papel da nostalgia no comportamento do consumidor

8/12/2019 Papel Da Nostalgia No Comportamento Do Consumidor

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Th e Good Old Ba ys : Observations On Nostalgia and Its Role In Consum er BehaviorWilliam J. Havlena, Rutgers UniversitySusan L. Holak, Rutgers UniversityABSTRACTNostalgia-a longing lo return homewas firstdescribed by Johannes Hofer in 1688. Recently ithas received increased attention from marketers andadvertisers. The literature on nostalgia from

psychijlogy and sociology is used to introduce abrief iiurvey and description of the use of nostalgiain marketing and its impact on consumer behavior.Products and advertisements aimed at two broadmarket segments baby boomers and seniorcitizensare examined. Two types of nostalgicproducts and advertisements are noted: (1) productsor messages drawn directly from the past and (2) newproducts and messages that create a period feeling.Based on these observations, the paper offers somesuggestions for future research.INTRODUCTIONOne notable trend as we leave the 198O's andenter the decade of the 9O's is the increasing

visibility of nostalgia a painful yearning to returnhome in marketing , advertising, and entertainmentmedia . Despite tlie popularity of nostalgic productsand n.essages, little research has studied nostalgiawithin the context of consumer behavior.Nostalgia as an emotion contains bothpleasant and unpleasant components. This bittei swe et quality of the emotion is adistin;;uishin g chara cteristic of nosta lgia. It refersback 10 an earlier period in the individual's life anddraws on biased or selective recall of pastexper iences .This paper will review the concept ofnostalgia and its history from its first appearance in1688 in a pape r by Joha nne s Hofer. It will thenpresent some observations concerning nostalgia and

illustrate them using current advertising andmarketing examples.DEFINITIONS OF AND PAST R ESEARCHCONCERNING NOSTALGIA

What is Nostalgia?The word nostalgia has a Greek derivationwith Iwo roots: nostos meaning to return homeor to one's nativ e land and algos referring to pain, suffering, or grief (Hofer 1688; Daniels1985), This condition was first discussed byJohan;ies Hofer in his thesis which was presented toJohannes Harder, a Doctor of Philosophy andMedicine and Professor of Anatomy and Botany atthe University of Alsace in 1688. Hofer'scontribution was considered a key work inpsychological and psychosomatic medicine for atleast two reaso ns: (1) he was the first individual todescribe nostalgia as a clinical condition, and (2) inhis writing he gave credence to the effects of mindover body (Martin 1954).

Symptoms. Throughout history, nostalgiahas been associated with a myriad of physiologicaland psychological symptom s. According to Hofer'sdissertation (1688), sufferers wjinder abou t sad,experience insomnia, suffer from fever, himger,thirst, diminished senses, and a loss of strength.Given the medical paradigm involving humorspopular at the time, Hofer contended that nostalgiaresulted from thoughts of home due to animiil spiritsin the innermost parts of the brain. These spiritscaused the blood to thicken and the heart to slow. Itwas thought that death could result unless thesufferer were somehow transported back to his or herhome (Hofer 1688; Martin 1954). McCan n (t94 1)wrote of physiological symptoms affecting therespiratory and circulatory systems as well as otherbodily functions. Psychological suffering wa sthought to take the form of loss of appetite, nausea,listlessness, fainting, and varied additionals y m pt om s .History. Although perhaps not documentedin such an explicit manner as in Hofer's work,nostalgia has appeared in literature and jwetrythrough tlie ages in references to homesiclmess.From Biblical psalms to the writings of Homer,Hippxjcrates, and Caesar, the yejiming for one'shome is a reoccurring motif (Miirtin 1954).Throughout history, nostalgia was known toadversely affect troops from Caesar's centurions ofHelvetian Gaul, where the condition was called laMaladie du Pays (Hofer 1688), to soldiers in themore recent world wars (Martin 1954; Nawas andPlatt 1965). All sorts of maladies and behaviors,including pyromania, were diagnosed as resultingfrom a nostalgic condition (Martin 1954). In morerecent times, nostalgia or homesickness was listedamong the standard medical diagnoses by theSurgeon General (Martin 1954). As Fodor (1950, p.25) writes, Nostalgia is not a mental disease but itmay develop into a monomaniacal, obsessive mentalstate causing intense unhappiness and leading to acomplete uprooting of a settled existence. It usuallymanifests itself in an intense desire to return to thecountry or town from where we came, or on moreacute analysis to return to the home which we hadleft beh ind. It is no wonder then that the nosta lgiccondition is a major cause of freshman dropouts onthe college campus (Nawas imd Platt 1965). Asnoted by Beardsley Ruml [cited by Martin (1954)], Nostalgia is older and more fundamental thiinhuman nature itself and all people of the world, allages and all temperaments, weak and strong, aremore or less susceptible to it. Authorities haveeven noted that symptoms which resemble thoseexperienced by nostalgic humans are exhibited byanimals (Martin 1954).Despite its prevalence in history, however,relatively little formal study has been made of thecond ition. It is interesting to note that the few

