The Modern Uses of Nostalgia - An empirical investigation of the effects of nostalgia and authenticity in the 21th century

Abstract: The use of nostalgia in marketing has increased in popularity lately, especially when launching new brands. Even so, the theory surrounding nostalgia is not entirely complete. Up till now researchers have focused on the beneficial effects of nostalgia without considering if the effects are still applicable to the upcoming generation, "Generation Y", nor if the perceived authenticity of the brand is affected by the discrepancy between the release date and the time referred to. The purpose of this article was therefore to investigate if general, historical and personal nostalgia could be evoked in Generation Y and their possible effects. Further, the perceived authenticity was measured providing information about the release date of the brand in order to examine the consequences of using nostalgia when launching new products. This article found no proof that personal nostalgia could be evoked in Generation Y, unlike previous articles examining the whole population. However, proof was found that general and historical nostalgia could be evoked and produced higher ad attitudes. These results oppose earlier knowledge about personal and historical nostalgia, a result of the fragmented environment Generation Y grew up in, which obstructs the formation of common personal nostalgic cues. Furthermore, perceived authenticity was not shown to be affected by the information given on the release dates of the brands, which suggests that new companies can use historical nostalgia when targeting Generation Y.