Nostalgia Marketing: Rekindling the Past to Influence Consumer Choices 3031215451, 9783031215452

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Nostalgia Marketing Rekindling the Past to Influence Consumer Choices

Marco Pichierri

Nostalgia Marketing

Marco Pichierri

Nostalgia Marketing Rekindling the Past to Influence Consumer Choices

Marco Pichierri University of Bari “Aldo Moro” Bari, Italy

ISBN 978-3-031-21545-2    ISBN 978-3-031-20914-7 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-20914-7 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Cover pattern © John Rawsterne/patternhead.com This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG. The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland

Foreword and Reverse

I was tempted to title this brief foreword as “In Search of Lost Time,” but the phrase is over-used. It is noteworthy that the English translation of Proust’s À la recherche du temps perdu was previously given the title Remembrance of Things Past. The two titles highlight two different ways of looking at the past. The earlier title, Remembrance, suggests that we invoke a remembered autobiographical past that we need to only get in touch with through clues like the taste of Proust’s petite madeleines and lime blossom tea. It envisions nostalgia as a melancholy longing for past days tinged with a bittersweetness. This is the nostalgia of Susan Stewart’s book, On Longing: Nostalgia is a sadness without an object, a sadness which creates a longing that of necessity is inauthentic because it does not take part in lived experience. … the past it seeks has never existed. (23)

In this definition nostalgia is misremembrance. It is a search for a fictive past rather than an accurate memory. The past remembered in this view is a false narrative that is unconsciously perpetuated and reshaped in order to valorize an otherwise tenuous present self. This earlier title, Remembrance of Things Past, is taken from Shakespeare’s sonnet 30, which begins: When to the sessions of sweet silent thought I summon up remembrance of things past,

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I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought, And with old woes new wail my dear time’s waste.

Wasted time, loves lost, goals unfulfilled, and sights never to be seen again, all give this sonnet about nostalgia a somber and sad tone focusing on loss. But several stanzas later in its final couplet, there is a reversal in which the sonnet offers a more positive take on nostalgia: But if the while I think on thee, dear friend, All losses are restor’d, and sorrows end.

In other words, there are likely selective sweet parts of our past that redeem any bitter regrets it might evoke. These are the memories we are more apt to cling to in reimagining our past. The current title of Proust’s seven-volume work, In Search of Lost Time, evokes a more positive take on nostalgia. The search is a quest of discovery. The past may be past, but it is also a record of our joys and sorrows that make us who we are. Nostalgia in this view is a search for one’s self. This positive view is something that becomes clearer in the book you are about to read. My own professional connection with nostalgia has focused on individual nostalgia through personal possessions. For example, I have studied how people help construct their identity through things we see as not only ours but as expressing and defining us. I call this concept the extended self or extended sense of self. I stipulate that it includes all the things, pets, people, and places that make us who we are. I claim that there is also a subset of these things that define our sense of past that helps make us who we are in the present. We define our self, in part, through possessions that remind us of our past self and past experiences with family, friends, and significant others. This is where individual nostalgia becomes interpersonal rather than merely personal. In further contrast to the individual nostalgia, the emphasis in Marco Pichierri’s Nostalgia Marketing is on collective nostalgia stirred through music, movies, celebrities, fashions, and events from our shared past. This is not the same as nationalism because, in marketing terms, we fall into different segments and we connect with different objects of nostalgia depending on our age cohort and subcultures. In secondary school (high school) together with our group or clique of friends we may even have sought to define ourselves collectively through the music, fashions,

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grooming, heroes, films, and hangouts that we chose to define “us” as opposed to “them”—the others who did not share our collective tastes. That is, we expressed our identities not only through the things we liked but also by the things we didn’t like—our distastes. The 2019–2021 COVID pandemic was shared with most of the world and will someday be an item of nostalgia cued by facemasks, reminders of our ingenuity of overcoming shortages, and the bravery of frontline workers. We will not be nostalgic for the policies that barred us from saying goodbye to dying loved ones, that confined us to home, and that forced restrictions on our travel and group activities. Thus, both positive and negative shared experiences can become cues for collective nostalgia. In the Chapters that follow Pichierri reports the results of a series of clever experiments with various aspects of the past that can make us more or less inclined to patronize certain brands, make certain monetary donations, eat more sustainably, or buy tickets to certain sports events. Our collective nostalgia is filtered through the lenses of variables such as our degree of fandom, our sports teams’ strong or weak performance, the degree to which we see tradition as important, our tendency to be prudent, our proneness to nostalgia, our success in achieving flow, and our embrace of environmentalism. These factors are found to affect our food preferences (sustainable vs. non-sustainable), sports tourism (nostalgic vs. heritage motivations), and charitable donations (amounts). Other nostalgia marketing is assessed by Pichierri from a systematic literature review (SLR) and synthesis, including some interesting phenomena impacted by nostalgia. They include moving a sports franchise to another city, pond hockey in Canada, French-speaking Swiss and authentic heritage goods, West Indies diaspora and cricket fandom exhibited by Caribbean Canadians, Tour de France followers, visits to a sports museum, retro sports apparel, the Persian Gulf Pro football League, South Korean baseball, European football, fans of foreign sports teams in Singapore, and visits to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. In most of these cases, the book reports positive results from advertising cueing nostalgia. But Pichierri also reports some negative findings utilizing nostalgic advertising appeals. For instance, in Chap. 4 he cautions against using nostalgic appeals in food advertising. But there may also be some deeper and more subtle effects of utilizing nostalgia in advertising appeals. A focus on using the past as a balm and buffer against dealing with the present and future may handicap a person from going forward with their life.

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At the end of Chap. 2 there is a note that “nostalgic feelings may differ based on gender and age.” This is fundamental. Teenagers don’t want to be pre-teens again; they long to be 20. But 70-year-olds would rather be 50or 60-year-olds. There is some systematicity to such patterns as Csikszentmihalyi & Rochberg-Halton found in The Meaning of Things (1981). By studying the favorite possessions of three generations in the same families, they found that the favorite possessions of those of the youngest generation were more forward-looking, while those of the oldest generation were objects that inclined them to look more in reverse at things that connect them to their earlier lives and families. This suggests that nostalgia likely increases with age. Something that has been found in studies by Turner and Stanley (2021, Emotion, 21(5)). In Nostalgia Marketing, although some pro-social behaviors are found in reviewing past studies of nostalgia-prone consumers, it is also found by Pichierri that those influenced by these appeals are less likely to be green consumers because nostalgia discourages people from adopting innovative products. He reports (p. 110), “As this advertising type leads the audience to dwell on the past, it may temporarily hinder their ability to focus on the future (e.g., sustainable food consumption choices).” Pichierri (p. 2) also observes, “The idea of harkening to a simpler, reassuring past offers consumers an anchor of stability in turbulent times.” But simpler times may unfortunately also invoke nostalgia for a past that was more racist, segregated, homophobic, patriarchal, and intolerant. Not that we are free of these prejudices now, but they were more open and blatant in the past. Listening to a familiar old tune or watching clips from an old movie or old sporting event may seem innocent enough, but it may also cue a return of such problematic attitudes. So, when we tie our brand to cues from the past, we may also be tying it to some troublesome past values. Discomfort with present times is a major condition increasing susceptibility to nostalgia. It even was found after the fall of communism in Eastern Europe that there were many who believed that life was better under communism (Todorova and Gille 2010, Post-Communist Nostalgia). This can also operate at an individual level. Nostalgia may reflect a desire for a younger self, my glory days, earlier successes, and high points in life. And it may lead to pursuing vicarious satisfaction from non-participant activities that replace what were once participant activities. Perhaps this is like collecting where I have found that a lack of control in everyday life is sometimes compensated by achieving feelings of control in the collection,

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a “little world” of nostalgic revelries where we have a greater chance of competitive success (Belk 1995). In focusing on nostalgia, Pichierri deals with a fascinating topic. He has made great inroads into marketing opportunities and dangers in exploiting the past. He also does a great service in systematically reviewing and synthesizing the relevant literature. In these comments I’ve tried to widen the field of view even farther by pointing out several connections to adjacent concerns. The book is an excellent invitation to go forward by looking in reverse. And the rear-view mirror of our re-imagined past is a key means for formulating who we are and consolidating a sense of self. Schulich School of Business York University, Toronto, ON, Canada

Russell W. Belk

Contents

1 Nostalgia  Marketing and Consumer Behavior  1 1 An Introduction to Nostalgia Marketing  1 2 Nostalgia in the Academic Literature  3 3 The Effects of Nostalgia on Consumers  5 4 On the Mechanisms Behind Nostalgia  6 5 The Structure of the Book  6 6 A Detailed Overview of the Extant Research on Nostalgia in the Marketing Literature 48 References 49 2 Nostalgic  Advertising Usage in Sports Season Tickets Campaigns 59 1 Introduction 59 2 Theoretical Background 60 3 The Experimental Study 63 3.1 Method 63 3.2 Results 64 4 General Discussion 68 Appendix 1: Fictitious Advertisements Used as Experimental Stimuli in the Study  70 Appendix 2: Measures and Items Used in the Questionnaire  70 References 71

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3 The  Impact of Nostalgic Advertising on Consumer Willingness to Donate During a Crisis 77 1 Introduction 77 2 Theoretical Background 79 3 Methodology 83 4 Results 84 5 Discussion 86 Appendix: Sketches of the Experimental Stimuli Used in the Study 89 References 90 4 Examining  Nostalgic Advertising Effectiveness in Sustainable Food Consumption Behavior 95 1 Introduction 95 2 Theoretical Background 96 3 Study 1100 3.1 Methodology100 3.2 Results101 4 Study 2103 4.1 Methodology103 4.2 Results104 5 Study 3106 5.1 Methodology106 5.2 Results107 6 General Discussion108 Appendix: Experimental Stimuli Used in the Studies111 Studies 1–2 111 Study 3 112 References112 5 A  Systematic Review of Nostalgia-Based Marketing Strategies in Sport Tourism117 1 Introduction117 2 Method118 3 Measuring and Assessing Nostalgia in the Sport Tourism Domain128 4 Theoretical Contributions and Reflections on Nostalgia in the Sport Tourism129 5 Cases in Point and Analysis of Real Events132

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6 Navigating among the Nostalgic: Exploring Fans’ Inner Motives in Choosing an Experience134 7 Quantitative Approaches to Examine Sport Tourism Nostalgia136 8 Discussion141 References143 6 Conclusions147 1 In Summary147 2 Final Considerations149 References150 Index153

About the Author

Marco Pichierri  (Ph.D. in Business Economics) is Assistant Professor of Marketing and Business Management at the University of Bari “Aldo Moro,” Bari, Italy. His main research focus is on consumer behavior and advertising effectiveness. His works have been published in several international peer-reviewed journals such as the Journal of Advertising Research, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Interactive Marketing, Marketing Letters, Computers in Human Behavior, Journal of Services Marketing, and Current Issues in Tourism.