3 23 Advances in Consumer ResearchVolume 18 1991


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324 / Observations On Nostalgia and Its Role In Consumer Behaviorearly cases and writings concerned displaced Swisssoldiers as discussed by Swiss authors almostexclusively, giving the early impression that thisspecific nationality was particularly nostalgia-prone(Martin 1954). According to Martin (1954, p. 94), ...We should note that although it had gone beyondthe province of medicine, nostalgia never attractedthe degree of scientific interest warranted by itsuniversal occurrence. Nawas and Platt (1965, p.51) corrob orate this obse rvation as follows, It israther curious that a phenomenon as pressing, asubiquitous, and as little understood as nostalgia hasreceived only passing attention from psychologists;in the last quarter century no more than sixempirical studies have appeared on the subject.Research in Clinical PsychologyResearchers in the clinical psychology fieldtrace the cause of nostalgia to a human desire toreturn to the wom b. Even Hofer contended thatthose stricken do not know how to forget theirmother's milk (Martin 1954, p.94 ). In hispsychoanalytic analysis, Fodor (1950) noted thathumans sense that tliey had a safe, comfortableexistence in their pre-natal state. This perfecthappiness appears symbolically in many forms andoutlets, including Biblical teachings. According toFodor (1950, p. 35), The Biblical concept ofHeaven is a projection of organismic memories of aCanaan flowing with milk and honey, where wantswere satisfied without wanting, and where we reignedas kings and were the absolute center of the universebecause nothing else seemed to exist, the post-natalworld being as yet beyond comprehension. Freudmaintained that nostalgia had a basis in adornedmemories and dreams as noted by Daniels (1985, p.379) who wrote, Freud (1906) illustrates perhapsmore simply the 'message of nostalgia': the desireto return to a hidden home, to monuments concoctedof our wanderings through the half-forgottenmemories of another time, festooned and elaboratedby our present fantasies.Recent Perspectives on NostalgiaA more recent interpretation of nostalgia hasaltered considerably from its medical, oftenpathological, base to connote more of asociological phenom enon. According to Davis(1979, p. 4), Not only does the word nostalgiaappear to have been fully 'demilitarized' and'demedicalized' by now but, with its rapidassimilation into American popular speech sinceroug hly the nineteen-fifties, it appears to beundergoing a process of 'depsychologization' aswell. Given the meteoric increase in mobility intoday's society, individuals are less attached to acountry, town, or particular house than in the past.As a result, homesick ness no longer applies in thesame way when describing nostalgic emotion.Rather, from the sociological perspective, nostalgiaallows human beings to maintain their identity inthe face of major transitions which serve asdiscontinuities in the life cycle (e.g., the identitychange from childhood to pubescence, from

adolescence to adulthood, from single to marriedlife, from spou se to paren t, etc.). Not all pas texperiences or eras are equally likely to evokenostalgic feelings. Nostalgia for adolescence andearly adulthood appears to be stronger than for anyother period. In addition, this tendency to engagein nostalgic feelings varies over the course of theindividual's lifetime. Nostalgia-prone ness hasbeen hypothesized to peak as individuals move intomiddle age and during the retirement years.

