Exploring the elements of consumer nostalgia in retailing: Evidence from a content analysis of retailer collages

This article focuses on consumer nostalgia in the retailing environment to identify the types of nostalgic memories evoked by remembering a retailer and the elements associated with such nostalgic memories. A projective technique involving collage construction enabled informants to reflect their feelings about, memories of, experiences with, or relationships with a retailer that they have selected. The findings uncovered three distinct types of retailer-related consumer nostalgic memories and six elements that comprise retailer-related consumer nostalgic memories. The findings of the study offer a comprehensive understanding of retailer consumer nostalgia. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.     

An Empirical Investigation of the Differential Effects of Personal,Historical, and Non-Nostalgic Advertising on Consumer Responses

Using a theory-driven approach, this study investigates whether and/or to what extent consumers' informationprocessing tendencies and ad-based responses are differentially influenced by the introduction of nostalgic cues (either "personal" or "historical" in nature) embedded in an advertisement. The results support hypothesized expectations that personal nostalgia (a yearning for one's past) generally outperforms both historical and non-nostalgic advertising when measures of self-directed thoughts, positive affect, and attitude toward the ad are considered. However, when cognitive measures (i.e., brand/message-related cognitive responses and message recall) are considered, a personally nostalgic ad is shown to be comparable to a historical nostalgic ad, but inferior to a non-nostalgic ad. Regression results utilizing cognitive response data further indicate that individuals' brand attitudes are differentially influenced by the type of nostalgia evoked. Practical and theoretical implications for the study's findings are discussed, and future research directions are presented.     

Romancing the past: Heritage visiting and the nostalgic consumer

Over the past decade, there has been growing interest in nostalgia and consumption experiences on the part of a small group of consumer researchers. This article offers an insight into the nostalgic experiences gained through consuming history at a contemporary British “living” museum. The findings of the research focus on two types of nostalgic behavior, which are identified as existential and aesthetic. Differences in the nostalgic reaction are conceptualized in relation to such factors as the quantity and quality of the individual's role repertoire, the experience of alienation in the present, and the extent and quality of social contact. The article aims to offer a perspective that draws upon both existing work in related fields and the findings of the research in order to contextualize nostalgia as an experiential factor behind the consumption of recreated history in the living interactive museum. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Nostalgia,reflexivity, and the narratives of self: reflections on Devine's “Removing the rough edges?”

This paper offers some theoretical insights into Devine's account of the Riverside Museum in Glasgow. It elaborates on three interrelated themes the authors have derived from Devine's report: (1) how historical representations arouse nostalgic sensations and sensibilities in museum visitors (2) the role of narratives in visitors' development of their nostalgic experiences (3) the importance of engagement to the creation of such nostalgic experiences. The paper contributes to the existing literature on nostalgia, experiential consumption, and the museum experience literature by establishing a relationship between nostalgia, reflexivity, and individuals' narratives of self in the conditions of (post/late/high) modernity.     

Development and validation of an emic scale to measure ad-evoked nostalgia in France

The practice of imbuing marketing communications with nostalgic reverie is prevalent in numerous countries. However, scholarly research investigating consumer response to such communication across cultures is lacking. This inquiry follows an emic approach examining and measuring ad-evoked personal nostalgia in France. Findings from five studies (N = 699) reveal significant differences in consumer reactions in France, as compared to earlier research based on American samples. Among the French, nostalgic advertising evokes personal memories and cultural nostalgia, contrasted to reports of past imagery, physiological and positive and negative emotional reactions in the United States. Furthermore, while cultural nostalgia is an important component of the French personal nostalgic experience, it is the personal memories that are the key to the creation of positive impressions about the ad and brand (brand heritage, brand bonds, and attitudes), and driving behavioral intentions. The emic French scale was found to be superior to an etic ad-nostalgia measure, in terms of fit and variance explained of the endogenous variables. The findings contribute to cross-cultural advertising and marketing research, and can be instructive for advertisers targeting the French market.     