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List of Figures

Fig. 1.1 Temporal distribution of the research documents on nostalgia marketing listed by Scopus in the period 1993-2021 Fig. 2.1 Purchase Intention (A) and Word-of-Mouth Intention (B) as a function of Advertising Type and Attitude Toward the Team Fig. 2.2 Purchase Intention (A) and Word-of-Mouth Intention (B) as a function of Advertising Type and Fandom Level Fig. 3.1 The conceptual model of the research Fig. 4.1 Purchase intention (mean values and standard errors) as a function of advertising type and product type Fig. 4.2 The conceptual framework (S2) Fig. 4.3 The conceptual framework (S3) Fig. 5.1 Distribution of the articles by year of publication Fig. 5.2 Distribution of the articles by author Fig. 5.3 Distribution of the articles by country

3 66 67 83 102 104 107 127 127 128

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List of Tables

Table 1.1 Some relevant studies related to the use of nostalgia in the marketing, consumer, advertising, and management domains Table 2.1 Mean scores and standard deviations for measures of Purchase Intention and Word-of-Mouth Intention as a function of Advertising Type and Attitude Toward the Team Table 2.2 Mean scores and standard deviations for measures of Purchase Intention and Word-of-Mouth Intention as a function of Advertising Type and Fandom levels Table 3.1 Coefficient estimates for the moderated mediation model for willingness to donate Table 3.2 Bootstrap results for the conditional indirect effects Table 4.1 Summary table for the two-way ANOVA of the effects of advertising type and product type on purchase intention Table 4.2 Summary of Study 2’s main results Table 4.3 Summary of Study 3’s main results Table 5.1 Synoptic table related to the academic studies included in the analysis

9 67 68 86 87 102 105 109 119

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CHAPTER 1

Nostalgia Marketing and Consumer Behavior

1   An Introduction to Nostalgia Marketing In an era characterized by an unprecedented uncertainty, seeking refuge in the past is a common ploy for consumers. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that companies are extensively utilizing nostalgia marketing, i.e., a marketing strategy aimed at deliberately evoking nostalgic feelings in the target audience. Indeed, recent years have shown that marketers resort to nostalgia in the aftermath of crises (e.g., after 9/11 and the financial crisis of 2008; Dan, 2020). Recently, a study by MRC (2020), investigating the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on entertainment choices, found that a majority of consumers sought comfort in past-related content (e.g., TV shows, movies, and songs from their youth). Various sectors are awash in real-world examples of nostalgic marketing. In the entertainment industry, the successful TV series Stranger Things is imbued with nostalgic references; Netflix specifically marketed the show by partnering with several brands that appeal to fans of 1980s media (CNN, 2019). Likewise, the award-winning TV series Mad Men was built on the aesthetic and style associated with the sixties (Kessous et al., 2015). Meanwhile, The Last Dance sport docuseries increased the nostalgia for the epic achievements of Micheal Jordan, which inclined more players of the NBA 2K20 videogame to play with the classic Bulls team (Mazique, 2020). In the food industry, Burger King pursued a rebranding strategy in January 2021 wherein they applied a classic style to © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 M. Pichierri, Nostalgia Marketing, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-20914-7_1

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their logo (basically resembling the logo they used 30 years prior) to leverage the power of nostalgia (Beausoleil, 2021; Meisenzahl, 2021). In this vein, an Ad Age-Harris Poll survey (The Harris Poll, 2021) revealed that some companies (e.g., fast-food ones) fully embrace nostalgic stimuli in their marketing strategies, adapting some of their product features (e.g., packaging) to influence consumers’ attitudes and purchases (e.g., Pepsi’s throwback versions of Pepsi and Mountain Dew that imitated the original iterations with retro packages and taste; Horovitz, 2011). Brands may also decide to revive products from the past in order to evoke nostalgia: Following persistent urging on social media, Coca-Cola restarted production on its Surge soda after a 12-year hiatus. The beverage sold out within hours (CNBC, 2014). Examples of nostalgia-based marketing strategies abound in other industries: Nokia rebooted its historical 3310 model 17 years after its debut (BBC, 2017); Fisher-Price pursued a nostalgic-tinged campaign featuring the famous American actor John Goodman immersed in classic children toys (Dan, 2020); Nintendo, Sega and Sony introduced mini-­ versions of their famous gaming consoles (Hill, 2022); and the National Basketball Association and other sports leagues launched their nostalgic throwback uniforms (Spaid, 2013). Some companies, meanwhile, utilize nostalgia as a positioning strategy: Moleskine, for instance, claims that its notebooks are the successors to those used by famous creative personalities such as Hemingway and Picasso (Heinberg & Katsikeas, 2019). Lastly, social media are awash in nostalgic content: Throwback Thursdays and a plethora of past-based memes represent just a sample of the content posted by companies and users in these virtual arenas to evoke nostalgic feelings (Muehling et al., 2014). The proliferation of this trend begs a simple question: Why has nostalgia marketing become so popular? The idea of harkening to a simpler, reassuring past offers consumers an anchor of stability in turbulent times (Tannock, 1995). As customers become more dissatisfied, this tactic may become more persuasive (Merchant & Ford, 2008). Indeed, nostalgia represents a romantic glance to the past, often for the purpose of preserving individuals’ identities (Kessous et al., 2015) and satisfying the need for interpersonal belongingness (Zhou et al., 2012). Furthermore, for many consumers, the attractiveness of nostalgia lies in its implied authenticity (Belk, 1990; Spaid, 2013)—its presentation of the past as a genuine refuge from the artificiality of the present. Practitioners are increasingly leveraging nostalgia in their appeals to Millennials (Friedman, 2016), i.e.,

Number of documents

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30 28 26 24 22 20 18 16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0

Year of publication

Note: Author’s elaboration on Scopus data.

Fig. 1.1  Temporal distribution of the research documents on nostalgia marketing listed by Scopus in the period 1993-2021

consumers born between 1981 and 1999 (Liu et al., 2019), given that this aging consumer segment has overtaken Baby Boomers in terms of population size and per-capita spending (Bona et al., 2020). According to some authors (e.g., Demirbag-Kaplan et al., 2015), nostalgia remains a largely under-researched area in the field of consumer behavior. However, interest has been growing: A cursory review of Scopus (www. scopus.com)—using the keywords ‘nostalgia’ and ‘marketing’ in the article title, abstract and keywords fields—returned 254 documents in the period 1993-2021 (see Fig. 1.1), with the bulk being published in the last decade.

2  Nostalgia in the Academic Literature Scholars usually refer to nostalgia as individuals’ yearning for the past (Holbrook, 1993) or romanticization of former time periods (Stern, 1992). This orientation arises from feeling unintentionally detached from a preceding period of time that they value or are fond of (Davis, 1979; Holbrook, 1993; Zhou et al., 2012). This perception fosters affections for tangible or intangible objects and actions connected with the past (Davis, 1979; Holbrook, 1993). However, while the first recorded references to nostalgia may be traced in Homer’s Ulysses and some Biblical psalms (Shields & Johnson, 2016), our current conception has its roots in the

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medical field—where it initially described a pathological condition associated with homesickness (Kessous & Roux, 2008) and characterized by psychological negatives and symptoms (Sedikides et  al., 2004). Indeed, the term ‘nostalgias’—a merge of the Greek words ‘nosos’ (i.e., return to the native land) and ‘algos’ (i.e., pain, suffering)—was coined in the mid-­ seventeenth century by Johannes Hofer (1688) in his medical dissertation about the psychological underpinnings of missing home. This origin explains why nostalgia was treated as a sort of medical illness until the late 19th century, when it was relegated to a psychosomatic disorder (Batcho, 1998; Shields & Johnson, 2016). Scholars have since extended the notion of nostalgia to depict a sociological phenomenon (Davis, 1979) about the contemporaneous interest toward elements belonging to the past (Hamilton & Wagner, 2014). For instance, scholars started to refer to nostalgia as a mixed emotion related to the longing for the past (Baumgartner, 1992) or as individuals’ tendency to look back to and desire an idealized past (Lowenthal, 1985). This yearning for yesteryear, observed in sociology and anthropology (Davis, 1979; McCracken, 1988), was soon connected to individuals’ attempt to restructure some elements of the past in their present life through consumption (Holbrook, 1993). Thus, the bittersweet longing for home (Holak & Havlena, 1992), delineated in the psychological literature, soon became a lens for interpreting individuals’ behavior in the marketing domain. As a consequence, nostalgia conceptually evolved into a convincing promotional appeal (Muehling & Pascal, 2012; Naughton, 1998), giving rise to studies on consumer nostalgia in the early 1990s (Kazlauske & Gineikiene, 2017). Scholars’ efforts in the consumer domain resulted in definitions of the phenomenon that directly apply to the marketing field. Thus, in the consumer behavior domain, nostalgia has been conceptualized as a time-related preference for experiences associated with items or elements that were more widespread or popular in one’s youth (Holbrook & Schindler, 2003). Consumers develop this preference toward past-related objects through some combination of socialization and the media (Fairley, 2003), which allows past-related thoughts to trigger a certain mood or emotion (Muehling, Sprott, & Sultan, 2014). Nostalgic individuals experience an amplified focus on past things, reflected in a partial detachment from everyday life (Brown & Humphreys, 2002)— and this phenomenon may affect individuals regardless of age, gender and social class (Greenberg et al., 2004).

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3  The Effects of Nostalgia on Consumers Consumers may be attracted by elements that positively evoke the past, especially in the presence of some negative attitudes toward the present (Davis, 1979). As scholars have found in the last few decades (Spaid, 2013), nostalgia may be cued by marketers in a number of ways and by a number of sources (e.g., music, photographs, movies, family members, events, jingles, e.g., Havlena & Holak, 1991; Marchegiani & Phau, 2010). Indeed, the nostalgic feelings produced through relevant stimuli have the ability to influence consumers’ preferences and decision-making process (e.g., Holak & Havlena, 1998). Specifically, nostalgia has been found to affect consumers’ attitudes toward products and brands (e.g., Muehling & Pascal, 2012; Muehling & Sprott, 2004) and influence a wide range of consumer responses, including brand loyalty (Muehling & Sprott, 2004; Olsen, 1995), brand meaning (Brown et al., 2003), and purchase intentions (e.g., Muehling et al., 2014; Sierra & McQuitty, 2007). In the advertising domain, research has confirmed that nostalgia is effective in communication strategies (e.g., Havlena & Holak, 1991; Muehling & Sprott, 2004; Rindfleisch & Sprott, 2000) and has been widely adopted (Khoshghadam et  al., 2019) due to its advantages over similar, but non-nostalgic advertising (Muehling & Pascal, 2012). Notably, nostalgia represents a perspective through which scholars can explore the role of individuals’ identity in consumption behavior (Belk, 1990). Indeed, consumers may extend their identity beyond the physical confines of the body and along the time dimension (Belk, 1988), purposefully buying and collecting objects that allow them to relive previous and cherished time periods. Owning nostalgic objects may offer a “buffer” against existential threats stemming from the passage of time (Sedikides & Wildschut, 2018), and can therefore serve as a tool for managing one’s identity and feelings (Belk, 1991). In this view, purchasing nostalgic items serves to recall one’s past and support a sense of self-continuity (Sierra & McQuitty, 2007). Additionally, feeling nostalgic seems to decrease people’s desire for money and thereby facilitates a willingness to spend money (Lasaleta et al., 2014). These effects appear to extend across several industries (e.g., hospitality and entertainment; see Li et  al., 2019) and domains, with recent research connecting nostalgia to pro-social behaviors (i.e., intention to volunteer and donate; Zhou et al., 2012) and psychological benefits (e.g., improving individuals’ identity and social attachments; Brown & Humphreys, 2002; Sedikides et al., 2008). Notably, the first applications of neuroscience to this topic have found that recalling

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information from the past activates emotion-regulation brain regions such as the hippocampus (Oba et al., 2016).

4  On the Mechanisms Behind Nostalgia According to Davis (1979) and Holak and Havlena (1992), the basic concept of nostalgia is the unchallenged opinion that things were better in the past than they are in the present. However, the past that is reified through nostalgia is usually an idealized version where individuals have filtered out negative elements (Hirsch, 1992; Stern, 1992). This tendency to base nostalgic memory around selective positive aspects has led some scholars (e.g., Holak & Havlena, 1992) to suggest that nostalgia can “filter” past times through “rose-colored glasses”. Therefore, nostalgia not only helps to alleviate existential threat and satisfy the needs for meaning and belonging (Sedikides et al., 2008), but it also represents a sort of “redemption sequence” (Muehling & Pascal, 2012) whereby negative life events from the past can be molded into a positive narrative (Wildschut et al., 2006). Importantly, a nostalgic feeling may arise from both a personally remembered past (i.e., personal nostalgia) or a socially conveyed past that preceded the individual’s life (i.e., historical nostalgia). Both appeals are already being employed by marketers (Phau & Marchegiani, 2011). Granted, nostalgia is not exempt from downsides: While it aims to activate a positive orientation and favorable response toward the past (e.g., Havlena & Holak, 1991; Holbrook & Schindler, 1996), it can simultaneously entail negative feelings toward the present and future (e.g., Berntsen & Rubin, 2002). This is because nostalgia implies a disconnect from the past, which can trigger sadness and a sense of loss (Holak & Havlena, 1998).