Men have been deemed to be more nostalgicthan women, given that in westem culture they haveuntil very recently experienced more life cyclediscontinuities (Davis 1979). Other research impliesthat the character and subject matter of nostalgia formen and women may differ as well.Csikszentmihalyi and Rochberg-Halton (1981), intheir study of special objects, found that oldersubjects and women were more likely than men andchildren to cherish objects as a source of memories.While men tended to mention objects of action (suchas sports equipment, televisions, and vehicles),women tended to mention objects of contemplation(such as photographs, artwork, plates, and textiles).Although not examined by the authors, one mightexpect similar gender differences in the types ofstimuli that evoke nostalgic feelings.Aggregation. Given these universal yetindividual transitions, there exist personal or privateand collective or societal realms of nostalgicexperience (Davis 1979). The intersubjectivityelement associated with nostalgia is noted byDaniels (1985, p. 372) who wrote, An inquiryconceming nostalgia is difficult more than someexperiences, it can be peculiarly private: what isnostalgic for me may leave another indifferent.Given the structure of society, its values, andconventions, we experience life's discontinuitiesalong with others who are our contemporaries. As a

result, there is a collective iden tity amon gmembers of the same generation in terms of theirnostalgic experiences (Davis 1979, p. 101). It ispossible for these two levels to overlap and beintertwined as evidenced in the following example(Davis 1979, p. 124), Thus, a nostalgicsummoning of 'everybody's favorite song of 1943'(essentially a collectively oriented symbol) mayinwardly shade off into some very privatereminiscences of a particular romance in a particularplace on a particular day, replete with specialfragrances, sounds and visual traces.Relevant Past. A key element definingnostalgia according to Davis (1979) is that whileexperiences undoubtedly draw from the past, theymust draw from one s own personal history ratherthan from book s, stories, publication s, etc. Anindividual cannot be nostalgic for a period, event,etc., during which he or she has not lived. As notedearlier, because of the preponderence of key lifecycle discontinuities during adolescence and earlyadulthood, this has been observed to be aparticularly potent period from which to drawnostalgic experiences (Davis 1979). Mem ories tendto be filtered and recalled sans negative elements.


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Advances in Consumer Research Volume 18) 132 5Generations. Although nostalgic experienceis defiaed to draw from one's lived past, there is animportant intergenerational pheno meno n. As one

reminisces about its adolescence, these memoriesbecome, in essence, a new experience for the nextgeneration. As Davis (1979, p. 61) noted, ...whentoday's adolescents reach middle age it is probablethat tl.eir nostalgic revivals will include symbolicfragments and residues of what had been thenostalgia of tlieir parents.

Orders of Nostalgia. An importantdistinction has been made by Davis (1979) amongthree orders or levels of nostalgic experience. Firstorder or simple nostalgia is associated with the basebelief that things were better in the past.According to Davis (1979, p. 21), The emotionalposturs is that of a yearning for return, albeitaccon^panied often by an ambivalent recognitionthat such is not possible. In second order orreflexive nostalgia, individuals question or analyzethe pst rather than sentimentalize it. The postureis much mo re a sense of was it really that way?(Davii; 1979 ). Finally, in third order or interpretednostalgia, the individual analyzes to a much g reaterexteni his or her nostalgic experience. Davis(1979, p. 24) writes, The actor here seeks in somefashion to oljjectify the nosta lgia he feels. Hedirect:; at it (again with varying diligence and tovaryirg degree) analytically oriented questionsconceming its sources, typical character,significance, and psychological purpose. Why am Ifeelin.; nostalgic? While second order nostalgiaattempts to analyze the past critically, third ordernostalgia analyzes the nostalgic response itselfConsum er Research and N ostalgiaTwo related papers examine the role of thepast i:i determining current preferences andperce])tions. Holbrook (1990) has developed anindex for the measurement of nostalgia-pronenessand nostalgic feelings that appears to havesatisfi ctory reliab ility and so me deg ree of face andpredictive validity. This index supplements theempirical v/ork done by McCann (1943) on themeasvrement of nostalgia and extends this researchinto a consump tion-oriented setting. More researchin thii; area is necessary to refine the index and testit in i.broader range of situations. Holbrook andSchindler (1989) found that respondents favoredmusic popular during their late adolescence or earlyadulthood, with the peak in preferences occurringbetwesn 23 and 24 years of age. This findingsupports Davis's (1979) hypothesis conceming themost fertile period(s) for nostalgic reflection.