Consumer insecurity and preference for nostalgic products: Evidence from China

This research examines the effects of consumers' insecurity on their preferences for nostalgic products. Using survey data from a sample of 356 Chinese consumers, the analysis shows that existential insecurity and social insecurity enhance consumers' preference for nostalgic products. In addition, the results suggest that marketers can use nostalgic elements to promote sales by relieving consumers' insecurity, through designing nostalgic appearance and creating meaningful stories for products.     

Circular or angular? How nostalgia affects product shape preference

As an important marketing strategy, nostalgia marketing is widely used by enterprises to attract consumers and influence their decision-making. Besides, feelings of nostalgia can be easily elicited in people's daily life and exert a great impact on them. Though the effect of nostalgia on consumer behavior has been extensively studied, whether and how nostalgia affects consumer preference for products with certain visual designs remain underexplored. Our research extends this domain by focusing on product shape preference as a new downstream consequence of nostalgia. Five studies (including one field experiment) demonstrate that nostalgia can increase consumer preference for circular-shaped products, with social connectedness as the underlying driver. Moreover, the indirect effect of nostalgia on circular shape preference via social connectedness is moderated by consumers' current social connections, such that the effect holds true for consumers with a low number of current social connections but is eliminated for those with a high number of current social connections. Together, marketers seeking to increase the sales of circular-shaped products may use nostalgic elements or cues in marketing campaigns.     

Sensorimotor experiences in servicescapes predict attitude formation through memory dynamics: A longitudinal study

In a longitudinal study design with three waves, we show that strong sensorimotor associations of past service experiences positively influence consumers' attitude formation during postconsumption stages by (a) leading to more postconsumptive memories, specifically if (b) the initial experience has been perceived as moderately positive. Our study complements extant research on sensory marketing, consumer retrospection, and cognitive reinforcement by introducing memory frequency as an important mediator to explain time-related antecedents of consumers' word-of-mouth. The results provide novel insights into the dynamics of attitude formation based on prior service experiences and help marketers to create long-lasting customer relationships during postconsumption stages.     

Bygone eras vs. the good Ol' days: how consumption context and self-construal influence nostalgic appeal selection

This research compares historical and personal nostalgic appeals with potential influences of consumption context and consumer self-construal. Results from two experiments indicate that, regardless of nostalgia type, a nostalgic ad is more effective than a non-nostalgic ad with similar visuals. Personal nostalgia is more effective than historical nostalgia in ads for private consumption contexts. In contrast, historical nostalgia is more effective than personal nostalgia for public consumption contexts. The above-mentioned results hold for those whose self-construal is interdependent self-construal, not for those with independent self-construal. Based on the findings, managerial implications for advertising practitioners are provided.     

Abandoning distinctiveness: The influence of nostalgia on consumer choice

This study proposes that when feeling nostalgic, consumers are more likely to choose the option that the majority of others prefer. Four studies consistently demonstrate that nostalgia can enhance consumers' social connectedness, which motivates them to maintain the feelings of connection to the group and thereby increases their preference for majority-endorsed options in the subsequent product choices. Moreover, the strength of social ties between consumers and others moderates the mediation effect of social connectedness. In the weak social ties condition, social connectedness mediates the effect of nostalgia on preference for majority-endorsed products. In the strong social ties condition, the mediation effect of social connectedness diminishes. These findings complement previous work on how nostalgia influences consumer behavior.     

Nostalgic emotion,experiential value,brand image,and consumption intentions of customers of nostalgic-themed restaurants

During the last few years, nostalgia has become a fashion in Taiwan. “Nostalgic” restaurants are becoming common in Taiwan. A nostalgic restaurant can be a hot pot restaurant decorated with furnishing relating to the origin or earlier use of the “hot pot” in Taiwan. The study here uses SEM to test the hypotheses relating to nostalgia affecting consumption. The results indicate that (1) nostalgia has both direct and indirect impacts on consumption intention; (2) consumption affected by nostalgia varies depending on the individual; and (3) younger customers' predisposition to want cheap prices is an important consideration in marketing nostalgia to younger customers.     

