Buying and spending money is something nearly everyone has done. If a person wants new shoes, they set aside money for a new pair of shoes. If someone loses their toothbrush, they buy another. However, sometimes people buy things without thinking ahead.
Brands and products often use marketing strategies to attract the customer and cause an instant buy. Nostalgia is often targeted in these instances, because of its huge influence.
Nostalgia is essentially the longing or remembering of the past. When marketing uses labels similar to older methods or has a smell that brings back memories, nostalgia is evoked. Anything that reminds people of their childhoods or pasts brings out nostalgia. Smell especially works to bring out this feeling because it directly connects to the way the brain navigates memories. Other tactics are also able to trigger nostalgia.
For example, Disney’s live-action remakes of old movies often use nostalgia. These films make huge profits, with the revenue from the live action Beauty and the Beast totalling over 1.2 billion dollars. The reason behind this is their nostalgia. The plot of these movies are never new. The story of these films have been rewatched again and again, so they are not watched for their originality or creative plots. Nevertheless, those who saw the movie in their childhood are eager to rewatch and relive the memories they experienced.
The idea of wanting to relive past memories is the key to how nostalgia works. When people think about their memories, the emotions associated with them are triggered. Often these memories are associated with safer, better times. This association and positive memory makes a consumer appreciate a product. The memory also leads them to connect to a product and associate with it. In this situation, a person is more likely to buy something because nostalgia often supersedes budgeting. The desire to have the product they connect to makes people willing to spend their money.
This power of nostalgia leads to marketing tactics that bring up idealistic memories of Christmas, past vacations and more. When smells bring back memories of meals from their childhood or labels remind them of their past, people want to buy the product evoking this feeling of nostalgia. That way, consumers can keep a piece of their past, even with some money spent.