THE USE OF NOSTALGIA IN M ARKETINGAND ADVER TISINGReferences to the past in the marketplacereach back to periods within the consumer's ownexperiencepossibly ranging from perhaps ten toseventy yearsand to eras tliat predate theconsum er's lifespan. They may evoke memo ries ofpeace.ul, pleasant times or of times of tension and

turmoil. The current boom of nostalgia-basedproducts, advertising and promotional messages,magazines, and radio and television programming isia.iytcd /idtnatily .to iwo Jla:^e ^rBijDS of consumers:the baby-lx5omers (now in their late 30s and 40s)and senior citizens.To reach these consumers, the current wave ofnostalgia-related marketing looks back primarily tothe 1960s and to the 1930s smd 40 s. Th ese areperiods consistent with the adolescence or earlyadulthood of mem bers of the baby boomgeneration, now in their late 30s or early 40s, andthe senior citizen market. The following sectionwill discuss several examples of the use of nostalgiain television and print advertising, examining boththe subjects of nostalgia and the means used toencourage nostalgic feelings.A parallel trend has been the increase ininterest in the more distant past, as reflected in thesuccess of magazines and boolts dealing witli the19th century and the early 20th century. Thecontrast between the evocation of nostalgia for therecent past and the elicitation of feelings for themo re distiuit past will also lie discus sed. W hileinterest in the 1800s or early 1900s may reflect alonging for a golden age, it is not identical withtrue nostalgia (as narrowly defined in the researchreviewed earlier), which relies primarily onindividual memories and experience. However, thefeelings of warmth, happiness, and security that maybe evoked by these messages are likely to be similarenough to those evoked by true nostalgicmessages to warrant classifying these maga;dnes,books, and advertisements ais nostalgia-basedstim uli, ^riierefore, we feel tha t a bro ade r definitio nof nostalgia may be appropriate in the context ofconsumer behavior.Products and A dvert ising Appeals

Advertising for products may consciouslyevoke past associations and memories to create orrecall positive affective respon ses. The productsthemselves may also engender nostalgic emotionsduring consump tion, allowing consumers to re-experience aspects of their past or to experiencethe collective past of the society vicariouslythrough fantasy in much the same manner a;;Disney's Main Street U.S.A. allows visitors to experience as small town America that never reallyexisted.Numerous products and packages from thepast or inspired by the past have been (re)introducedor (re)positioned to appeal explicitly to consumers'nostalgic feelings. Many of the products evoke adistant past beyond the direct experience of most

consum ers. For examp le. General Foods recentlyintroduced Maxwell House 1892 Slow-RoastedCoffee. Th e can is a copy of a 19th-cen tury design(Rothenberg 1989). Print advertising for theproduct claims that 1892 was a very good year forcoffee and evokes images of an era when merchants did things a little differently and with somethingof a reverence for the old way of making things.Television advertising for 1892 coffee is filled with


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326 /Observations On Nostalgia and Its Role In Consumer Behaviorimages of small-town activities and patriotism froma not-too-clearly-defined time in the past. Kellogg'scelebrated the sixtieth anniversary of Rice Krispieswith advertising images from the 1920s. In asimilar manner, Hershey recreated a VintageEdition package design from 1912 for its milkchocolate bars and the Dial Corporation packaged 20Mu le Team Borax in an period -design box.Although these products are either new or have beenavailable continuously since their introduction, thepackaging and/or messages clearly conjure upImpressions of a bygone era when things werebetter .