The relative influence of advertising-evoked personal and historical nostalgic thoughts on consumers' brand attitudes

Although researchers' conceptualizations of nostalgia (a yearning for the past) often acknowledge that it may be comprised of various types and forms, few studies to date have attempted to empirically investigate any of these differences in an advertising context. The study reported here examines two prevalent types of nostalgia reported in the literature and appearing in the media today – personal and historical nostalgia – and explores the relative influence each type may have on the formation of consumer brand attitudes. Findings suggest that, irrespective of whether individuals are exposed to a personally nostalgic or historically nostalgic ad, responses of a personally nostalgic nature tend to predominate and are more influential in shaping brand attitudes. Attitudes toward the ad were shown to mediate this relationship for both nostalgia ad types. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed, and future research directions are offered.     

怀旧消费决策模型及其营销启示

怀旧是人的天性,是人们感时伤怀的一种情绪。消费者怀旧消费决策主要包括产生于转化两个环节。消费者怀旧情感从纵向视角来看分为两个层次:怀旧倾向与怀旧强度,对应两大产生机制:内化机制与唤起机制。怀旧情感通过品牌信任、品牌依恋和品牌承诺的中介,从而转化怀旧购买。这种怀旧情感的产生-转化模型可以为企业开展怀旧营销提供思路。     

What Did You Do to My Brand? The Moderating Effect of Brand Nostalgia on Consumer Responses to Changes in a Brand

Previous research on consumer nostalgia has concluded that nostalgic feelings primarily have a positive effect on consumers, boosting positive feelings and affective responses. However, evidence suggests that consumers who hold nostalgic feelings toward a specific brand sometimes respond negatively to updated or modified versions of the brand. This research tests the moderating effect of consumers’ brand nostalgia on their responses to changes to a brand. Across four studies, the authors find that consumers who are nostalgic toward a specific brand exhibit a positive bias toward the original version of the brand that leads them to perceive the brand as having changed more than do less nostalgic consumers. Further, when the change to the brand is perceived to be large, individuals who are highly nostalgic for a brand show a significantly sharper decrease in reported attitude and behavioral intentions toward the changed brand than do their less nostalgic counterparts. This effect is in opposition to the positive effects of a general tendency toward nostalgia proneness. These results are replicated across multiple product categories and both manipulated and real changes, and the effect is found to be mediated by the consumer's biased perception of how much the brand has changed.     

Intrinsic motivation of luxury consumers in an emerging market

Consumers no longer consider luxury as an absolute goal. Even though previous studies have primarily linked luxury with consumers' extrinsic motivation, intrinsic motivational factors have seen few studies. As a result of this gap, this study attempts to investigate the intrinsic factors that influence consumers' experiences with luxury brands. By using self-determination theory, this paper aims to assess the personal ‘self’ factors of luxury consumers' enriching experiences. An offline questionnaire from 316 luxury consumers was used to collect data for the study. AMOS SEM v 22 was then used to analyse the data. Our findings indicate that luxury consumers have shifted to luxury for ‘self,’ and are driven by intrinsic factors. As luxury relates to consumers' self-fulfilment, it creates an intrinsic and substantive experience for customers that assists them in their search for self-growth. The study contributes to the literature concerning personal self and enriching experiences through luxury consumption and creates an opportunity to examine the impact of consumers’ happiness, which was discovered to be a critical indicator of enriched luxury experience and word of mouth, resulting in a boosting of the personal self.     

Disentangling the impact of temperature on consumers' attitudes toward nostalgic advertising

Although the effect of temperature on consumers is ubiquitous, little is known about how temperature affects consumers' attitudes toward nostalgic advertising. Drawing on embodied cognition theory, this study explores the effect of temperature on consumers' attitudes toward nostalgic advertising through the mediator of the affective system. Based on two experiments involving personal and historical nostalgic advertising, our results show that when exposed to comfortable temperature, consumers follow the “assimilative effect” of temperature; warm temperatures trigger more positive attitudes toward nostalgic advertising when compared with cool temperatures. However, when exposed to uncomfortable temperatures, consumers follow the “complementary effect” of temperatures; cold temperatures lead to more positive attitudes toward nostalgic advertising than hot temperatures. Furthermore, the affective system plays a mediating role between temperature and consumers' attitudes toward nostalgic advertising. This study contributes to the literature on temperature in marketing and provides a practical guide for companies to implement nostalgic advertising strategies.     

