Consumer Behavior: Knowledge and Memory

Let's get nostalgic: as brands get older, many of them make daring attempts to go back in time to bring back their old logos or slogans, even for a short while.  Although some fail to succeed, others do very well.

What are some advantages and disadvantages to nostalgia marketing?

I'd say that some advantages include a wider audience who might have consumed the product when they were younger, but they are now much much older.  Products such as Coca-Cola, as discussed in class provide an annual nostalgic campaign featuring Santa Claus and the polar bears drinking Coca-Cola out of a bottle to bring back the old, good feeling about drinking this particular brand of soda.

Coca-Cola Polar Bear Family Ad (c. 1997)

Another brand that has run successful nostalgia marketing in the past is Pepsi Co., Coca-Cola's rival.

Pepsi Co.'s "Throwback" Can design was a big hit back in 2010 for the brand.  During that year, the brand brought back the classic can design from the 1970s.

2010

1970

Pepsi Co.'s "Throwback" Commercial featuring another nostalgic can design.

Are there some products or brands for which this strategy may not be successful?

While trying to find an answer for this question, I ran into these vintage looking advertisements for popular social networking sites and applications:

For these three brands to successfully run a nostalgic marketing campaign, they would have to stay running with the millions of users they currently have for another decade or two.  For each of the above "faux-ads," each brand simply would not be able to pull off the nostalgia/vintage look like Pepsi or Coca-Cola.