The past evoked by these products andpackages is an idealized image of a period in ourcultural history. Th is nostalgia for a past era in ournation's history crosses ethnic and subculturalboundaries. When Lord & Taylor chose a Victoriantheme for the store's Christmas decorations last yeara vice preside nt of the store noted that it giveseveryone a warm, cozy feeling and brings backmem ories (Fabricant 1989). It did not matter thatmany consumers' own personal memories may havehad little in common with Victorian decoration,horse-drawn sleighs, and plum pudding. Similarly,the scenes of small town life depicted in theMaxwell House ads for 1892 coffee are designed toevoke a warm feeling of nostalgia, even amongconsumers for whom home is the Upper West Side ofManhattan and whose ancestors never directlyexperienced small-town America.

The non-literal nature of many of the imagesassociated with nostalgia is illustrated by the newplazas being constructed along the [New York] Gov.Thomas E. Dewey Thruway The New York Times1990a). Designed in a tum-of-the-centuryAdirondack style, they are intended to bring upimages of holidays and vacations. However,despite the stone or brick 19th-century exteriors andslate roofs, the interiors will be modem, withbrightly colored synthetic materials, and willcontain such familiar names as Burger King andBob's Big Boy. Consum ers will be able to fantasizeabout a lost era of travel without having to forgo aWhopper for lunch.

Other products evoke a period more directlyrelated to the consumer's own past, more closelyallied to the original meaning of nostalgia. Formost baby boomers, this means a past and a homeheavily influenced by television programming andadvertising. One group of products and advertisingmessages attempts to evoke strong childhoodmem ories. Thu s, Leaf Inc. is using televisioncomm ercials featuring Frankie and the Switzers, aparody of 1960s-styIe singing groups, to advertiseSwitzer's licorice and is bringing back Choo-ChooCharlie to promote Good and Plenty candy (Scott1989). Parents of young children will betransported back to their own childhood whenPunchy asks How about a nice Hawaiian Punch?(Schiller 1990). Jiffy Pop popcorn combats thetrend to microwave popcom by reminding consumersthat Some things are even better than youreme mbe r, a strong claim considering the filtering

and positive halo typically attached to nostalgicmemo ries. Sonic, a chain of drive-in restaurants,has grown by targeting aging baby boomers,adopting a 50s image and using Frankie Avalon asthe company spokesperson (Diamond 1989).Other products and themes targeted to babyboomers may be more strongly associated withadolescence or early adulthood, a particularly fertileperiod for nostalgic reminiscence (Davis 1979;Holbrook and Schindler 1989). Coca-Cola directlyevokes its advertising of twenty years ago with itsremake of I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing(Mabry 1990). In the mid '80s Rhino Recordsreissued the 20-year-old recordings of the Monkeesas Original Classics (Morris 1986). (Shortlythereafter the television series was itself rebroadcaston Nickelodeon, a cable network specializing in nostalgia programm ing from the 1960s and '70s.)As we move into the 90s, the interval of abouttwenty years noted by Davis (1979) between anindividual's first major nostalgic period and his/herstrongest memories is clearly illustrated by theretum of the ubiquitous Happy Face on new clothingstyles (Hirsch 1989), beehive hairstyles, and therelease of such recorded compilations as Have aNice Day: Super Hits of the '70s (Pareles 1990 ).Other marketers have targeted an oldermarket. Joe Franklin Productions plans to introducesuch products as a Nostalgicize exercise video(complete with 194O's music, a period ofadolescence for many of those exercising to thetape) and the Memory Lane Club of America, aservice aimed at collectors of old records and movies(Viuker 1987). Wam er-Lambert is once againselling Beeman's, Clove, and Blackjack chewinggum, brands likely to be recognized by olderconsumers.A retail industry has emerged to satisfy thedesire of consumers for products from their past

(Smitli n.d .). Th e purch asers of tliese objects aremore apt to be men tlian women. As AlanDershowitz notes (1987, p. 46),Salesmen at the nostalgia shops tell me thatmen in their 4O's and 5O's experience theneed to collect their adoles cence mo re thanwomen do. When I see a guy with a goofylooking grin dragging a couple of teen-agekids through my door on a weekend, I knowmy summer vacation will be paid for, oneshop owner told me. But if he's got his wifewith him, he'll probably buy just onesensible memento for his office.