Nostalgia is not what it used to be: heritage films,nostalgia websites and contemporary consumers

Nostalgia is not a singular phenomenon; it is multi-layered, diversely experienced and variously exploited, as I demonstrate by briefly outlining the history of nostalgia, especially the recent shift from modern to post-modern versions of the experience. The modern, temporal version of nostalgia is founded on the unattainable distance between the past and the present; the post-modern, atemporal version erases this sense of distance. Central to the modern concept of nostalgia is the experience of wistfulness, a hopeless longing for something lost and irrecoverable. But for post-modern nostalgics, the irrecoverable is now attainable, the difference between past and present flattened out. This is partly because post-modern nostalgia re-cycles images, objects and styles associated with the relatively recent past, a prime site of such re-cycling being the Internet. I therefore look at a range of websites that use nostalgia as a central concept in their marketing and which demonstrate some of these recent shifts in the experience of nostalgia. In the final part of this article, I explore these concerns in relation to the reception of four films about the English, past released in the 2000s: Ladies in Lavender (2004), Becoming Jane (2007), Brideshead Revisited (2008) and An Education (2009). How are films mobilised for nostalgic purposes at the levels of production, marketing and consumption? How is an experience of the past built into these films? Are some of the resulting images, sounds and pasts more resistant to nostalgic uses than others? Are these films discussed by audiences in terms of nostalgia? If so, is this is a positive or negative experience? Ranging in this way across a variety of material, my article is an attempt to bring together cultural history, conceptual, formal analysis and the analysis of reception or consumption.     

消费者怀旧情感研究评述

在社会转型时期,怀旧是一种比较常见的社会现象.在营销领域,虽然一些企业把怀旧作为一种营销手段,但对消费者怀旧情感的理论研究才刚刚起步.文章对消费者怀旧情感的结构维度、测量方法、影响因素与营销功能等方面的文献进行了重点梳理,发现自1989年霍尔布鲁克和辛德勒(Holbrook&Schindler)把怀旧引入消费者行为研究领域以来,学者们在怀旧情感的定义、测量、对购买决策的影响等方面取得了不少积极的成果,但在怀旧情感的结构维度及其测量、怀旧情感的产生机制以及怀旧情感的营销功能等方面还存在较大的研究空间.     

Personal and Historical Nostalgia—A Comparison of Common Emotions

ABSTRACT

This research uses an experimental research design to examine differences in the emotional responses of 806 respondents experiencing specifically personal or historical nostalgic reactions to advertising appeals. Changes in intensity of five emotions common to both reactions are examined. Upbeat/elation, loss/regret, and warm/tender emotions are significantly heightened under the personal compared with the historical nostalgic response. Negative/irritation and serenity/calm emotions are not significantly different. These results highlight the need to examine nostalgia as two separate reactions and provide insights useful to practitioners regarding emotional reactions to each form. It also suggests the need for future research into personal and historical nostalgia's comparable influences on other responses.     

Consumer–Brand Relationships: A Contrast of Nostalgic and Non‐Nostalgic Brands

This research examined how consumer–brand relationships change when one contrasts brands perceived as nostalgic with brands perceived as non‐nostalgic. Paired comparisons of brands in six product categories revealed that brand attachment, self‐brand connections, and storytelling, as well as, the propensity to offer the brand as a gift and collect brand‐derived products, depend on the nostalgic status of the brand. On a sample of 606 consumers, the results showed that a brand's nostalgic status has a positive effect on attachment, self‐brand connections, and storytelling. These effects had not previously been considered in nostalgia research. Furthermore, the nostalgic status of a brand has positive effects in terms of intention to purchase the brand as a gift and collect brand‐derived products. Moreover, ANOVA results illustrate that consumer relationships with nostalgic brands are systematically stronger than with non‐nostalgic brands. Finally, results indicated that product category moderates all of the dimensions of brand relationships while gender does not.