How Strong is the Pull of the Past?

Merchant, Altaf; LaTour, Kathryn A.; Ford, John B.; LaTour, Michael S.

doi:10.2501/jar-53-2-150-165

Cited by 71 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…However, its usage is not without risk (Braun-LaTour, 2007). Evoking the past into advertisings can lead to both happy and sad feelings (Merchant, LaTour, Ford, & LaTour, 2013;Zeitlin & Westwood, 1986).…”

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confidence: 99%

Nostalgia and brands: a sweet rather than a bitter cultural evocation of the past

Kessous

2015

Journal of Marketing Management

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Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rjmm20 Nostalgia and brands: a sweet rather than a bitter cultural evocation of the past Aurélie Kessous To cite this article: Aurélie Kessous (2015) Nostalgia and brands: a sweet rather than a bitter cultural evocation Abstract This study focuses on the cultural consumer environment of brands considered as nostalgic. The research questions are thus the following: what is the impact of culture on the consumer relationship with brands considered as nostalgic? In which cases are these relationships positive, and in which cases are they negative? To answer these questions, a longitudinal data collection was conducted, consisting of interviewing the same sample of respondents three times, at more or less one-year intervals. The results were analysed taking into account three dimensions of culture: time, place and social aspects. In the time-based approach, brands are associated with traditional celebrations and rites of passage. Thus, they give rise to 'traditional purchase' and consumer loyalty. In the place-based approach, brands evoke original authenticity and myths. They offer protection to reduce perceived risks and therefore facilitate consumers' trust. In the social approach, brands are associated with symbolic icons and attract communities of fans. Finally, this article shows that culture involves sweeter rather than bitter nostalgic brand relationships. This article brings to light four cases when the consumer cultural environment may induce a rejection of the nostalgic brand: (1) the 'corrupted' brand; (2) the 'immoral' brand; (3) the 'precarious' brand; and (4) the 'stereotypical' brand. It shows that only one case -the 'corrupted' brand -may be particularly prejudicial due to its unwelcome role in History.

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confidence: 99%

Nostalgia and brands: a sweet rather than a bitter cultural evocation of the past

Kessous

2015

Journal of Marketing Management

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“…While marketing research focussed primarily on defining corporate heritage (Urde et al ., 2007; Blombäck and Brunninge, 2009; Burghausen and Balmer, 2014, 2017; Balmer and Burghausen, 2019; Maier and Andersen, 2017) and how consumers perceive it (Merchant and Rose, 2013; Merchant et al ., 2013; Pecot et al ., 2018, 2019; Rindell and Santos, 2021), to the best of our knowledge there is still a lack of recognition on how -related an outward aspects, for instance how companies communicate in practice their corporate heritage to external stakeholders. Specifically, our findings provide five main contributions.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…how corporate heritage influences the company's interactions with consumers and stakeholders, is much more limited. Empirical studies of heritage marketing in consumer marketing research have mainly focussed on the assessment of corporate heritage effects on consumers (Wiedmann et al ., 2011; Wuestefeld et al ., 2012; Balmer and Chen, 2017; Rindell, 2017; Pecot et al ., 2018, 2019), with emphasis on purchase intention (Napoli et al ., 2014; Rose et al ., 2016) and the roles played by nostalgia (Merchant and Rose, 2013; Merchant et al ., 2013) and authenticity (Rindell and Santos, 2021). Although it has been recognised that corporate heritage potentially conveys a competitive advantage to organisations (Cooper et al ., 2015) and that corporate heritage influences the interplay between products and corporate brands (Santos et al ., 2016), existing literature still lacks exploration of how companies exploit their corporate heritage and achieve competitive advantage.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Corporate heritage communication strategies of iconic Italian brands: a multiple case study

Sacco

Conz

2023

CCIJ

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PurposeThe paper aims to explore how companies communicate their heritage by drawing on heritage marketing and corporate communications literature and mapping the corporate heritage communication strategies of iconic Italian brands.Design/methodology/approachThe study adopts an inductive multiple case study approach, analysing the communication of corporate heritage by nine iconic Italian brands (Pastificio Lucio Garofalo, Barovier & Toso, Pasta Farina, Ducati, Amaro Montenegro, Fiat, Bonomelli, Olivetti and Illy).FindingsIn communicating corporate heritage, companies adopt different strategies that vary along two main dimensions – the subject of the story and the tone of voice of the content. The strategies are: (1) heritage for authenticity; (2) heritage for market leadership; and (3) heritage for continuity.Practical implicationsFrom a theoretical point of view, the study highlights that heritage marketing strategies vary according to underlying strategic themes and narrative approaches. From a managerial point of view, it offers a preliminary guide for the development of corporate heritage communications, also providing indications for their implementation.Originality/valueThis study is amongst the firsts to investigate the strategic antecedents that can shape corporate heritage communication strategies. It represents an integration of the existing literature, which is limited to the descriptive presentation of heritage marketing principles and tools.

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“…Researchers have also identified some of the functions of nostalgia. For example, nostalgia influences consumer attitudes toward advertising (Merchant et al, 2013), charitable donations (Merchant et al, 2011), and preferences for a variety of products and services including automobiles (Braun-LaTour et al, 2007), foods/cosmetics (Loveland et al, 2010), songs (Batcho, 2007), movies (Holbrook & Schindler, 1996), and fashion (Schindler & Holbrook, 1993). Additionally, subjects who remembered the past with nostalgia indicated various positive psychological functions served such as increasing social bonds, positive self-regard, positive affect (Wildschut et al, 2006), and positive expectations for the future (optimism) (Cheung et al, 2013) as well as decreasing negative moods, such as loneliness (Zhou et al, 2008) and the accessibility of thoughts of death (Routledge et al, 2008).…”

Section: What Is Nostalgia?mentioning

confidence: 99%

The multilevel memory–reward coactivation framework of nostalgia: a literature review

Oba¹,

Sugiura²

2021

Preprint

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Nostalgia, a sentimental longing for the past, has attracted attention in the fields of psychology and marketing in recent years. Although these studies have identified what nostalgia is, including its triggers and functions, the question of how nostalgia is induced remains unanswered. In this article, we review existing psychological models and recent neuroimaging studies that have investigated the neural correlates of nostalgia and propose a provisional framework of nostalgia induction. The multilevel memory‒reward coactivation framework expects that different types of autobiographical memory (AM), such as episodic AM and semantic AM, activate the associated mesolimbic reward system. This framework also assumes a working self, a complex set of active goals and associated self-images, which enables us to explain individual differences in nostalgia experience by influencing what is remembered and how the retrieved information is evaluated. This framework is advantageous in that it can integrate existing psychological models into one model and can explain individual differences in nostalgia that are important for the use of nostalgia, especially in clinical situations.

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How Strong is the Pull of the Past?

Cited by 71 publications

References 4 publications

Nostalgia and brands: a sweet rather than a bitter cultural evocation of the past

Nostalgia and brands: a sweet rather than a bitter cultural evocation of the past

Corporate heritage communication strategies of iconic Italian brands: a multiple case study

The multilevel memory–reward coactivation framework of nostalgia: a literature review

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