While products such as Maxwell House 1892coffee may safely constru ct a past with carefully-controlled images, products and images directlyrelated to the consumer's own past may evoke a hostof memories both good and bad. Certainly, the1960s (for baby boomers) and the 1940s (for theirparents) were periods in history of great turmoil andare as likely to evoke negative emotions as positiveones. Wh ile I'd like to teach tlie world to singmay be fondly remembered by a generation of Coca-


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Advances in Consumer Research (Volume 18) I3 7Cola consumers, the memories it evokes may not allbe pleis ant. Howev er, the vividness of thesememories may result in consumers quickly noticingand rememb ering the new commercial. In addition,first oi'der (or simple) nostalgia tends to filterinformation, leaving the consumer with theimpression that life (or a product) was better in thepast tl;at it (perhaps) really was.Media The recent appearance of magazines likeMemories: The Magazine of Then and Now,Nostalgia Magazine, and Joe Franklin s NostalgiacontaLi page after page of articles discussing the1940s, '50s, and '60s and represent a direct appealto nostalgic sentiments (Mjdanga 1990). Mem orieshas proved so successful that NBC is producing atelevision spmoff based on the magazine(Rothenberg 1990). By 1984, close to 200 radiostations had adopted a "nostalgia" format,programming popular music of the '30s and '40s(McGuigan 1984). The "Music of Your Life"syndicated format has extended this approach forwardto the 1960s, targeting the 35-and-older audienceignored by many popular music stations. Televisionprograms such as The Wonder Years and theprogramming on "Nick at Nite" put the viewer in thecontext of tlie 1960s. Targeting a differentaudierce, tlie Nostalgia Channel specializes in oldermo vie aimed at the "over 49 market" (Broadcasting1987). These magazines and programs provide anobvious outlet for nostalgia-based marketingmessa;;es; some of the magazines encouragereprod uction of period advertisin g. As in tlie case ofrecent products (i.e., those remembered fromchildhood or adulthood) the articles and programsevoke specific associations in the minds ofconsum ers. For example. The Wonder Years usesvisual images, products, music, fashions, and newsreport:; to clearly evoke the late 1960s.

Not only is there a boom in currentprogramming and advertising that turns to the pastfor inspiration, but there is also a sizable market forold program s and advertisements themselves. Forexample. Video Resources produces a 16-pagenewsletter advertising twenty-four one-hour videovolumjs of "Classic Commercials," as well as morespecialized videos of beer commercials, carcommercials, and kids commercials (The New YorkTimes 1990b).The success of Victoria magazine illustratesthe stiong appeal of a past that is well beyond thedirect experience of its readership and that in manyinstanixs has little to do with the reality of theperiod being evoked (Foltz 1990). These

"manufactured memories" are quite similar to tliemessa;;es used in advertising such as the Maxv/ellHouse 1892 coffee ads discussed above.D I S C U S S I O NNostalgia-the longing to return to home,whethiir real or fantasized, whether in the recent ordistant pastexerts an influence in varied aspects ofconsum er and consumption behavior. Although first