5  The Structure of the Book This book is conceived as a brief collection of studies on nostalgia marketing. Thus, it features five separate, but related Chapters, each of which investigates the possible effects of nostalgia in different domains. In this way, the book hopes to clarify the advantages and disadvantages of adopting nostalgic stimuli for marketing purposes. Following this first introductory Chapter,  the first study (Chap. 2) investigates the effects of nostalgic appeals in sports season ticket advertising (i.e., advertising communication aimed at promoting the sales of seasonal tickets for a sports team). Interestingly, the realm of sports advertising has scarcely investigated nostalgia as a communication tool, despite the

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recent proliferation of nostalgia in companies’ communication strategies and several scholars’ suggestion that nostalgia could be used to maintain a competitive advantage (e.g., Fairley, 2003; Pajoutan & Seifried, 2014). Building on the nostalgia literature, the study advances that nostalgic advertising may exert a different effect on sport consumers’ choices (i.e., intention to purchase a season ticket and share positive word-of-mouth for the advertised campaign) depending on individuals’ current attitude toward the sports team (as determined by recent sporting performances). The results show that recalling a glorious sporting past may be the most effective strategy for persuading fans with a current negative attitude toward their favorite team. Further, individuals who describe themselves as ardent fans, due to attaching extreme importance to their team’s performance, may find a nostalgic ad more appealing. The Chapter concludes with a discussion of its findings and implications for marketers. The second study (Chap. 3) focuses on the prosocial effects of nostalgia. Research in the advertising and consumer behavior domains recently related nostalgia to prosocial behaviors like charitable giving (i.e., consumers’ intention to donate money to non-profit organizations that principally benefit society or social causes). The study attempts to verify the direct and indirect relationship between nostalgia-based appeals and consumers’ intention to donate to social or charitable organizations. Using the case of charitable organizations involved in fighting COVID-19, the study proposes a moderated moderated mediation model through which the effect of a nostalgic advertisement on individuals’ donating intention is mediated via advertising believability, and this mediation path is moderated in two stages by consumers’ prudence and the importance they attribute to tradition. The results shed light on the role of some consumer traits in regulating the mechanism through which nostalgia affects charitable giving. The resulting insights may help social marketers and charities looking to leverage nostalgia to bolster their campaigns. Chapter 4 focuses on the possible downsides arising from pushing consumers to focus on the past. More specifically, it evaluates the possible effectiveness of nostalgic advertising in the consumption of sustainable food. While some scholars have started to explore the possible benefits of nostalgia for individuals and society, there have been few studies looking at nostalgic advertising in relation to sustainable consumption—and those that exist have produced mixed results. Therefore, this Chapter contains three studies that consider the effects of nostalgic advertising on consumers’ sustainable food consumption behavior. First, this research reveals that a nostalgic (vs. non-nostalgic) advertisement may encourage the

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purchase of non-sustainable (vs. sustainable) products. Furthermore, this interplay does not seem to differ according to individuals’ general time orientation – that is, whether individuals view time in an holistic manner (valuing both past and future) or emphasize the here-and-now. Second, this research shows that a nostalgic advertisement heightens consumers’ focus on the past, thus lowering their intention to purchase a sustainable food product. Notably, this indirect effect of the nostalgic advertisement on consumers’ intention does not depend on the type of food product (i.e., utilitarian vs. hedonic). The Chapter concludes with a discussion of the findings’ theoretical and practical implications for utilizing nostalgia in sustainable marketing. Chapter 5 presents a literature review on the use of nostalgia for marketing in the leisure sector—specifically, the realm of sports tourism. The goal is to provide scholars and practitioners with a comprehensive framework of nostalgia’s effects in this fast-growing tourism sector. Through a systematic review approach, the Chapter synthesizes and discusses the relevant literature on nostalgia and sports tourism. First, the Chapter thoroughly describes the methodology used to identify and selects the relevant literature on the argument. Second, the Chapter details the sample of selected articles, which were grouped according to the different methodological approach adopted. Third, the Chapter highlights each work’s objectives, relevant variables, and main findings. The Chapter also includes a synoptic table—providing detailed information about the scholarly articles reviewed—as a companion tool for the reader. Finally, the Chapter recaps the main evidence and outlines some remaining discussion points in order to prompt debate on the use of nostalgia in the sports tourism domain.

6   A Detailed Overview of the Extant Research on Nostalgia in the Marketing Literature Table 1.1 presents a non-exhaustive list of academic articles whose titles include the terms ‘nostalgia’ or ‘nostalgic’, and that have been published until 2021 in peer-reviewed academic journals that had the words “marketing”, “consumer”, “advertising”, or “management“ in their titles. For each article, the Table reports the research method adopted, the independent and dependent variables considered, and the main findings. Overall, the Table is an ambitious attempt to outline the extant research on nostalgia in the marketing literature.

Technology innovation, nostalgia

Online survey

Cartwright et al. (2013)

Food locality, self-made production

Use of consumers’ childhood memories in advertising campaigns

Interviews

Autio et al. (2013)

Independent variable(s)

Braun-LaTour Commentary (2007)

Research method

Reference

Attraction to retro music

Development of emotional bonds between companies and consumers

Authenticity of local food, individuals’ relationship with local food, nostalgia

Dependent variable(s)

190 French respondents (54.5% females, mean age: 31.2 yrs.) recruited through social media, email, and face-to-face

–

22 finnish consumers (72.7% women) ranging from 24 to 56 years

Sample(s)

(continued)

Consumers perceived self-produced items as the food type most associated with authentic locality and artisan production. Consumers tended to historicize their relationship to local food, which is seen as nostalgic (e.g., agrarian nostalgia refers to the appreciation of food consumed that was produced nationally). Advertisers should overcome the traditional consideration of nostalgic advertising, using consumers’ childhood memories to develop an emotional bond with companies. People’s interest in retro music seems to be associated with nostalgia and technology innovation.

Main findings

Table 1.1  Some relevant studies related to the use of nostalgia in the marketing, consumer, advertising, and management domains

Research method

Online survey

Survey

Experimental

Reference

Cattaneo and Guerini (2012)

Chang and Feng (2016)

Chou and Lien (2010)

Table 1.1 (continued)

Consumers’ relative preferences for retro brands (compared to new brands)

Dependent variable(s)

Song popularity, lyrics’ relevance, nostalgiarelated thoughts, positive mood, ad execution-related thoughts, attitude toward the advertisement

Nostalgia-related thoughts, positive mood, ad executionrelated thoughts, attitude toward the advertisement, attitude toward the brand

Consumption context Effectiveness of (public vs. private), personal and historical consumer selfnostalgia construal (independent vs. interdependent)

Exposure to retro brands, retro brands’ re-launch strategies

Independent variable(s)

Main findings

Consumers seem to prefer existing brands that have been updated with nostalgic associations rather than exclusively retro brands. Some clearly communicated features in the retro branding strategy (e.g., tangible and updated product features) may drive preferences. Study 1: 300 participants In private consumption contexts, (54% females), aged advertisements are more effective when between 24 and 65 years they are based on personal, rather than (mean age: 38.7); Study historical, nostalgia. The opposite 2: 262 participants (54% occurs in public consumption contexts. females) aged from 21 to These findings only hold for those with 60 years (mean age 35.6) an interdependent self-construal. 276 Taiwanese Previously heard (popular) old songs undergraduates (51.5% positively affect advertising evaluation, females) with an age altering consumers’ moods or range of 17–23 (mean producing favorable nostalgia-related age: 19.7 yrs) thoughts. Lyrics that are more relevant foster positive ad execution-related thoughts, which increase ad attitude and, by extension, affect brand attitude.

264 participants (dominant age group: 18–24)

Sample(s)

Research method

Experimental

Experimental

Reference

Chou and Lien (2014)

Chou and Singhal (2017)

Use of songs from old movies, nostalgia type (historical vs. personal), product involvement, singer gender, gender match-up

Use of popular song in advertising, song familiarity, lyrics’ relevance

Independent variable(s)

Nostalgia, effectiveness of different nostalgia type, ad-induced positive emotions, attitude toward the ad, product attitudes, purchase likelihood

Nostalgia in response to TV commercials, consumers’ emotional response, attitude toward the ad, attitude toward the product, purchase intention

Dependent variable(s) Experiment 1: 89 Taiwanese undergraduates (36% females), aged between 18 and 26 years (mean age: 20.4); Experiment 2: 93 undergraduates (45.2% females) aged from 17 to 23 years (mean age: 19.6) 135 Indian young adults (30.4% females) aged from 20 to 34 years (mean age: 25.1)

Sample(s)

(continued)

While old songs generally evoke nostalgic feelings, those based on historical nostalgia generate higher advertising effects (female singers and gender mismatch generate higher attitudes and intentions); those based on personal nostalgia lead to better ad effects for low-involvement products.

Advertisements that use older songs galvanize nostalgic feelings and more positive nostalgia-related thoughts. Old songs are also associated with positive emotions and higher advertising effectiveness when they are more familiar and their lyrics are more relevant.

Main findings

Sample(s)

Semistructured interviews Netnographic/ semi-directed interviews

Presence of alternative products, economic costs, inertia, nostalgia Nostalgia

Loyalty for disliked brands, repurchase behavior Value co-creation process in an innovative marketing project

Netnographic study: 9 web sources among websites, forums and blogs; Interviews: 12 participants (58.3% females) aged 20–59

14 interviewees (57% females) aged 19–47

Dependent variable(s)

DemirbagKaplan et al. (2015) Errajaa et al. (2013)

Independent variable(s) 25 rural tourism stakeholders (e.g., owners/managers of public and private rural tourism establishments and organizations)

Research method

Christou et al. In-depth Ambiance design of Creation of a nostalgic (2018) semi-structured a rural place (exterior atmosphere, evoked interviews and interior design), nostalgic feelings presence of tangible nostalgia triggers (e.g., objects and memorabilia), presence of traditional food and beverages, social interaction with guests, odors, sounds

Reference

Table 1.1 (continued)

Nostalgia may be important to salvaging a brand-consumer relationship, ensuring repurchase behavior. Consumers display high sensitivity for nostalgia and appreciate past experiences being integrated into new products and services. Companies derive inspiration from consumers’ nostalgic experiences.

The authors suggest several sensory elements in the rural setting that may trigger a nostalgic state to rural tourism visitors. The interviews also showed that while stakeholders regard nostalgia as a positive notion with several benefits, they are probably not fully aware of its potentiality.

Main findings

Research method

Experimental

Survey

Reference

Ford and Merchant (2010)

Gilal et al. (2020)

Use of personally nostalgic (vs. historically/culturally nostalgic or nonnostalgic) advertisement featuring a deleted brand, gender, age

Charity appeal type (nostalgic vs. non-nostalgic), nostalgia proclivity, importance of the evoked memory

Independent variable(s)

Consumers’ intention to engage in brand resurrection movements (BRM)

Emotion levels, donation intentions

Dependent variable(s)

644 participants (64.9% males; mean age: 29.7 yrs.) recruited in public places in Pakistan

Study 1: 103 participants (51.5% females, mean age 49 yrs.) from an online consumer panel; Study 2: 457 participants (58% females, mean age: 66 yrs.) recruited among donors of a regional public television station in the United States; Study 3: 186 participants from an online consumer panel

Sample(s)

(continued)

Nostalgic charity appeals generate higher levels of emotions and donation intentions than their non-nostalgic counterparts. The tendency to experience nostalgia moderates this effect, with nostalgic appeals being more effective among low nostalgiaprone individuals. Notably, the importance of the memory evoked by the nostalgic appeal moderates the impact of nostalgia on emotions and intentions (i.e., nostalgic charity appeals are more effective when they evoke memories that are relevant for consumers). Historically nostalgic advertisements strongly affected customers’ engagement in BRM (followed by culturally nostalgic and personally nostalgic ads). Personally (vs. historically) nostalgic ads have a stronger effect on BRM for males (vs. females). Both personally and historically ads work better for older consumers.

