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Feeling Nostalgic? So are we.
Using nostalgia to connect with your customers
Design Buddha
July 17, 2024
When the world gets crazy, when there are monumental crises hitting us on many fronts, it’s overwhelming, depressing and downright exhausting. You want to have a positive impact but it can make you feel powerless to do something about it.
As a brand, how can you compete with all this?
You can’t control what’s going on across the globe. But you can control how you show up. Somehow, you have to justify why you matter amongst all the crises.
Incorporating nostalgia into your brand is one strategy you can use.
When the future is scary, the past can look pretty darn good. They don’t call it the ‘good ‘ol days’ for nothing. The past tends to look better and better the more into the future we go. Which is why nostalgia can be a powerful brand-building strategy. You’re tapping into positive associations that make people feel something special inside.
But you can’t just appropriate nostalgia and bolt it onto your brand. You must have a relevant tie. It must look natural and logical.
Here are several nostalgia-based strategies for creating strong emotional connections with your customers:
1. Nostalgic storytelling: this helps you bridge past and present and offer familiarity and comfort. It can be a welcome escape from today.
2. Interactive campaigns that invite your audience to share personal nostalgic experiences or throwback posts on social media. You’re making them part of your story.
3. Incorporate positive memories of the past through vintage designs, retro packaging or slogans that spark fond memories.
4. Tap into shared and relevant cultural references to create a sense of community with your customers.
5. Collaborate with influencers to share personal stories or memories related to your brand. This is particularly effective for brands that have a longer heritage that you might be trying to reinvigorate.
Uncovering the nostalgic elements that matter most
But first, how do you know what nostalgic qualities will mean the most to your customers? Do some homework; some of this is more obvious than other aspects.
1. Identify your audience’s demographics to learn about their cultural background and age range.
2. Then look at what psychological benefits might come from nostalgia, especially during tough times or major transitions. Such benefits help with loneliness, anxiety and can offer an inspiring spark.
3. What are their hobbies, media habits and character traits? This helps you learn what cultural touchpoint resonate most.
4. Use social listening tools to learn what TV shows, events or styles bring back fond memories. There are free tools such as Google alerts or Answer the Public or a variety of paid tools such as Sprout Social and BuzzSumo.
5. Ask them. Are they most fond of their childhood, teen years or certain decade?
6. Look for those shared experiences that take people down memory lane.
7. If your brand is location-specific, identify nostalgic elements from the area and incorporate them into your marketing.
There are many different ways to infuse nostalgia into your brand and marketing to create positive emotional connections with your customers. If this is a strategy that fits with your brand, embed it authentically. Your customers are smart and they can sense when you’re insincere. And then you risk it backfiring. This isn’t a ‘flavor of the month’ approach but one that can have enduring value.
A kickstart for you:
List all of the different elements of nostalgia your audience might connect with. Prioritize and rank them based on which are the strongest fit with your brand. Create narratives and mood boards and see which are the most natural and have the most potential across all of your brand elements.