described as a pathological phenomenon, currentresearch views nostalgia as a milder, "normal"condition that contains both personal and universalcharacteristics. The apparent tendency of individualsto feel nostalgic emotions more strongly duringtransitional periods in the life cycle has not goneunrecognized by advertisers and marketers. Th esimultaneous passage from one life stage to anotherby two large, important consumer market segmentsthe baby lx)omers and the senior markethasprovided marketers with an unusual opportunity tocapitalize on this inclination.Nostalgic messages targeted toward babyboomers have focused on the 1960s and early1970s, an interval of approximately twenty years.This mirrors neatly the difference between thegeneration's period of adolescence and the present.It is interesting to note that "period" televisionprograms of a decade ago (e.g., Happy Days,Laverne and Shirley) were often set in the 1950s,preserving the twenty-year gap between the subjectmatter and the current time period. This decaideseems much less evident in current advertising andtelevision programming aimed at a young adultaudience. Similarly, media and messages aimed atsenior citizens tend to concentrate on the 1930s and1940s, when those now in their sixties and earlyseventies were adolescents and young adults.The products and messages used by advertisersseem designed to elicit first order (or simple)nostalgia (Davis 1979). There is little attempt tocritically examin e the past. In fact, such ananalysis would tend to negate much of the power ofnostalgia in marketing situations, since the appealsseem to be designed to produce positive affectiveresponses with a minimum of cognitive processingof negative information. One interesting example isthe Jiffy Pop slogan ("Some tilings are even betterthan you remember"), which explicitly arguesagainst the tendency (characteristic of second ordernostalgia) to examine the past objectively.One clear distinction may be drawn btitween(1) nostalgia-based marketing messages for newbrands or products and (2) inherently nostalgicproducts or services. Sonic restaurants may evokethe 1950s through decor, music, and commercialspokesmen, but the restaurants themselves remainbasically a new experience for most consumers.Products such as Good and Plenty, Jiffy Poppopcorn, Coca-Cola, and Ovaltine are themselveslikely to evoke memories of past times and toinspire nostalgic reflection, not only throughadvertising appeals but through the consumption ofthe products themselves. The advertising mayexplicitly encourage the retrieval of these memoriesthrough cues such as music, jingles, slogans, andvisual images. In these cases, the consumer alreadyhas a potentially complex network of associationsbuilt up around the product and the marketer onlyneeds to facilitate access. As mentioned earlier,there is some risk of recalling negativeassociations, but one important characteristic ofnostalgia is the filtering of negative information


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328 /Observations On Nostalgia and Its Role In Consumer Behaviorthe past is almost always remembered as better orhappier than it probably was (Davis 1979).

CURRENT CONSUMER RESEARCH INNOSTALGIA AND DIRECTIONS FOR FUTURERESEARCHTwo papers presented at the 1990 Conferenceof the Association for Consumer Research examinethe impact of age on the formation of preferencesfor different stimuli. Holb rook and Schind ler (1990)extend their research concerning musical tastes torelate the shape of the preference curve for actorsand actresses to nostalgia, using the Nostalgia Indexdescribed above. Schindler and Holbrook (1990) usethe Nostalgia Index to examine the relationship ofnostalgic tendencies to fashion tastes.An exploratory empirical examination ofnostalgia in the domain of consumer behavior iscurrently underway and is designed to address thefollowing issues :

1] perceptions of nostalgia as related toconsumpt ion,2] the characteristics of nostalgicexperience,3] the identification of the types of produ ctsand messages most suited to the use ofnostalgia, and4] the relationship of individualcharacteristics to nostalgia-proneness.

This study will assist in identifying the range ofnostalgic experiences in a consumer framework andhelp to develop a working definition of nostalgia inan advertising and consumption context.Additional research is needed to refinemeasures of consumption-specific nostalgicreactions and nostalgia-proneness across a widervariety of products, services, and consumptionsituations and for diverse groups of consu mers . Inaddition, research concerning the impact of variousstimuli (music, images, objects, smells) on theevocation of nostalgic feelings, and theeffectiveness of alternative modalities in evokingnostalgia is needed.REFERENCESBroadcasting (1987), Nostalgia Channel's WeisbergPredicts Bright Future for Cable , July 27, 104-1 0 5 .Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly and Eugene Rochberg-Halton (1981), The Meaning of Things:Domestic Symbols and theSelf , Cambridge:Cambridge University Press.

Daniels, Eugene B. (1985), Nostalgia and HiddenMeaning, American Image, 42, 371-383.Davis , Fred (1979), Yearning for Yesterday : ASociology of Nostalgia, New York: Tlie FreePress .Dershow itz, Alan M. (1987), CollectibleAdolescence, The New York Times Magazine,May 31, 46.