Main findings

Research method

Qualitative (interviews, observations, focus groups)

Experimental

Reference

Goulding (2001)

Hallegatte et al. (2018)

Table 1.1 (continued)

Age, alienation experienced in the present, search for meaning and control, sense of loss in contemporary society, need for social belonging, acknowledgment of the role of history in securing identity, idealization of previous eras, desire for authenticity, individuals’ role in society List of songs (retro vs. contemporary), band lineup (retro vs. contemporary), nostalgia proneness

Independent variable(s)

Sample(s)

Intention to attend a concert, willingness to pay, and word-ofmouth for a concert

181 participants (82.2% males; 63.2% aged 25–54 yrs.) recruited from the discussion forum of Led Zeppelin fans

Tendency to experience 20 semistructured, simple or vicarious in-depth interviews nostalgia (informants aged 18–80) with visitors to Blists Hill Museum (Ironbridge, UK) + 2 weeks of observations of visitors + 4 focus group discussions with a total of 33 participants (held in private houses)

Dependent variable(s)

Nostalgia proneness moderates the effect of a retro brand on consumers’ intentions (i.e., consumers who are more prone to feel nostalgia will experience a higher intention to patronize and willingness to pay in response to a retro brand).

Nostalgia is a situationally specific experiential factor. Two main types of nostalgic behavior can be defined (existential and aesthetic) based on individuals’ role in society, on their experience of alienation in the present, and their degree of social contact.

Main findings

Research method

Qualitative (observations, interviews, open-ended questions)

Survey

Survey

Reference

Hamilton and Wagner (2014)

Heinberg et al. (2020)

Holbrook (1993)

Nostalgic brand positioning, emotional attachment, brand local iconness, brand authenticity, market type (emerging vs. developed), brand innovativeness Age, gender, nostalgia proneness

Aesthetic configuration of the retail space, exposure to nostalgic references, product presentation and rituals

Independent variable(s)

Nostalgia proneness, cinematic tastes and preferences

Emotional attachment, brand local iconness, brand authenticity, brand equity

Evocation of personal and collective memories, sense of belonging and sharing, satisfaction

Dependent variable(s)

Study 1: 167 US participants (43% women) from marketing strategy classes (age range: 21–34 yrs., mean age: 26.4); Study 2: 156 US participants (60% women), aged 21–85 years (mean age: 41.7)

Observations based on 14 afternoon tea venues in two UK cities; interviews with 10 tea room owner-managers; four open-ended questions about their experiences of taking afternoon tea sent to ten tea club members (via email) 2303 consumers (1253 from China and 1050 from Japan), aged 18–55

Sample(s)

(continued)

In emerging markets, emotional attachment and brand local iconness are less capable of mediating the relationship between nostalgic brand positioning and brand equity. (This disadvantage in brand equity creation is reduced at higher levels of brand innovativeness). Nostalgia affects consumers’ preference patterns based on their nostalgia proneness (i.e., consumers higher in nostalgia proneness tend to prefer tenderhearted or musical movies); the effects of age and nostalgia proneness seem to act independently on consumers’ preferences.

Small businesses can effectively convert regular activities into experiential events through the application of nostalgic cues related to product, ritual and aesthetics, which galvanize feelings of belonging and sharing.

Main findings

Research method

Holbrook and Qualitative Schindler (Subjective (2003) personal introspection)

Reference

Table 1.1 (continued) Dependent variable(s)

Sensory experience, Nostalgic memories bond with homeland, evocation, fondness for rites of passage, objects from the past friendships and loved ones, gifts of love, feelings of security, feelings of freedom, performance- and competence-related bond, artistic creativity

Independent variable(s) 51 informants recruited from MBA classes (age range: 20 to 90 years; mean age: 39.9)

Sample(s)

Several key types of nostalgic experiences may explain the meanings that consumers attach to nostalgia in the consumption experience.

Main findings

Research method

Experimental

Reference

Huang et al. (2016)

Recall of a nostalgic experience, consumer patience, salience of the temporal nature of benefits, motivation to savor the past, intensity of the experience recall

Independent variable(s) Nostalgic feeling, savoring of nostalgic memories, prolonging the reminiscence of nostalgic memories, consumer patience, affective reactions, temporal distance of the recalled event, self-esteem, self-efficacy

Dependent variable(s) Study 1: 80 undergraduate students at Nanyang Technological University (51.3% males, mean age: 20.8); Study 2: 124 participants* (52.4% males, mean age: 36.3); Study 3: 122 participants* (49.2% males, mean age: 37.7); Study 4: 149 participants* (49.7 males, mean age: 39); Study 5: 212 participants* (62.3% males, mean age: 37.2); Study 6: 186 participants* (53.2% males, mean age: 38.5); Study 7: 153 participants (45% males, mean age: 39.5); Study 8: 90 patrons who had been waiting to be seated at a restaurant in Singapore (* = recruited on Amazon MTurk)

Sample(s)

(continued)

When recalling a nostalgic experience, individuals are motivated to extend their recollections and relish their memory. Participants generalize the activated disposition to prolonged experiences to later situations, increasing their tolerance for having to wait for the occurrence of events.

Main findings

Experimental

Experimental

Ju et al. (2016)

Ju et al. (2017)

Kazlauske and Survey Gineikiene (2017)

Research method

Reference

Table 1.1 (continued)

Nostalgia, age identity

Life satisfaction, nostalgic feeling, attitude toward the advertisement, emotional response toward the advertised brand

Message focus (nostalgic vs. present-focused), product type (hedonic vs. utilitarian)

Independent variable(s)

Nostalgic product judgment, purchase of nostalgic products

Ad-evoked nostalgia, emotional response toward the advertised brand, attitude toward the advertisement, purchase intention

Sense of self-continuity, attitude toward the advertising, attitude toward the brands, purchase intention

Dependent variable(s)

313 consumers in Lithuania, (39% men), aged 20–75 (mean age: 36)

Study 1a: 199 participants (66% males; age range: 20–40 yrs., mean age: 28.6) recruited on Amazon MTurk; Study 1b: 149 participants recruited from Amazon MTurk (58% males; age range 18–40, mean age: 28.2): 100 carried over from Study 1a alongside 49 new participants 313 participants (59% males, age range: 19–78, mean age: 33.2 yrs.) recruited from Amazon MTurk

Sample(s)

Life satisfaction appears to be positively related to ad-evoked nostalgia. There is also a positive relationship between life satisfaction, the emotional response to the advertised brand, and the attitude toward the advertisement, which are predictors of consumers’ purchase intent. A higher disparity between one’s chronological and cognitive age inclines people to purchase nostalgic products. Age identity (how one perceives himself/herself in terms of age) is a better predictor of people purchasing nostalgic products than nostalgia itself.

Nostalgic advertisements elicited higher perceived self-continuity than presentfocused ones, which bolstered attitude toward the brand and purchase intention (regardless of product type). Sense of self-continuity mediated the relationship between ad-evoked nostalgia and brand attitude.

Main findings

Research method

Qualitative/ longitudinal

Survey

Survey

Reference

Kessous (2015)

Kessous and Roux (2010)

Kessous et al. (2015)

Brand type (nostalgic vs. non-nostalgic)

Brand type (nostalgic vs. non-nostalgic)

The cultural dimension of nostalgic brands, nostalgia, approaches to nostalgia (time-, space- or social-based)

Independent variable(s) First series of interviews: 20 respondents (50% females), aged 22–66; Second series: 16 out of the 20 original interviewees; Third series: 13 participants

Sample(s)

Consumer attachment 606 participants to a brand, self-brand recruited in three public connections, spaces in France storytelling, propensity to buy a brand as a gift, propensity to collect brand-related item/ products

Consumer attachment 613 participants to a brand, self-concept recruited in three public connections, consumer spaces in France preference, purchase intention, buying a brand as a gift, word-of-mouth

Consequences on consumers’ relationships with brands (sweet or bitter connections), nostalgic brand rejection

Dependent variable(s)

(continued)

The effectiveness of nostalgic brand relationships depends on a culture that is more sweet than bitter. The study identifies four cases (the corrupted brand, the immoral brand, the precarious brand and the stereotypical brand) wherein consumers may reject the nostalgic brand based on their cultural environment. Brands considered as nostalgic are associated with higher levels of attachment and self-concept connections. Additionally, consumers prefer brands considered as nostalgic (compared to non-nostalgic), and these brands are also linked with higher levels of purchase intention, the propensity to give as a gift, and word-of-mouth. A brand’s nostalgic quality has positive effects on attachment, self-brand connections, and storytelling. Additionally, a nostalgic brand positively impacts the intention to purchase the brand as a gift and acquire brandrelated products.

Main findings

Film nostalgia, clustering based on film nostalgia

Survey

Kim and Kim (2018)

Independent variable(s)

Life satisfaction, use of nostalgic music in advertising, product category involvement

Research method

Khoshghadam Experimental et al. (2019)

Reference

Table 1.1 (continued) Sample(s)

Study 1: 208 participants (53% females; mean age: 32.7) recruited from Amazon MTurk; Study 2: 67 participants (52% females; mean age: 32.6) recruited from Amazon MTurk Familiarity with the film 610 Korean participants destination, intention (51.3% males) aged 40 to participate in a years or more, who had nostalgia film tourism not visited Hong Kong tour to the film and watched at least two destination, intention of a list of 30 Hong to travel to the film Kong films released destination, preferred between 1970 and 1990, film tourism programs, recognizing at least one involvement, perceived of 11 film stars from cultural proximity, that time perceived image of the destination

Attitude toward the brand, purchase intention

Dependent variable(s)

Film nostalgia appears to be a relevant segmentation variable. Given the multidimensional nature of nostalgia in the context of film tourism, the concept covers five identified domains (yearning for advanced society; memory of movies’ content and stars; reminiscence of mimicry; memory of film backdrops; memory of Hong Kong culture and history).

Nostalgic music appears to be more effective than non-nostalgic music (in terms of attitude toward the brand and purchase intention) for consumers with high life satisfaction, but only in product categories marked as low involvement.

Main findings

Research method

Survey

Reference

Kim et al. (2019)

Sociodemographic characteristics of prospective nostalgia film tourists, psychological characteristics of prospective nostalgia film tourists, behavioral characteristics of prospective nostalgia film tourists, film nostalgia

Independent variable(s) Prevalence of film nostalgia, familiarity with a film destination, intention to participate in film tourism activities, intention to visit film backdrops, intention to taste food featured in the films, intention to visit film sets, intention to buy products featured in the films, intention to meet the films’ stars, intention to visit film museums

Dependent variable(s) 737 participants who had been exposed to Hong Kong films between 1970 and 1990, aged 40 years or more, and that had never visited Hong Kong, that had seen at least two of 28 films released in that period and capable of recognizing at least one of the 11 popular Hong Kong movie stars of this period

Sample(s)

(continued)

The article identifies five domains of film nostalgia (memories of backdrops, stories and movie stars, mimicking, envy, and culture and history). Memories of backdrops and mimicking are best able to predict people’s perceived familiarity with the movies’ origin territory and their future travel intentions.

Main findings

Research method

Experimental

Experimental

Reference

Langaro et al. (2020)

Lasaleta and Loveland (2019)

Table 1.1 (continued)

Exposure to nostalgiathemed advertisements, product involvement, past brand attachment, presence and type (hedges vs. pledges) of probability markers, product type (hedonic vs. utilitarian), consumer tolerance to ambiguity Nostalgia, selfcontinuity, trait authenticity, product personal relevance, state inauthenticity

Independent variable(s)

Perceived authenticity, self-continuity, preference for retro-styled objects

Brand attitude, purchase intention

Dependent variable(s)

Study 1: 120 participants (43.3% females, mean age: 38.2 yrs.) recruited from Amazon MTurk; Study 2: 220 participants (36.4% females, mean age: 35) recruited from Amazon MTurk; Study 3: 72 undergraduates (69.4% females, mean age: 21.1) at a management school; Study 4: 183 participants (41.5% females; mean age: 33) recruited from Amazon MTurk

575 participants (81% between 18 and 26 yrs.) obtained from 2000 mailings sent to university students aged 18–35

Sample(s)

Nostalgic feelings lead to heightened authenticity perception via selfcontinuity. Trait inauthenticity is positively associated with a preference for retro-styled objects, with this effect mediated by nostalgia. When their state authenticity is threatened, participants revealed a higher desire for retro-styled objects that are personally relevant.

