The Use and Impacts of Nostalgia in Media - Essay Example

The Use and Impacts of Nostalgia in Media Grade The Use of Nostalgia and Its Impacts in Media The media has a close perceptional, documented and factual relationship with nostalgia, such that media tends to serve as a virtual access to history (Boym, 2001). Nostalgia is generally a thoughtful connection between the present and the past. There has been an overwhelming transformation of the media through technological evolutions, which has transformed the media industry such as advertising, music, film and fashion industries (Wheatley, 2007). Nostalgia brings past successful experiences and triggers an emotional twist that creates a wish to experience past successes, in the terms of customers (Boym, 2001). It helps the customers to easily remember and relate with past products or services, which in turn helps them to accept new or rebranded products. As a matter of fact, many companies or organizations are using nostalgia as a marketing strategy as a strategy to simultaneously reach out to new consumers and retain current consumers (Uten and Solomon, 2013). This has been triggered by the digitization of the world through technology, and the global economic trends. The global economy is highly competitive and hence there is need for retaining excellent past products, rebranding these products, as well as innovatively creating new products (Wheatley, 2007). The use of nostalgia as a marketing strategy helps in creating familiarity within the consumers and further creates curiosity to try new products or services from the same organizations or companies. The use of old products to usher in new or rebranded ones gives the consumers a sense of belonging and helps the customer to easily familiarize and accept the new or rebranded products (Uten and Solomon, 2013). As much as there is a need to develop new products due to market competition, it is also important to relate new products with other past successful products and maintain the latter. The fashion industry has seen the development of great designs that have a conceptual vintage design (Tungate, 2008). Nostalgia has been highly used as a strategic marketing tool in advertisement, where is helps in reaching out to resident and new consumers who relate to successful past experiences with the product (Sprengler, 2009). This creates a sense of security, comfort and belonging and hence creates a strong foundation for marketers to advertise their products, which has led to mass media diversity, especially in advertisement. Pull media is a classification of traditional media, such as television, newspaper, or radio, where the consumer is willingly engaged (Bell and Gray, 2007). On the contrary, the push media propel their messages/content without the consent of the consumer. This is enabled by the use of technologies and the internet, such as the pop-up ads, commercial company links, or the automobile windshield direction displays. Nostalgia is a common feeling in the human population, and hence every person has unique nostalgic experiences. According to research, nostalgia is universal and helps in the increment of self-confidence and self-esteem, and hence increases self-confidence (Bell and Gray, 2007). In marketing, marketers and advertisers use nostalgia to create a social connection with their customers and new consumers through the creation of a sense of protection and belonging. Technology advancement has created excellent platforms for companies to interact and connect with customers, which is also an effective communication channel for feedback (Anton, 2010). The evolution in social media brings has created a good communication channel where company marketers can reach out to consumers fast and easily. Factually, advertising in social media acts as an excellent and effective way of channeling nostalgia. Nostalgia creates and integration of cultural identity into products and services, and hence creates a high demands for these products and services. Cultural identity, as a distinction tool, creates product identity which many consumers can easily identify with (Boym, 2001). Nostalgia is an effective way to connect with the consumer fraternity and an effective marketing strategy for new, branded or rebranded products. It easily draws the attention of the consumer and gives them a recurrent connection to past success and interaction with the product. This helps the consumer to familiarize with the product through past memories and experiences, and hence leads to a sense of protection and product confidence (Boym, 2001). Many successful companies, such as BMW and Apple, have been using nostalgia in social networking through the use of popular social networking sites, such as Facebook, for the advertisement of their products and consumer engagement (Oontz and Mon, 2014). Companies use nostalgia in their respective product advertisement, where the consumers are able to easily relate to the previous product versions and rebranded versions (McElroy and Rebecca, 2011). This was clearly exhibited by the Apple Company in their advertisement of new products such as the Apple iPhone 6, where the Company marketers used pictures and ads of previous versions of iPhone to create a close connection and product familiarity with their new product. The use of nostalgia in media, such as communication, tourism, advertising, film and music industries, creates consumer awareness of media and technology evolution that has led to the development of new advanced products. The original iPhone version and the respective improved versions have been effectively used by the Apple Company to advertise its current improved version of the iPhone, such as the new iPhone 6. On the other hand, BMW have been using social media to advertise their new car models through a close reference to past successful models. BMW has successfully used the famous social media hash tag #ThrowbackThursday, represented as #TBT, in social networking to advertise their new car models (Oontz and Mon, 2014). The success of the use of nostalgia in the media can be easily exhibited through the success of the companies and marketers who have successfully advertised their products. The famous #TBT