Diamond, Helene (1989), Marketing By Nostalgia:Looking Back Pays Off For Restaurant Industry,Marketing News, August 14, 6.Fabricant, Florence (1989), Victorian Era: HolidayImages For All Times, The New York Times,November 29, Cl, C6.Fodor, Nandor (1950), Varieties of Nostalgia,Psychoan alytic Review, 31, 25-38.Foltz, Kim (1990), Victoria Uses Old Charms OnReaders, The New York Times, July 31 , D17.Hirsch, James (1989), Happy Face Has a Nice NewDay, The New York Times, February 15, 13, 21 .Hofer, Johannes [trans. Carolyn Kiser Anspach](1934), Medical Dissertation on Nostalgia byJohannes Hofer, 1688, Bulletin of the Historyof Medicine, 2, 376-391.Holbrook, Mo rris B. (1990), NostalgicConsumption: On the Reliability and Validity ofa New Nostalgia Index, Wo rking paper.Holbrook, Morris B. and Robert M. Schindler(1989), Some Exploratory Findings on theDevelopment of Musical Tastes, Journal ofConsumer Research, 16 (June), 119-124.Holbrook, Morris B. and Robert M. Schindler(1990), Some Propositions on the Role ofNostalgia in Shaping the Development ofConsumer Tastes: An Audiovisual Preview of aProject on the Relation of Liking for theAppearances of Actors and Actresses to IndividualDifferences in Longing for the Dear DepartedPast, Paper presented at the 1990 Conferen ce ofthe Association for Consumer Research, NewYork, New York, October 4-7.Jacobson, Mark (1987), The Way We Weren't,Esquire, October, 65-68.Mabry, Marcus (1990), Remem brance of Ads Past,Newsweek, July 30, 42 .Malanga, Steve (1990), How Sweet It Is OnMemory Lane, Crain s New York Business,

March 19, 1, 37.Martin, Alexander R. (1954), Nostalgia, Th eAmerican Journal of Psychoan alysis, 14, 93-104.McCann, Willis H. (1941), Nostalgia: A Review ofthe Literature, Psychological Bulletin, 38 (3),165 - 182 .McCann, Willis H. (1943), Nostalgia: AComparative and Descriptive Study, Journal ofGenetic Psychology, 62, 97-104.McGuigan, Cathleen (1984), Memories Are Made ofThis , Newsweek, February 27, 69.Morris, Chris (1986), Monkeem ania Reaps SS forRhino, Billboard, July 17, 46 .Nawas, M. Mike and Jerome J. Platt (1965), AFuture-Oriented Theory of Nostalgia, Journal ofIndividual Psychology, 21 , 51-57.New York Times, The (1990a), Nostalgia and aBurger For Thruway Motorists , April 5, C3.New York Times, The (1990b), One Man'sObsession With Past Creates Wave of TVNostalgia, August 2, C l, CIO.Pareles, John (1990), The 7O's Revisited: TheNostalgia Trail Hits Rock Bottom, The NewYork Times, April 15, 28 .


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Advances in Consumer Research Volume 18) 132 9Rothenberg, Randall (1989), "The Past Is Now theLa:est Craze," The New York Times, November29 , D l , D 19 .Rothenberg , Randal (1990), "NBC PlanningNostalgia Show," The New York Times, May 9,D 1 7 .Schiller, Zachary (1990), 'The Punch P&G Will PutBe.iind Hawaiian Punch," Business Week, March

26 . 4 2 .Schinciler, Robert M. and Morris B. Holbrook(1590), 'The Role of Nostalgia in theDevelopmen t of Tastes: A Test in the Context ofFaiihion Advertising," Paper presented at the19'.)0 Conference of tlie Association forConsumer Reseaich, New York, New York,October 4-7.Scott, Carlee R. (1989), "For Candy Maker, Recipefor Success Includes Nostalgia," The Wall StreetJournal, June 16.Smith, Robert L. (n.d.). The Nostalgia Merchan ts,Audio recording, Kalamazoo, MI: WesternMichigan Universi ty.Viuker, Steven J. (1987), "Television's Master ofMemory Lane Goes Public," The New YorkTifies, November 22, F7.


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papel da nostalgia no comportamento do consumidor

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