us, having lived those moments in different times and spaces.

Research already shows that emotions are an important component in marketing, so much so that content evoking emotion did twice better than content with a rational approach.

Another study published in the Journal of Consumer Research revealed that people are more likely to part with their money or spend when feeling nostalgic. 

Here is a detailed guide on this powerful marketing trend and what it entails.

What is Nostalgia Marketing?

Nostalgia marketing is basically the advertising equivalent of comfort space for someone. The intention is to take you back down memory lane to familiar times that can evoke certain emotions and make you trust the product, campaign, and brand more.

Nostalgia marketing comprises familiar emotions and elements in the marketing campaign to create a link between the brand and the consumer through associations/memories. The strategy involves associating people’s positive emotions regarding the past with a product/service to drive sales.

What Makes Nostalgia Marketing So Effective?

Smart brands like Coca-Cola, KFC, Microsoft, Lego, etc., have created successful nostalgia marketing campaigns, capitalizing on the benefits.

Let’s find out why this marketing trend is so powerful and effective-

• Sharing things from the past helps us connect emotionally to something. The product/service forges a connection with the good old days of the past, stirring deep and powerful emotions in us.
• It is a way to humanize a brand or a campaign, bringing a personal touch to an otherwise impersonal product/service.
• There are numerous psychological benefits to it, like instilling hope and warmth, giving certainty of older times, coping with loneliness, etc.
• It makes the transitions of life easier (for people of all ages) by bringing validation to earlier times.
• It brings notice to shared experiences for people. For instance, a campaign with a slogan- 90’s kids will know.
• The marketing campaign comes across as authentic, with various studies corroborating the fact. 

Some Statistics About Nostalgia Marketing

Let’s learn how this powerful marketing strategy is exerting its influence in making campaigns successful.

• Nine out of ten people admitted that they think about the past often, and around 47% said that reminiscing is very frequent. People who liked to be reminded of the past in ads also revealed that those ads helped them make their purchase decisions.
• People in the age group 25-44 admitted they like things that remind them of older times. 
• Around 55% of people would return to the past if it were possible to time travel, and only 28% chose the future.
• The pandemic made people walk back on memory lane even more, with 54% claiming to watch their favorite old TV shows and 55% listening to the music they used to enjoy earlier.

How to Create an Effective Nostalgia Marketing Strategy?

We know how effective it is and how it influences the purchase decisions of millennials and Gen Z.  Take the help of these tips to create a successful marketing strategy to boost growth.

1. Learning about the cherished moments of your target audience

Knowing about your target audience is a must for any kind of marketing campaign. But it becomes all the more imperative if you are trying to affect people at a deeper level. 

You have to know a little about their journey earlier to incorporate those elements in your campaign.

Learn about the media they preferred while going up, the music they used to listen to, and their favorite shows. All of this will give you a fair idea about their cultural backgrounds, and you will know what elements to include or specify in your marketing campaigns.

2. Don’t stick to one thing

Don’t stick to just commercials or similar things when thinking of creating campaigns. You can also create campaigns around important events and milestones of your brand. 

The Crystal Pepsi campaign by the brand on their product’s 30 anniversary or the rebranding of the logo by Burger King (retro look) are examples of diversifying. McDonald’s used the strategy to inform people of the change in their business direction by removing artificial preservatives from their products.

You can also keep a tab on current events or trends that trigger something of the past. For example, there was a surge in retro fashion aesthetics for a certain period, and even the pandemic ushered us all globally to the earlier days.

3. Take help from social media 

Social media is an integral aspect of any brand communication. You will find almost all brands actively involved in brand promotion across these channels. 

Find out the preferred channels of your target audience. For instance, if the major chunk of your target audience is millennials, you might want to target Instagram and TikTok for Gen Zs. 

According to a study, social media plays a critical role in nostalgic marketing, helping people become a part of the branding process by actively getting involved (sharing content, experiences, and memories). 

It is also one of the reasons why social media is so popular, as it gives brands a chance for authentic self-expression and brand building.

Tips to Keep in Mind When Creating Your Nostalgia Marketing Campaign

• Be mindful of the target audience, as you can’t elicit a similar kind of response from people of different ages. So, understand your target market well to craft your campaign. For instance, a marketing campaign around Pac-Man (1980s arcade game) might do well with Boomers and millennials but not so much with Gen Z.
• Don’t overdo the nostalgic aspect of your marketing campaign. Focussing on retro style without keeping the current world in context can make you look out of touch or worse irrelevant. A good marketing campaign is something that makes use of the past while feeling the pulse of modern times. #TBT (throwback Thursday) is one such successful example of the seamless blend.
• Although a powerful marketing strategy, be cautious about overdoing it. A study in the Journal Of Consumer Research revealed that in case of excessive repetition, nostalgia marketing has detrimental effects.

Examples of Nostalgia Marketing

Here are some real-life examples of nostalgia marketing that helped companies gain traction.

a). Coca-Cola

The brand has leveraged the power of nostalgia marketing so well by linking the product with Santa, reminding us of happy, celebratory times.

b). Nintendo Entertainment System

The late 90s were the time many kids used to play Nintendo video games with their siblings. The brand used the journey of siblings parting ways and, later in life, bonding again together over the same video game. 

Also, in the end, the brand displays its technological advancement over the years.

c). Pepsi

Around 30 years back, Pepsi launched a clear-colored drink by the name of Crystal Pepsi. Though not crazily famous at that time, it was still much loved and had a niche following and cultural significance. 

On its 30th anniversary in 2022, Pepsi launched a campaign with a punch of ‘90s nostalgia, offering limited edition stock of this old drink. The campaign was a hit.

d). Motorola

Before smartphones, in the early 2000s, Motorola had a little flip phone called the Razr, which was quite popular at that time. The phone had a number-based keyboard and a small screen, like most phones at that time. But it was still loved a lot for its simplicity and design.

In 2019, Motorola introduced an improved version of the Razr with a folding touchscreen. The commercial announcement was a hit, i.e., the launching of the phone.

Leverage the Power of Nostalgia in Your Presentations

You can harness the power of nostalgia marketing in your presentations as part of your marketing strategy. There are a lot of pre-designed and customizable retro and vintage-themed templates available online that you can add to your presentations to rewind the clock back. Using these templates, you can quickly create a blast from the past through your presentations. You can edit logos, fonts, and colors as you like, and you are good to go with your nostalgia presentation.

In a Nutshell

Nostalgia marketing is a great way to open us to brand messaging because it paves the way to an experienced better time and not the uncertainties of the present and the future.

The most successful nostalgia marketing campaigns are the ones that are relevant, timely, authentic, and strong in their emotional connection. If seeing something of your past in living colors compels you to pick it off the shelf – that’s a successful campaign at work.

A lot of companies have successfully created their marketing campaigns using this powerful tactic to drive connection and growth with their target audience.

Keep in mind the tips discussed above, and you are good to go to catch the attention of your people.