is also being effectively used by other advertisers and marketers for easier consumer, which increases nostalgic feelings in the consumers for easier identification with respective products. Nostalgia helps the consumers to relate with the past products and appreciate the new products through the identification of company efforts and growth (McElroy and Rebecca, 2011). The use of nostalgia in media has also led to huge growth and development in companies, as well as an embracement of changing technology and global market trends. The use of social media has risen around the globe, and hence companies have an easier access and relation to the consumers. This has reduced advertisement costs and increased consumer access to new products due to the nostalgic relation to the past products (McElroy and Rebecca, 2011). Consumer diversity has also increased due to diversity in culture, which has in turn helped companies to be creative and innovative in the creation of new products and improvement of existing products. This has led to increased consumer satisfaction indices, and huge company successes (Bearden, Netemeyer and Haws, 2011). The American Express has also exhibited the success of using nostalgia in media, whereby the company posts its historical images and previous products and services in social media (Lange, 2011). The company receives an overwhelming consumer response in Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites since the consumers are able to relate with the company through nostalgia. The company uses its archives to identify consumer needs through increased nostalgia. Consumers get obsessed with the success of previous products and this gives them a nostalgic urge to try new or rebranded products/services from the same company or organization (Reece, 2010). This helps in increasing market competition, which in turn ensures product improvement and development of new products. Consequently, the companies are able to simultaneously satisfy their consumers and reap huge profits, and hence the companies’ growth is achieved (Sharp, 2011). The success of the American Express, BMW, Apple, and other companies is a clear indication that nostalgia is an effective strategic marketing tool that integrates culture and technology. Nostalgia creates a personalized retrieval of past success memories, though sometimes it can be a negative feeling of loss or failure, and important emotional experience integrated with a great sense of protection, strength and/or belonging (Pickering and Emily, 2006). The use of nostalgia as a marketing strategy creates a sense of both originality and continuity, in the terms of products or services, which are greatly appreciated by the consumer. The consumer is able to feel convinced of originality and experiences excitement to try new or rebranded products that have similarities (Sobchack, 2004). Despite the fact that nostalgia may create a sense of lack of innovation or creativity, it exhibits an excellent use of culture and heritage for both the company and the consumer (Holdsworth, 2011). The use of nostalgia as a marketing strategy creates a platform for rebranding and re-invention of products and services, which gives the consumers highly valued senses of belonging and originality (Bearden, Netemeyer and Haws, 2011). Changes in the global economy and technology trends have led to fast access to information for many consumers, and hence there is a high prevalence of extreme skeptical and nostalgic thinking. Companies must, therefore, be very innovative to keep up-to-date in global trends as well as withstand market competition. Nostalgia has proven effective in innovation and creation of new products without losing product originality. Product originality must be maintained to keep consumer confidence and attract other consumers (Sharp, 2011). The media has retained a status quo in maintaining vintage culture and integrating it with modern technology for the satisfaction of consumer needs, as exhibited by the YouTube social media (Hilderbrand, 2007). On the other hand, nostalgia provides and maintains shared values and familiarity. This necessitates companies to develop products uniquely and innovatively, and in line with changing technologies, without compromising shared values and consumer familiarity (Hansen, 2010). There is a mutual relationship between nostalgia and products, which is a critical determinant of the relationship between companies and consumers (Lange, 2011). In accordance to this, companies and marketers in the music industry must exploit nostalgia as a strategic marketing tool to retain their customers and attract new ones, and also stay up-to-date with changing economic and technology trends (Long, 2008). Nostalgia has been viewed as a commoditization tool in the media industry, such as film, advertising and music industries. Many nostalgic moments are related to our past youth experiences and this makes it hard to create new nostalgic moment as age creeps in. Nostalgia usually associates with first-time experiences, such as great vintage films, ‘old school’ music of the 80’s and 90’s, vintage products, such as vintage cars, and others. Nostalgia is all about experiences or products that the consumer identifies with, as per the success level during the experience (Booth, 2011). Many consumers associate with and value product originality as much as they appreciate product improvement. As a matter of fact, nostalgia tends to nurture a sense of belonging and improves consumer confidence on products they identify with (Bearden, Netemeyer and Haws, 2011). Many film makers use vintage designs in creating modern films to maintain the culture and originality, as well as integrate advancements in accordance to modern film technology. In the music industry, many listeners tend to listen to music and recording that they identify with their young stage of life (Holdsworth, 2011). Performing artists prefer emulation of the exotic music of the 80’s and 90’s since most of their audiences can easily connect and enjoy (Long, 2008). Though the music industry has gradually evolved, there is still a sense of originality from past music and recordings (Sprengler, 2009). This has seen artists emulate