Nostalgia-themed advertising correlates with positive effects on brand attitude and purchase intentions for consumers who expressed high past brand attachment. The presence of probability markers did not exert effects (at least in incremental terms) on nostalgia-themed advertising.

Main findings

Research method

Experimental

Reference

Lasaleta et al. (2014)

Nostalgia

Independent variable(s) Willingness to pay, social connectedness, propensity to give away money, money importance, money value, willingness to exert effort to obtain money, smaller coins drawing (proxy of a weaker desire for money)

Dependent variable(s) Experiment 1: 69 undergraduates (55% females, mean age: 21.6 yrs.); Exp. 2: 129 participants (49.6% females, mean age: 24.4); Exp. 3: 83 participants (69.8% females, mean age: 35.5) recruited from Amazon MTurk; Exp. 4: 100 participants (54% females, mean age: 35.5) recruited from Amazon MTurk; Exp. 5: 105 participants (62.8% females, mean age: 36.9) recruited from Amazon MTurk; Exp. 6: 55 undergraduates (43.6% females, mean age: 21.2)

Sample(s)

(continued)

Participants who feel nostalgic become more willing to spend more money on products, to give away more money, and to report that money is relatively less desirable compared to control participants. Additionally, participants drew a smaller amount of coins as a reflection of their lessened desire for money. Social connectedness mediates the relationship between nostalgia and money.

Main findings

Research method

Mixed-method (experimental study and structured interviews)

Survey

Reference

Li et al. (2019)

Loh et al. (2021)

Table 1.1 (continued)

Emotional loneliness, nostalgia, materialism, self-brand connections, emotional brand attachment

Personal nostalgia, historical nostalgia, nostalgic emotions of upbeat/elation, serenity/calm, and warm/tender, hotel brand prominence, hotel brand self-connection

Independent variable(s)

Nostalgia, materialism, self-brand connections, emotional brand attachment, brand loyalty

Upbeat/elation, serenity/calm, warm/ tender emotions, hotel brand prominence, hotel brand selfconnection, willingness to pay to stay with a hotel brand

Dependent variable(s) Experimental study: 281 participants aged 18–70 (mean age: 36.9 yrs.) recruited via Amazon MTurk among US registered users; Structured interviews: 10 MTurk consumers (aged 23–42, mean age: 30 yrs.) who had stayed at a hotel in the previous three months 456 participants (56.4% females; 57.7% aged 30–49) recruited from a sample of working adults in Malaysia

Sample(s)

Consumers’ sense of loneliness is positively associated with nostalgia and materialism, both of which mediate the positive relationship between loneliness and self-brand connections. Self-brand connections mediate the positive relationships that nostalgia and materialism have with emotional brand attachment. The latter variable is positively associated with brand loyalty (thus mediating the relationship between self-brand connections and brand loyalty).

Both personal and historical nostalgia produce positive emotions, but those elicited by personal nostalgia are less intense. Positive emotions are predictors of brand prominence (which is positively associated with consumers’ willingness-to-pay) and brand-self connection.

Main findings

Research method

Loveland et al. Experimental (2010)

Reference

Need to belong, social exclusion, activation of an independent (vs. interdependent) self, consumption of nostalgic products

Independent variable(s) Preference for nostalgic (vs. contemporary) products, need to belong

Dependent variable(s) Study 1a: 136 undergraduates (54.4% females, mean age: 21.7 yrs.) of a Dutch university; Study 1b: 63 participants aged 35–47 (52.3% females, mean age: 42.6) selected from a Dutch web-based population; Study 2: 43 undergraduates (60.4% females, mean age: 24.1 yrs.) of a Dutch university; Study 3: 94 undergraduates (54.2% females, mean age: 21.6 yrs.) of a Dutch university; Study 4: 72 undergraduates (48.6% females, mean age: 21.2 yrs.) of a Dutch university

Sample(s)

(continued)

Consumers who treat the need to belong as a relevant goal are associated with a stronger preference for nostalgic products, with this preference holding both when being socially excluded or when an interdependent self is primed. Consuming nostalgic products (rather than the mere exposure to them) fulfills the need to belong.

Main findings

Research method

Review

Survey

Reference

Marchegiani and Phau (2010a)

Marchegiani and Phau (2010b)

Table 1.1 (continued)

Level of personal nostalgia

Use of personal or historical nostalgia

Independent variable(s)

Number of thoughts, number of personal nostalgia-related thoughts, ratio of personal nostalgicrelated thoughts to total thoughts, number of historical nostalgiarelated thoughts, number of brand/ message-related thoughts, number of ad-execution-related thoughts, attitude toward the advertisement, attitude toward the brand, intention to purchase the brand

Consumers’ cognition, consumers’ emotions, consumers’ attitudes, purchase intention

Dependent variable(s)

514 participants (53% females) aged 18–26, recruited from students of a large Australian university

–

Sample(s)

The type of nostalgic appeal used (personal vs. historical) facilitates different effects on consumers’ reactions. Therefore, treating nostalgia as a unified concept may produce inaccurate predictions of consumers’ responses. An increase in the level of elicited personal nostalgia positively impacts a consumer’s total number of thoughts, the number of personal nostalgiarelated thoughts, and the proportion of personal nostalgic thoughts to total thoughts. The same factor has no effect on the number of historical nostalgic thoughts or the number of brand/ message-related thoughts, but decreases the number of ad execution-related thoughts. Finally, an increase in levels of personal nostalgia is associated with a rise in attitudes toward the ad and the brand, as well as purchase intention.

Main findings

Research method

Experimental

Scale development and validation

Experimental

Reference

Marchegiani and Phau (2012)

Marchegiani and Phau (2013a)

Marchegiani and Phau (2013b)

Personal (or historical) nostalgic thoughts, proportion of personal (or historical) nostalgic thoughts to total thoughts, positively valenced nostalgic thoughts, brand/ message-related thoughts, attitude toward the advertisement, attitude toward the brand Reactions to advertising

Dependent variable(s)

Experiencing historical Intensity of the (vs. personal) nostalgia emotions experienced

Personal nostalgia

Inclusion of music in nostalgic advertisement, nostalgic type (personal vs. historical)

Independent variable(s)

Study 1: 235 participants; Study 2: 211 participants; Study 3: 101 participants; Study 4: 410 participants; Study 5: 228 participants 806 participants from a student sample

244 participants (aged 18–25), recruited from undergraduate students of a large Australian university

Sample(s)

(continued)

Participants experiencing personal nostalgia reported higher intensity of some emotions (upbeat/elation emotion, warm/tender emotion) than those experiencing historical nostalgia.

In both the personal and historical nostalgia conditions, participants developed a more partial attitude toward the advertisement when music was included. When considering a non-nostalgic advertisement, the inclusion of a musical theme produced a higher number of personal nostalgia thoughts, a higher proportion of personal nostalgic thoughts to total thoughts, more positively valenced personal nostalgic thoughts, and a more positive attitude toward the brand. The authors developed and validated a six-item, seven-point Likert scale that can be used to assess consumers’ personal nostalgia response to an advertisement.

Main findings

Research method

Review

Scale development and validation

Reference

Merchant and Ford (2008)

Merchant et al. (2016)

Table 1.1 (continued)

Personal memories, cultural nostalgia, attitude toward the ad, perceptions of brand heritage

Nostalgia, vicarious nostalgia, personal nostalgia, emotional utility, familial utility, commitment

Independent variable(s)

Attitude toward the ad, perceptions of brand heritage, brand bonds, purchase intentions, brand choice

Emotional utility, familial utility, commitment, giving behavior

Dependent variable(s)

Study 1: 36 participants (50% females) aged 20–71 divided into eight focus groups; Study 2: 210 undergraduate students in a large French university (51% males, mean age: 19 yrs.); Study 3: 135 consumers (non-student, 50% males, mean age: 45 yrs.); Study 4: 118 students aged 18–25 (mean age: 20 yrs.) enrolled in a marketing course at a large French university; Study 5: 200 subjects (non-students) aged 18–82 (mean age: 46 yrs.) from a French online consumer panel

–

Sample(s)

The authors proposed a conceptual model to explain the effect of nostalgia on charitable giving. They found that the nostalgia evoked by non-profit organizations may affect the emotional and familial utility derived by the donor, which then drives the donor’s dedication to the organization. Nostalgic advertising awakens personal memories and cultural mythos: the former are positively associated with attitude toward the ad and to consumers’ perceptions of brand heritage. These two factors are positively associated with attitude toward the brand and brand bonds (antecedents of purchase intentions that are positively associated with brand choice).

Main findings

Research method

Scale development

Experimental

Reference

Merchant et al. (2013)

Muehling (2013)

Exposure to personal vs. historical nostalgic advertisement, personal nostalgia, historical nostalgia, attitude toward the advertisement

Past imagery, positive emotions, negative emotions, physiological reactions, nostalgia proneness, loneliness, brand loyalty

Independent variable(s)

Personal nostalgia, historical nostalgia, attitude toward the advertisement, brand attitude

Advertising-evoked personal nostalgia, past imagery, positive emotions, negative emotions, physiological reactions, social support, brand bonds

Dependent variable(s)

178 participants (51% males) aged 19–60 (mean age: 24.8) recruited from a major college campus in the western USA

Study 1: 58 consumers (56.8% females) aged 19–60; Study 2: 200 participants from an online consumer panel; Study 3: 145 consumers from an online consumer panel; Study 4: a total sample of 262 consumers from an online consumer panel

Sample(s)

(continued)

The authors proposed a scale to measure advertising-evoked personal nostalgia, which encompasses four dimensions: past imagery, positive emotions, negative emotions, and physiological reactions. The measure is capable of affecting the attitude toward the ad as well as brand choice, and the authors also found that the personal nostalgia evoked by ads may strengthen bonds with the focal brand and enhance perceptions of social support. Regardless of whether individuals are exposed to a personally or historically nostalgic advertisement, personal nostalgic responses have a higher positive influence on individuals’ attitude toward both the ad and the brand. Finally, attitude toward the ad mediates the influence of nostalgia on brand attitudes.

Main findings

Research method

Experimental

Reference

Muehling and Pascal (2011)

Table 1.1 (continued)

Exposure to personal nostalgic (vs. historical nostalgic or nonnostalgic) advertisements, self-directed thoughts, general nostalgic thoughts, ad execution-related thoughts, brand-/ message-related thoughts

Independent variable(s) Self-directed thoughts, positive affect, attitude toward the advertisement, attitude toward the brand, brand-/message-related thoughts, ad message points recalled, ad execution-related thoughts

Dependent variable(s) 249 undergraduate students aged 19–60 (52.4% males, mean age: 25.6 yrs.) recruited from a major university

Sample(s)

Exposure to a personal nostalgic ad produced better consumer responses (than a historical nostalgic or nonnostalgic ad) when considering measures of self-directed thoughts, positive affect and attitude toward the ad. When examining cognitive measures (brand/message-related thoughts and message recall), a personally nostalgic ad has a comparable effectiveness to a historically nostalgic ad, but less impact than a non-nostalgic ad. For participants exposed to the personal nostalgic ad, brand attitudes were shaped by valenced self-directed and ad execution-related thoughts. For participants exposed to the historical nostalgic ad, both general nostalgic thoughts and ad execution-related thoughts influenced their brand attitudes.

Main findings

Research method

Experimental

Experimental

Reference

Muehling and Pascal (2012)

Muehling and Sprott (2004)

Advertising type (nostalgic vs. non-nostalgic)

Advertisement type (personal nostalgic vs. historical nostalgic vs. non-nostalgic)

Independent variable(s)

Number of nostalgic thoughts, proportion of nostalgic thoughts to total thoughts, valence of nostalgic thoughts, brand-/message-related thoughts, attitude toward the ad, attitude toward the brand

Attitude toward the advertisement, attitude toward the brand, self-reflection, ad involvement

Dependent variable(s)

159 undergraduate students (54% males) aged 18–35 (mean age: 21.4 yrs.)

