The nostalgia in branding and advertising
I recently came across an academic review on the psychology of nostalgia in branding. It’s a clear attempt to understand why certain memories still influence how people respond to brands today. In an environment filled with constant invention, the paper offers a calmer perspective: memory hasn’t lost its persuasive power at all.
What the research actually shows
The review makes nostalgia remarkably practical. It identifies three functions that explain why brands lean on their past, and it highlights one boundary that determines whether this works or falls flat.
Nostalgia steadies people.
When life feels fast or diffuse, familiar cues restore a sense of personal continuity. A brand that has accompanied someone through multiple stages of life becomes more than a product, it becomes a reference point. This stabilising effect makes people more inclined to trust the brands that evoke it.
Nostalgia softens emotional resistance.
Experiments consistently show that nostalgic triggers lift mood. Warmer emotion increases openness. It becomes easier for people to accept a message, a product extension or even a repositioning when the emotional landscape around the brand already feels welcoming.
Nostalgia strengthens social connection.
It evokes shared habits, family rituals, generational markers. Brands that tap into these layers create a subtle sense of belonging, and belonging often turns into preference long before rational evaluation begins.
The boundary that keeps everything honest.
Nostalgia only works when it aligns with the brand’s identity and still feels relevant today. When a brand claims a heritage it never owned or leans on retro cues without any real link to its present reality, the emotional effect evaporates. Instead of comfort, consumers register inconsistency.
Examples in the real world
Belgian brands illustrate these dynamics in a straightforward way. SPA has built equity by staying recognisable. Its slow evolution preserves the cues people associate with purity and reliability. The brand feels anchored because its signals remain familiar.
Ritchie operates differently. Its revival leans into a stylised mid-century world. An atmosphere rather than a literal memory. The appeal lies in the coherence of that world. People enjoy stepping into it, even if they never lived through the era it references.
These two cases show how nostalgia can attach itself to stability in one context and to cultural imagination in another.
Strategic implications and how to work with them
The research suggests that nostalgia becomes an asset when it helps a brand clarify where it is headed. SPA’s consistency shows how heritage can steady the perception of innovation: new products feel less abrupt when the surrounding cues remain familiar. For heritage brands, the discipline lies in deciding which elements must remain intact and which can evolve without disturbing recognition.
Ritchie illustrates how a revived brand can use historical nostalgia to build a world that feels approachable. That world needs coherence; once the references scatter, the invitation weakens. Nostalgia in this mode doesn’t need factual accuracy, it needs stylistic integrity.
Across both, the strategic question stays the same: which part of the brand’s past still carries interpretive power? The answer often appears in surprisingly small details: colour choices, typographic echoes, tonal gestures. These are the elements that help consumers place the brand within their own timeline.
Nostalgia therefore becomes more than an aesthetic. It becomes a way to pace change, preserve meaning and prepare consumers emotionally for what comes next.