the styles of olden music writing and recording, with a motive of creating a sense of belonging for their audience and through a sense of originality. There is an existing fascination with the 80’s and 90’s music that has led to a huge transformation in the music and film industries. Nostalgic moments are bound to be repetitive and always create a sense of pleasure and belonging for the consumer, with a respective sense of originality for the company (Bearden, Netemeyer and Haws, 2011). Companies use media as the main marketing platform, which doubles as a competition platform. Companies must create a unique product identity through branding and promotion, and simultaneously maintain the product originality (Brown-Rose, 2009). Companies and marketers must develop or adopt marketing techniques, such as media advertising, with an objective to identify consumer needs that are expressed in relation to specific products. The success level of original products should be closely evaluated for the identification of probable consumer nostalgia, as per the consumer demands and needs (Bandyopadhyay, 2008). The integration of vintage music production and content has greatly contributed to great growth in the music industry, with a great sense of originality (Tinker, 2012). Many companies have integrated nostalgia in product design as a market strategy to create consumer emotion and market their brands (Baer, 2001). Marketers of company brands use nostalgia to draw attention of the consumers through triggering their obsession and experiences with past products and brands . The use of nostalgia in the media has led to great company successes, as seen through the likes of BMW and Apple. I would argue out that it is harder for a person to let go of past success experiences, as much as it is to replace these experiences with new ones (Hansen, 2010). In this perspective, the use of nostalgia in media is a conservative impulse. However, it can easily become a barrier to innovation and new product development. Consumer confidence is based on past experiences that are tightly integrated with consumer nostalgia. The use of media as a marketing tool should focus on past successful products to draw consumer attention and ensure consumer satisfaction. The global economic trend and technology trends are based on prediction experiences and product improvement. As a matter of fact, consumers identify with their past experiences as a reference point in product choice (Boym, 2001). Nostalgia helps the consumer to relate with the past products, create an interest with the current product, and appreciate improvement made on the original product for the achievement of the current product (Booth, 2011). Research has proven that consumers develop a sense of belonging and confidence when they relate with nostalgic products, and hence product innovators and marketers must use nostalgia as a unique marketing strategy. Consumers tend to appreciate product originality, and hence the evident success of newly-developed products modified from original products. This is evident in the success of Apple’s iPhone 6 that is an extensive improvement of other iPhone models. Modern technology has enables an evolution of vintage products and a development of new products that have a similar originality (Reece, 2010). The use of modern technology in companies has embraced old school products to be able to maintain consumer attention and interest. The fashion industry tends to keep past era and trends. The use of nostalgia in product design and advertising creates a strong emotional relationship and interest in the consumer. It also helps companies to be up-to-date with technology trends, as well as maintenance of concurrent product development. The inspiration of nostalgic product development is diverse and ensures product growth, stiff market competition, embracement of changing technology, and consumer satisfaction in the long run (Oontz and Mon, 2014). In conclusion, nostalgic moments are bound to be repetitive and always create a sense of pleasure and belonging for the consumer. The integration of nostalgia in product development also ensures the maintenance of product originality, which in turn boosts consumer interest and confidence in the products (Bearden, Netemeyer and Haws, 2011). As a matter of fact, nostalgia provides and maintains shared values and familiarity. This is critical for company growth in the terms of customer numbers, product development and profit margins. The use of social media is effective in marketing since consumer reach is fast and effective (Uten and Solomon, 2013). The use of nostalgia as a marketing strategy creates a sense of both originality and continuity, in the terms of products or services, which are greatly appreciated by the consumer. Additionally, nostalgia helps the consumers to relate with the past products and appreciate the new products through the identification of company efforts and growth (Bandyopadhyay, 2008). Changes in the global economy and technology trends have led to fast access to information for many consumers, and hence there is a high prevalence of extreme skeptical and nostalgic thinking. Therefore, the use of nostalgia in media is a conservative impulse. Factually, advertising in social media acts as an excellent and effective way of channeling nostalgia. The evolution in social media brings has created a good communication channel where company marketers can reach out to consumers fast and easily. The use of nostalgia in product development ensures maintenance of product originality, growth and continuity (Sprengler, 2009). References Anton, C. 2010, Valuation and media ecology: ethics, morals, and laws. Cresskill, N.J.: Hampton Press. Baer, A. 2001, ‘Consuming history and memory through mass media products,’ European Journal of Cultural Studies. Vol. 4, pp. 491-501. Bandyopadhyay, R. 2008, ‘Nostalgia, Identity and Tourism: Bollywood in the Indian, Diaspora Journal of Tourism and Cultural Change. Vol. 6, no. 2, pp. 70-100. Bearden, O., Netemeyer, G. & Haws, L. 2011, Handbook of marketing scales: multi-item measures for marketing and consumer behavior research. Thousand Oaks: Sage. 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