269 undergraduate students aged 19–60 (52.4% males; mean age: 25.6 yrs.) recruited from a major university

Sample(s)

(continued)

The personal nostalgic advertisement produced more favorable ad attitudes than historical or non-nostalgic ones. Nostalgic ads are capable of eliciting more favorable brand attitudes and higher levels of self-reflection and advertising involvement than the non-nostalgic condition. Compared to a non-nostalgic advertisement, a nostalgic ad generates more nostalgic thoughts in both absolute terms and as a proportion of total thoughts. Similarly, a nostalgic ad produces a more positively valenced set of nostalgic thoughts, while bolstering attitudes toward the ad and the brand.

Main findings

Research method

Experimental

Experimental

Reference

Muehling et al. (2014)

Nam et al. (2016)

Table 1.1 (continued)

Advertisement type (nostalgic vs. non-nostalgic), self-concept type (communal vs. agentic), social connectedness, self-positivity

Advertisement type (nostalgia-themed vs. non-nostalgic ad), prior exposure to the brand during childhood, personal attachment to the brand formed during childhood

Independent variable(s)

Purchase intention, recommendation intention, attitude toward the ad

Brand attitude, purchase intention, ad involvement, attitude toward the ad

Dependent variable(s)

Main findings

The impact of nostalgia on brandrelated consumer responses (i.e., brand attitude and purchase intention) is higher for individuals with past personal associations (i.e., past brand exposure and past brand attachment) with the advertised brand. With regard to ad-related measures (ad involvement and attitude toward the ad), the nostalgic ad encouraged better responses than the non-nostalgic ad regardless of participants’ prior connection to the brand. Experiment 1: 157 Nostalgia operates differently for undergraduates participants with an agentic vs. communal (60.5% women, mean self-concept: agentic participants (i.e., age: 21 yrs.); Exp. 2: 232 those with a more pronounced participants (47.8% self-oriented tendency) are more likely to women, mean age: purchase and recommend a nostalgic 31 yrs.) product due to higher self-positivity. Communal participants (i.e., those more concerned with others) are more likely to purchase and recommend a nostalgic product due to heightened social connectedness. Likewise, self-positivity (vs. social connectedness) enhances agentic (vs. communal) individuals’ attitudes toward the ad.

180 participants (54.4% females) aged 18–35 (mean age: 22.1 yrs.) recruited from Amazon MTurk

Sample(s)

Experimental

Survey

Orth and Gal (2012)

Özhan et al. (2018)

Openness to experience, nostalgia proneness, product involvement

Brand type (nostalgic vs. non-nostalgic), need for cognition, consumer hope

Scale validation Personal nostalgia, historical nostalgia, nostalgia proneness, familiarity, media usage frequency

Natterer (2014)

Independent variable(s)

Research method

Reference

Product involvement, brand loyalty

Scale effectiveness across different entertainment media, purchase intention, word-of-mouth intention, re-experience intention, personal and historical nostalgia related to movies, song and videogames Consumer mood, purchase intention

Dependent variable(s)

1392 participants (54% females) aged above 20 years (45.8% aged 30–49) and living in the Thrace region of Turkey

101 participants aged 30–74 (57% women, mean age: 43.9 yrs.) recruited from a consumer panel

Study 1: 479 students (aged 18–30) attending a German university; Study 2: 206 students (aged 18–30) from a German university

Sample(s)

(continued)

Nostalgic brands boost consumers’ moods and lead to more favorable purchase intentions than non-nostalgic brands. Participants with a high need for cognition and high hope exhibited mood improvements in response to nostalgic brands. Openness to experience has a significant impact on product involvement, which, in turn, influences brand loyalty. Instead, nostalgia proneness has no significant effect on product involvement.

Contrary to historical nostalgia, personal nostalgia has a positive effect on the purchase and word-of-mouth intentions related to entertainment media. Personal (but not historical) nostalgia is most often galvanized by familiar, popular, and frequently used elements from the past of the target audience.

Main findings

Research method

Conceptual

Experimental

Reference

Pajoutan and Seifried (2014)

Phau and Marchegiani (2011)

Table 1.1 (continued)

Intensity of historical nostalgia experienced

Nostalgia, use of informational technologies

Independent variable(s) –

Sample(s)

Number of thoughts, 292 participants (aged number of nostalgia18–26 years) recruited related thoughts, ratio from a student sample of historical nostalgiarelated thoughts to total thoughts, number of personal nostalgiarelated thoughts, number of brand-/ message-related thoughts, ad executionrelated thoughts, thoughts’ positive valence, attitude toward the ad, attitude toward the brand, intention to purchase the brand

Competitive advantage for sport organizations

Dependent variable(s)

The authors proposed a five-stage conceptual flowchart (1. Identification of need; 2. Feasibility; 3. Nostalgia compatibility; 4. Implementation; 5. Post-event analysis) for sport organizations looking to use nostalgia as an organizational strategy. The intensity of historical nostalgia evoked has no effect on participants’ total number of thoughts but does have a partial effect on historical nostalgic thoughts—both in terms of absolute number and in proportion to total ones. The intensity of historical nostalgia elicited has no effect on the number of personal nostalgic thoughts and on the number of brand-/message-related thoughts, but a partial impact on ad-execution-related thoughts. Finally, respondents’ expressed level of historical nostalgia significantly influences their attitudes (toward the ad and the brand) and their brand purchase intention.

Main findings

Research method

Russell (2008) Ethnographic/ multimethod (observations, interviews and survey)

Reference

Search for one’s heritage, age, number of ancestral tour options purchased, perception of a genuine experience, fulfillment of the cultural experience, global tour satisfaction

Independent variable(s) Number of ancestral tour options purchased, number of souvenirs purchased for oneself, number of souvenirs purchased for others, perception of an authentic experience, fulfillment of the cultural experience, general tour satisfaction, likelihood to recommend the tour to others, likelihood to use the tour company again

Dependent variable(s) A tour group of 39 people (53.8% females, mean age: 59 yrs.) within a 23-day all-inclusive guided bus tour of the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland in the summer of 2005

Sample(s)

(continued)

Ancestral tourism reflects a desire to directly experience places as part of a search for one’s heritage. Participants’ age is positively associated with the overall number of ancestral tour options bought and the number of souvenirs purchased for others, but negatively related to the number of souvenirs purchased for oneself. The number of ancestral tour options bought was positively linked to both the perception of experience authenticity and fulfillment of the cultural experience. Those last two outcomes were significantly related to overall satisfaction, which positively correlated with the probability of recommending the tour and selecting the tour company again.

Main findings

Product category, gender, nostalgia proneness

Experimental

Schindler and Holbrook (2003)

Independent variable(s)

Life stage to which a recalled experience belongs

Research method

Ryynänen and Content Heinonen analysis (2018) (interpretive approach)

Reference

Table 1.1 (continued)

Nostalgic preferences for non-entertainment products, productspecific age (the year of automobile introduction minus the year of the respondent’s birth)

Definition of temporal frames of the recalled experience, descriptive style of the recalled experience

Dependent variable(s)

225 participants (64% men) aged 16–92 (mean age: 47.5 yrs.) recruited among high school and undergraduate college classes

A 90-page text corpus with 480 analyzable writings that described participants’ stories and memories related to experiences with a Finnish multi-product company manufacturing thermos bottles

Sample(s)

Participants remembered the physical features of the products through temporally structured experiences, including details about places, practices, experiences, and sensory aspects (taste, smell). Four temporal frames related to consumers’ recalled experiences were identified: strong nostalgia (experiences from one’s childhood), light nostalgia (experiences from being young), the recent past (recent events or experiences encountered during adulthood) and practices for the future (ongoing consumption practices that can be transferred to others in the future). Male participants showed evidence of nostalgic attachment to products that were popular when they were young, and this effect was moderated by nostalgia proneness.

Main findings

Research method

Survey

Reference

Sellick (2004)

Dependent variable(s)

Travel motives Effective segmentation (learning, self-esteem, and profiling of the relaxation, connection, senior travel market solace, physical activities, kinship, nostalgic reminiscence, social sharing), travel risks (physical risk, facilities risk, psychological risk, value risk), cognitive age, demographics (gender, marital status, employment, education, income, health)

Independent variable(s) 986 respondents (55% females) recruited among members (aged 50 years or older) of the largest seniors’ association in Australia (National Seniors Association, NSA)

Sample(s)

(continued)

The authors attempted to segment the senior travel market by combining psychological characteristics (travel motives, travel risks and cognitive age) and demographics. Nostalgia appears to be a relevant travel motive for many senior travelers. Additionally, the ‘nostalgia travelers’ profile’ assigns higher importance to the nostalgic reminiscences travel-motive, with this predominant reason judged as more important than self-esteem, relaxation, and family and friends.

Main findings

Research method

Scale development and validation

Reference

Shields and Johnson (2016a)

Table 1.1 (continued)

Association with an individual’s lived past, childhood brand nostalgia, nostalgia proneness

Independent variable(s) Childhood brand nostalgia, attitude toward the brand, brand commitment, brand loyalty

Dependent variable(s) Study 1: 124 undergraduate students aged 19–47 (57.3% males); Study 2: 309 participants (8% males) aged 18–86 recruited through a social media site; Study 3: 169 undergraduate students (26% males) aged 19–45; Study 4: 256 consumers (64.1% males) aged 18–77 and recruited through Amazon MTurk; Study 5: 95 undergraduate students (22.1% males) aged 18–44; Study 6: 56 undergraduate students (25% males) aged 20–40; Study 7: 200 consumers (36.4% males) aged 18–68 recruited through Amazon MTurk

Sample(s)

The authors developed a scale to measure individuals’ childhood brand nostalgia in order to capture individual differences in nostalgic feelings toward a childhood brand. The findings also show that individuals exhibit varying levels of nostalgic feelings for multiple brands across several product categories.

Main findings

Research method

Experimental

Survey

Reference

Shields and Johnson (2016b)

Sierra and McQuitty (2007)

Attitudes about the past, yearning for the past

Brand nostalgia, perceived brand change (deviation from the original), nostalgia proneness

Independent variable(s)

Intention to purchase nostalgic products

Attitude toward the original brand, perceived brand change, attitude toward the changed brand, behavioral intentions (purchase likelihood) toward the changed brand

Dependent variable(s) Study 1: 253 undergraduate students (35% males, mean age: 22.2); Study 2: 155 consumers (45% males) aged 18–75 (mean age: 38.9) recruited from Amazon MTurk; Study 3: 332 undergraduate students (31% males, mean age: 20.4); Study 4: 263 consumers (59% males) aged 18–74 (mean age: 31.6) recruited from Amazon MTurk 198 participants (53% females, 49% aged 20–35 yrs.) recruited by students (asked to solicit five adults) of an upper-level marketing course of a medium-sized US university

Sample(s)

(continued)

Both cognitive (attitude toward the past) and emotional factors (yearning for the past) are capable of affecting participants’ purchase intention for nostalgic products.

Consumers with more nostalgia toward a brand were biased toward the brand’s original iteration. (They had a more positive attitude toward it.) As a result, they perceived the brand as having changed more than less nostalgic consumers. Nostalgia proneness moderated this effect: Upon perceiving a major change, participants who were highly nostalgic for a brand exhibited a larger decrease in their attitude and intentions toward said brand than less nostalgic participants.

Main findings

Research method

Review

Experimental

Reference

Spaid (2013)

Srivastava et al. (2019)

Table 1.1 (continued)

Past-present contrast, positive affect, negative affect, processing style (top-down vs. bottom-up) for the evaluation of a nostalgic stimulus

Typology of nostalgic triggers (place-, promotion-, price-, and product-related), authenticity form (indexical and/or iconic)

Independent variable(s) –

Sample(s)

Main findings

The research illustrates a variety of tactics that producers and retailers may employ to prompt nostalgia within the retail environment. Such nostalgic triggers can be organized around the 4Ps model (place, promotion, price, and product). Meanwhile, authenticity form (indexical and iconic) captures how nostalgic elements project either a real or simulated past, which can differently shape the intensity of the nostalgic appeal. Positive affect, negative Experiment 1: 98 The negative affect of nostalgia can be affect, self-brand postgraduate students made less pronounced through connection, willingness (55% males, mean age: past-present contrast (i.e., the degree to to pay a premium price 24 yrs.) from a leading which a stimulus can change the Indian university; Exp. 2: perception about the present). As per 57 postgraduate students the cognitive processing style, the (51% males, mean age: positive (vs. negative) affect evoked by 24) from a leading nostalgia leads to top-down (vs. national institute bottom-up) processing. Additionally, in India top-down processing leads to a higher self-brand connection and a higher willingness to pay a premium price.

