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| The more things change... |
Back when TV was black-and-white and “doctors” pitched cigarettes during Uncle Miltie’s commercial breaks, selling was simple: just follow the money. The money was in the hands of dad and mom, who were resolutely suburban, and invariably aged 30-45. Look back on the ad campaigns of the day, and you’ll see that the vast majority of them were targeted laser-like at this precise demographic.
Oh, but how times have changed. Advertisers must still follow the money, but that money has dispersed beyond all expectation. Three distinct generations–boomers, Xers, and millennials–are holding purse-strings these days, and sellers are making divergent, concerted pitches for all three.
There are of course no limits to the ways of doing that, but it’s interesting to note that one method in particular is being used across that entire spectrum: an appeal to nostalgia.
We’ve told you recently about brands from the baby boomers’ yesteryears being brought back for profitable reprises.
But nostalgia, it seems, has no definable shelf-life, and marketers seem willing to leverage ever more recent memories in hopes of moving product.
If you, for instance, loved the Eighties then MillerCoors is betting you’ll also love its retro Miller Lite packaging, last seen in stores in the late 1970s. For over a year now they’ve been re-dressing their premier low-cal beer in the same cans and bottles they wore when introduced way back in 1972. The beer itself hasn’t changed––Miller Lite is still brewed according to the same recipe used since day one. It’s the packaging alone that has evolved, then devolved, all in the name of nostalgia.
And nostalgia can be even more late-model than that; here’s one for the millennials. Coca-Cola is reintroducing Surge, an iconic ‘90s-era citrus concoction that disappeared a mere 12 years ago. For many of us that’s hardly enough time to have even noticed it was gone.
We may scoff, but in the end the proof of all these gambits will be in the pudding. If consumers are buying, then selling to their nostalgia must be an efficacious idea. But it seems to us there has to be a point of diminishing returns here. If not, then we can only take this strategy to the extreme: Once any product starts to falter, just take it off the shelves for a few weeks, then bring it back to great fanfare and shouts of “You missed us, right?!”
Let nostalgia be true nostalgia, is all we’re saying. Forcing it, especially before its due time, seems desperate and desperately artificial. Consumers might not be seeing it this way...yet. But trust us, if this hand is overplayed consumers will notice and they’ll start equating commercial nostalgia with distasteful manipulation.
And hey, it’s not like there aren’t alternatives. There’s one time-tested method for winning over any buyer of any age: offer them what they want, with quality and value. That’s a selling proposition that a boomer, an Xer, and a millennial can truly get nostalgic over.
The C4:
1. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there are now 75.4 million baby boomers, 82.1 million generation Xers, and 83.1 million millennials. That’s 240.6 million adult (or young adult) consumers. Marketers are tasked with endeavoring to steer that consumption.
2. But marketing requires a targeted approach, and your approach might vary if your target is 18 versus 80.
3. It is certainly not out of bounds to appeal to nostalgia. Emotion, after all, is an aspect of the buying decision, and nostalgia is emotional. But can it be overused? Maybe so. When we start turning yesterday’s fad into tomorrow’s nostalgia, then definitely so.
4. When in doubt, just remember that each of those 240.6 million consumers are looking for value, and expecting to be treated with dignity and respect. There’s no magic bullet or killer app in honest marketing–there is only the unassailable recognition that the buyer is the boss.