Retail environment’s ability to evoke nostalgia

Dependent variable(s)

Research method

Review

Reference

Stern (1992)

Personal nostalgia advertisements, historical nostalgia advertisements

Independent variable(s) Advertising elements (setting, plot, characters, values, tone), perceiver’s mental process, perceiver’s response (empathy, idealization of the self)

Dependent variable(s) –

Sample(s)

(continued)

The authors offered a nostalgia taxonomy that distinguishes between historical and personal nostalgia, showing the distinct advertising elements (e.g., setting, plot, characters, values, tone) that characterize each nostalgia type. Personal and historical nostalgia advertisements also affect consumers’ empathy and self-idealization.

Main findings

Research method

Triantafillidou Survey and Siomkos (2014)

Reference

Table 1.1 (continued)

Hedonism, escapism, flow, learning of a consumption activity, socialization and sense of communitas, challenge of a consumption activity, consumer satisfaction, nostalgia intensity, word-of-mouth behavior

Independent variable(s) Consumer satisfaction, nostalgia intensity, word-of-mouth behavior, word-ofmouth intention, re-experience intention

Dependent variable(s) 645 participants (61.2% females), with the majority of respondents that were university students aged 18–25 (62.2%)

Sample(s)

Consumer satisfaction can be significantly and positively predicted by the hedonic component; participants’ feelings of escapism and hedonism affected the intensity of the nostalgia felt. The feelings of communitas and the learning dimension of the activity positively affected WOM behavior, while the latter was negatively influenced by the feelings of personal challenge. WOM intention is positively associated with the learning and hedonic dimensions of the experience and negatively linked with the challenge dimension. Meanwhile, the intention to re-experience the activity is positively related to the hedonic aspect of the experience and negatively linked with flow. The satisfaction with the experience significantly affected nostalgia intensity, WOM behavior (a positive predictor of WOM intention) and re-experience intention; satisfaction did not affect WOM intention. Nostalgia intensity positively impacts WOM behavior (and intention to re-experience the activity).

Main findings

Research method

Experimental

Reference

Wang et al. (2018)

Nostalgia, social connectedness, eating companions (eating with friends vs. strangers or alone)

Independent variable(s) Preference for indulgent (vs. healthy) foods, social connectedness

Dependent variable(s) Study 1A: 155 participants (45.2% females, mean age: 34.2 yrs.) recruited on Amazon MTurk; Study 1B: 101 consumers (40.6% females, mean age: 32.9 yrs) intercepted in a busy street in Shanghai (China); Study 2: 146 participants (45.2% females, mean age: 46.1 yrs.) recruited on Amazon MTurk; Study 3: 310 participants (51.3% females, mean age: 34 yrs.) recruited on Amazon MTurk

Sample(s)

(continued)

Nostalgia seems to increase preference for indulgent foods, with social connectedness mediating the relationship between nostalgia and food preference. Nostalgic participants also preferred the indulgent food when eating with friends than when eating with strangers or alone.

Main findings

Research method

Survey

Survey

Reference

Wen et al. (2019)

Youn (2020)

Table 1.1 (continued)

Nostalgia, brand trust, brand viability (belief that the brand accomplishes its value promise), brand intentionality (belief that the brand will actively safeguard consumers’ interests and give them a sense of security) Need to belong, nostalgia proneness, Facebook use intensity, self-brand connections, ad-evoked nostalgia

Independent variable(s)

Nostalgia proneness, ad-evoked nostalgia on Facebook, Facebook use intensity, connections with the brand advertised on Facebook newsfeeds, brand engagement behaviors on Facebook

Brand trust, brand viability, brand intentionality, brand attachment, emotional bond, brand self-connectedness

Dependent variable(s)

395 participants (Facebook users) recruited from Amazon MTurk (about 59% females, mean age: 41 yrs.)

427 participants (51.5% males; 76.4% aged 20–40) recruited in nostalgia-themed restaurants in China

Sample(s)

Need to belong and nostalgia proneness positively affect ad-evoked nostalgia, which, in turn, positively impacts self-brand connections and intention to be involved in brand engagement behaviors on Facebook.

The nostalgic emotion significantly impacted brand trust (and its subdimensions of brand viability and brand intentionality) and brand attachment (and its sub-dimensions of emotional bond and brand-self connectedness). Brand viability and brand intentionality both mediated the impact of the nostalgic emotion on emotional bond and brand-self connectedness.

Main findings

Evoked nostalgia, social influence (number of Pinterest pins, likes, and followers)

Experimental

Youn and Jin (2017)

Independent variable(s)

Brand type (nostalgic vs. non-nostalgic), brand personality dimensions (sincerity, excitement, competence, sophistication, ruggedness)

Research method

Youn and Survey Dodoo (2021)

Reference

Attitude toward the interest board, attitude toward the brand, intention to purchase the advertised brand, intention to pass along branded pins to others, relationship quality with the advertised brand

Brand attachment, self-brand connections, separation distress, brand relationship quality, brand engagement behaviors on social media

Dependent variable(s)

143 college students (75% women, mean age: 21.6)

Study 1: 374 participants (52% females, mean age: 36 yrs.); Study 2: 374 participants (48% females, mean age: 36 yrs.)

Sample(s)

(continued)

Nostalgic brands display higher brand attachment, self-brand connections, separation distress, relationship quality, and brand engagement behaviors on social media than their non-nostalgic counterparts. In both studies, nostalgic brands are also rated higher on three brand personality dimensions (sincerity, excitement, and competence). The sincerity and excitement dimensions mediated the relationship between the brand nostalgic status and the relational outcomes. Evoked nostalgia has a strong effect on consumers’ attitudes toward the Pinterest board and the brand, as well as their purchase intention, willingness to pass along branded pins, and brandconsumer relationship quality. Social influence moderates the impact of nostalgia on the abovementioned measures, with a more favorable impact of nostalgia when social influence is high.

Main findings

Research method

Experimental

Experimental

Reference

Zhao et al. (2014a)

Zhao et al. (2014b)

Table 1.1 (continued)

Consumer self-concept (independent vs. interdependent), promotional nostalgia appeal (individualistic vs. collectivistic) Advertising appeal (nostalgic vs. non-nostalgic), consumer affective state (positive vs. negative)

Independent variable(s)

Ad-evoked memories (positive thoughts of the past, positive emotions), attitude toward the advertised brand, purchase intention

Brand attitude

Dependent variable(s)

Study 1: 126 undergraduate students (55% females, mean age: 21 yrs.) from a large public university; Study 2: 164 participants (55% females, mean age: 29 yrs.) recruited from Amazon MTurk

113 undergraduate students (55% females; mean age: 21.4) from a major university in southern China

Sample(s)

An individualistic (vs. collectivistic) nostalgia appeal is more effective for consumers with an independent (vs. interdependent) self-concept. The authors found no main effect of the nostalgia appeal type. Consumers in a positive affective state appear to report more positive effects evoked by nostalgia: specifically, they express more positive memories and brand-related responses to nostalgic (vs. non-nostalgic) advertisements. Overall, nostalgic appeals can produce positive effects on consumers, which are subsequently reflected as benefits for the advertised brands.

Main findings

Research method

Experimental

Reference

Zhou et al. (2012)

Nostalgia, empathy toward those in need

Independent variable(s) Charitable intentions, tangible monetary donations, empathy toward those in need

Dependent variable(s) Study 1: 43 Chinese undergraduate students (55.8% females) aged 18–24 (mean age: 21.7 yrs.); Study 2: 71 Chinese undergraduate students (56.3% females) aged 17–24 (mean age: 19 yrs.); Study 3: 40 Chinese undergraduate students (60% females) aged 19–33 (mean age: 23.1 yrs.); Study 4: 64 expatriates and overseas students (34.3% females) in two Chinese Universities, aged 16–62 (mean age: 25.8 yrs.); Study 5: 108 Chinese undergraduate and graduate students (55.6% females) aged 17–45 (mean age: 20.8 yrs.)

Sample(s)

(continued)

Nostalgia increases people’s charitable intentions, and this effect is mediated by empathy toward those in need. Furthermore, nostalgia increases tangible charitable behavior.

Main findings

Research method

Experimental

Reference

Zhou et al. (2021)

Table 1.1 (continued) Dependent variable(s)

Nostalgia, perceived New product adoption social support, product likelihood, perceived type, self-construal social support (independent vs. interdependent)

Independent variable(s) Study 1: 184 students (53.8% females, mean age: 25.1 yrs.); Study 2: 180 students (46.1% females, mean age: 25.3 yrs.); Study 3: 642 participants (59.8% females, mean age: 27.7 yrs.)

Sample(s)

Nostalgia increases new product adoption, and this positive effect is also mediated by social support. However, the effect of nostalgia on social support only holds for consumers with an interdependent self-construal.

Main findings

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CHAPTER 2

Nostalgic Advertising Usage in Sports Season Tickets Campaigns

1   Introduction Nostalgia is a positive recollection of a lived past—often an attempt to cope with the adversities of the present (e.g., Sedikides et al., 2008) by believing that life was better before than it is now (cf. Davis, 1979). Through nostalgia, individuals may take refuge in memories in order to search for a happiness that seems currently lost (cf. Holbrook, 1993). Although both scholars and practitioners have emphasized that nostalgia can be a powerful marketing tool (Dan, 2020), there is a scarcity of research on the use of nostalgia as a communication lever in the sports marketing context. To address this gap, the present study investigates the effects of nostalgic advertising in sports season ticket campaigns (i.e., advertising communication aimed at promoting the sales of seasonal tickets for a sports team). Building on the nostalgia literature, this study suggests that nostalgic advertising may exert a different impact on consumers’ choices (i.e., intention to purchase the ticket and to share positive word-of-mouth for the advertised campaign) depending on their current attitude toward the sports team. Hence, recalling a glorious sporting past may be the most effective strategy for persuading fans who have a current negative attitude toward their favorite team due to poor recent sporting performances. Conversely, non-nostalgic ads may represent a better way to target fans who hold a positive attitude toward their team due to its positive recent © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 M. Pichierri, Nostalgia Marketing, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-20914-7_2

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performances. Additionally, the study proposes that nostalgic advertising has a different impact on consumer intentions depending on the fandom level of the target audience. Hence, nostalgic ads may prove more appealing for individuals who describe themselves as ardent fans, since those individuals attach extreme importance to team performance. The Chapter is structured as follows: The next section presents the study’s theoretical background, examines some prior literature on nostalgia and consumer behavior, attempts to link nostalgia with sports marketing, and finally describes the research hypotheses. The subsequent sections illustrate the experimental methodology and the study’s results, which verified the proposed hypotheses. The Chapter then concludes with a discussion of the findings’ implications for theory and practice (especially in regard to sports marketing), outlines some limitations, and suggests possible directions for future research.

2  Theoretical Background The psychological literature has long known that individuals tend to resort to nostalgia—i.e., a positive recollection of a lived past associated with the belief that life was better before (cf. Davis, 1979)—as a way to cope with the adversities of the present (cf. Sedikides et al., 2008; Wildschut et al., 2006). In this way, individuals take virtual refuge in memories in order to recover a sense of happiness that seems currently lost (cf. Holbrook, 1993). In this perspective, nostalgia represents an adaptive human trait (Turner, 1987) that helps individuals fulfill a need for security by offering satisfying reference points that may be temporarily lacking (cf. Kessous & Roux, 2008). In short, nostalgia reassures individuals of past happiness and achievements (Davis, 1977), which constitute a sort of resource for enhancing individuals’ well-being (Zauberman et al., 2009). Indeed, the recollection pushed by nostalgia activates a positive vision of the past that may then be projected onto individuals’ future choices (cf. Cheung et  al., 2013). In this vein, nostalgia is capable of reframing past events through a present lens, which can form connections between past and present that help people find sense in their lives (Sedikides & Wildschut, 2018). The literature on this topic reinforces the idea that nostalgia has some beneficial functions: for example, it acts as a buffer against current anxiety and stress (Routledge et  al., 2008). For this reason, both scholars and practitioners have taken particular interest in nostalgia as a marketing tool.

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For instance, the marketing literature has shown that nostalgia may affect consumer preference (e.g., Rindfleisch et al., 2000) and attachment (e.g., Thomson et  al., 2005) through its ability to regulate avoidance and approach behaviors (Stephan et al., 2014). As reviewed by Lasaleta et al. (2014), nostalgia has been cited as a top trend in several consumer products (i.e., toys, foods, and movies), with a rising number of companies embracing nostalgia-based strategies to facilitate an emotional attachment to their goods and services (Kessous & Roux, 2008). Consequently, various research streams have investigated nostalgia’s influence in marketing. For instance, in the domain of leisure and tourism marketing, nostalgia has been found to predict destination image (Leong et al., 2015), pleasurable emotional responses, and patrons’ revisit intentions (Hwang & Hyun, 2013). In the context of advertising research, Muehling and Sprott (2004) found that advertisements including a nostalgic theme fostered higher ad and brand attitudes than non-nostalgic ads, whereas Pascal et al. (2002) showed a positive linkage between the nostalgic feelings for an advertisement and the attitude towards it. The psychological literature suggests that nostalgia is triggered by aversive situations or stimuli. For instance, nostalgia could be triggered by negative moods (e.g., Wildschut et al., 2006) or the perception that one’s past and present are disjointed (Sedikides, Wildschut, Gaertner, et  al., 2008)—with the nostalgic feeling counteracting these aversive states (Stephan et al., 2014). In this view, a nostalgic attachment to an object or situation can create a metaphorical link with the past that mitigates feelings related to the present (Stephan et al., 2014). Nevertheless, as underlined by Muehling and Pascal (2012), there have been few efforts to understand why nostalgic advertising produces the effects that have been reported by the scholarly literature—and this is especially apparent in sports marketing. Although nostalgia has a noticeable role in affecting consumer attitudes and subsequent intentions in the marketing field (Merchant & Rose, 2013; Pascal et  al., 2002), scholars argue that nostalgia has been inadequately studied in the sports marketing realm (Gordon, 2013). Although sports marketing strategies often revolve around consumer emotions (e.g., Gordon, 2013), recent investigations have mainly focused on the role of nostalgia in the sports tourism context (e.g., Cho et  al., 2014, 2020; Fairley et  al., 2017). For instance, some studies have found that nostalgia is a primary push factor in traveling decisions for football fans (Fairley, 2003), while other studies have focused on the link between nostalgia and sports consumers’ decision to visit their

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teams’ hometowns. In this light, nostalgic memories may be used to attract sport consumers to their preferred team’s hometown (e.g., Gibson, 1998; Robinson & Gammon, 2004), and recent evidences have confirmed this association. Indeed, according to Chang et al. (2019), nostalgia promotes self-continuous feelings (i.e., feelings of connection between the past and present self) among sports fans, which in turn increase their level of pride in a team and their intention to visit its hometown. According to Scola and Gordon (2018, 2019), there is an ever-growing usage of retro marketing techniques (i.e., communication strategies that help their fans reminisce about the team’s past) in sports team marketing practices. However, academics have scarcely examined this phenomenon. In fact, there have very few efforts to fully comprehend the effectiveness of nostalgia-based practices, with some studies only considering nostalgia as a possible experiential benefit (e.g., Bauer et  al., 2008). Among the authors who have investigated the topic, Gladden and Funk (2002) found that nostalgia plays a central role in developing brand associations among sports consumers, with memories of a favorite team impacting individuals’ fandom levels. In the same vein, Funk and James (2006) showed that nostalgia is associated with fans’ loyalty. Recently, Cho and Chiu (2020) identified a direct, positive relationship between nostalgia and customer equity, which in turn affects consumer behavioral intentions. However, to the best of the author’s knowledge, no study has considered the effectiveness of nostalgic advertising in sports season ticket campaigns (i.e., advertising communication aimed at promoting the sales of seasonal tickets for a sports team). Furthermore, it is not clear whether people’s fandom level or current attitude toward their team will differently shape the influence of nostalgic marketing. To address these gaps, the present study advances that nostalgic advertising may have a different effect on sports consumers’ choices (i.e., decision to purchase a season ticket and intention to share positive word-of-mouth for the advertised campaign) based on their current attitude toward their favorite team. As sports fans are heavily influenced by team performance (e.g., Gray & Wert-Gray, 2012), and nostalgia represents a strategy for coping with difficult times (Batcho, 2013), the study advances that recalling a glorious sporting past may be an effective strategy for persuading fans whose attitude toward the team has soured due to weak recent performances. Conversely, non-nostalgic ads may represent a better way to target fans who hold a positive attitude due to positive recent performances. Formally:

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H1: Nostalgic advertising may exert a different effect on sports consumers’ choices (i.e., intention to purchase a ticket and to share positive word-of-mouth for the advertised campaign) depending on their current attitude toward the sports team. Nostalgic appeals may also exert a different impact on consumer intentions depending on the fandom level of the target audience. Hence, individuals who describe themselves as ardent fans—and thus attach extreme importance to their favorite team—may be more receptive to nostalgic appeals. Formally: H2: Nostalgic advertising has a different impact on sports consumers’ intentions depending on the fandom level of the target audience.

3  The Experimental Study 3.1  Method One hundred and fifty-five respondents (71% males; mean age  =  35.9 years) were gathered from Prolific, under the condition that they were regular watchers of soccer/association football. The study was conducted in line with research ethics principles, obtaining participants’ informed consent prior to data collection and reassuring them about the anonymity of the questionnaire. Participants were randomly assigned to one of the two experimental conditions (nostalgic vs. non-nostalgic advertisement) in a between-­ subjects experimental design. Participants were first asked to contemplate their favorite football team and then answered some questions related to the team’s recent performance. Specifically, participants were asked to judge their favorite team’s performance in recent seasons (e.g., victories, trophies, achievements) by reporting their current attitude toward the team on three, 7-point semantic differential scales (e.g., “Unfavorable/ Favorable”; adaptation of the brand attitude scale from Till & Busler, 2000). Next, participants were asked to envision that their preferred football team was preparing a new advertising campaign promoting the subscription of season tickets for the upcoming season. They were then presented with one of two possible advertisements, which were specifically created to serve as experimental stimuli. Both fictitious advertisements were similar in their layout and elements—depicting the profile of a celebrating fan,

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with a stadium in the background and no team-specific iconography. They only differed in terms of the headline (i.e., the title of the subscription campaign), which was deliberately designed to evoke nostalgia. The nostalgic version used the headline “Back to victory” to trigger memories of the team’s past; the non-nostalgic version adopted a more neutral headline that did not reference the team’s past—“A winning future”. In addition, following Muehling et al.’s (2014) procedure, the nostalgic advertisement featured a sepia-colored filter, which traditionally conveys the idea of aging photographs (and by extension, nostalgia). The two advertisements were pretested for realism (MNostalgic = 4.69; MNon-nostalgic = 4.59) and were both perceived as realistic (F (1, 153)  =  0.15, p  =  0.70). The two mock-up advertisements used as experimental stimuli are featured in Appendix 1. After looking at the print advertisement in one of the two experimental conditions, participants were asked: to state their affective response toward the ad using three items from Pham and Avnet’ (2004) (e.g., “The advertisement is catchy”) and assessed on 7-point Likert scales (1 = Totally disagree; 7 = Totally agree); to report their intention to consider purchasing the promoted season ticket using three items drawn from Ko et al. (2005) and rated on 7-point semantic differential scales (e.g., “Improbable/ Probable”); and to evaluate their intention to spread positive word-of-­ mouth (WOM) for the advertising campaign using four items drawn from Brüggen et al. (2011) (e.g., “I am likely to say positive things about the advertised campaign to other people”) and assessed on 7-point Likert scales (1 = Strongly disagree; 7 = Strongly agree). Finally, participants were asked to look at the advertisement a final time and assess its believability through five items drawn from Chang (2011) (e.g., “The advertisement above is believable”) and assessed on 7-point Likert scales (1 = Totally disagree; 7 = Totally agree). Afterward, they were asked to fill in the Sport Fandom Questionnaire (SFQ) by Wann (2002) and reported their agreement/disagreement with five statements (e.g., “I consider myself to be a football fan”) assessed on 7-point Likert scales (1 = Totally disagree; 7 = Totally agree). Lastly, they offered some basic demographic information (i.e., their gender and age). 3.2  Results All the employed scales were first factor-analyzed (extraction method: Principal Components; no rotation), which yielded factorial structures in line with the earlier works that developed the scales (i.e., with high factor

2  NOSTALGIC ADVERTISING USAGE IN SPORTS SEASON TICKETS CAMPAIGNS 

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loadings on separate factors). A subsequent reliability analysis of the scales revealed robust Cronbach’s alphas (Team Attitude = 0.93; Ad Affective Response = 0.95; Purchase Intention = 0.95; WOM = 0.97; SFQ = 0.92; Ad Believability = 0.94; see Appendix 2 for details). Accordingly, the items included in the scales were averaged to form single variables for the aforementioned measures. Secondly, an ANOVA was performed to further ascertain that the two fictitious stimuli did not differ in terms of affective response to the ad (MNostalgic = 4.09; MNon-nostalgic = 4.23; F (1, 153) = 0.30, p = 0.59), nor in terms of ad believability (MNostalgic  =  4.50; MNon-nostalgic  =  4.67; F (1, 153) = 0.57, p = 0.45). In order to test the first research hypothesis, the sample was split according to the median value of the Team Attitude variable (Median = 5.00). Then, a two-way MANOVA was conducted in order to examine the impact of nostalgic advertising and attitude toward the team on purchase intention, as well as on the intention to spread positive word-­ of-­mouth for the ad campaign. The results revealed a marginally significant multivariate difference for the interaction between advertising type and attitude toward the team on the combined dependent variable (F (2, 150) = 2.71, p = 0.07, Wilks’ Lambda = 0.97; partial eta squared = 0.04). When the results for the two investigated dependent variables were considered separately, there appeared to be a statistically significant interaction between advertising type and attitude toward the team, for both purchase intention (albeit marginally, F (1, 151)  =  3.67, p  =  0.058, partial eta squared = 0.02) and word-of-mouth (F (1, 151) = 5.28, p = 0.023, partial eta squared = 0.03). Subsequent planned contrasts (Fig. 2.1) revealed that the nostalgic ad generated higher purchase and word-of-mouth intentions than the non-nostalgic one for individuals who held a negative attitude toward their team, although the differences were marginally significant (purchase intention: MNostalgic = 4.02; MNon-nostalgic = 3.20, t(151) = −1.88, p = 0.06; word-of-mouth intention: MNostalgic = 4.22; MNon-nostalgic = 3.49, t(64.72) = −1.85, p = 0.07). Instead, planned contrasts showed that for individuals who held a positive attitude toward their team, the nostalgic ad generated, on average, smaller purchase and word-of-mouth intentions. There were no statistically significant differences in the results for either intention type (purchase intention: MNostalgic  =  3.99; MNon-nostalgic  =  4.28; t(151)  =  0.76, p  =  0.45; word-of-mouth: MNostalgic  =  4.15; MNon-­ nostalgic = 4.64, t(79.83) = 1.41, p = 0.16).

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Fig. 2.1  Purchase Intention (A) and Word-of-Mouth Intention (B) as a function of Advertising Type and Attitude Toward the Team

Afterward, in order to verify the second research hypothesis, the sample was divided into two groups based on the median value of the SFQ score (Median  =  5.00). Next, another two-way MANOVA was performed to investigate the effect of fandom levels and advertising type on purchase and word-of-mouth intentions. The results exhibited a significant multivariate difference for the interaction between advertising type and fandom level on the combined dependent variable (F (2, 150) = 6.69, p = 0.002, Wilks’ Lambda  =  0.92; partial eta squared  =  0.08). As one can expect, when the results for the dependent variables were considered separately, the effect of fandom level was statistically significant for both purchase intention (F (1, 151) = 13.60, p