{"id":1207,"date":"2025-11-03T17:10:37","date_gmt":"2025-11-03T17:10:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stg-universityofbathblogs-staging.kinsta.cloud\/business-and-society\/?p=1194"},"modified":"2025-11-10T14:18:29","modified_gmt":"2025-11-10T14:18:29","slug":"the-business-of-nostalgia-why-the-past-still-sells","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/business-and-society\/2025\/11\/03\/the-business-of-nostalgia-why-the-past-still-sells\/","title":{"rendered":"The business of nostalgia: why the past still sells"},"content":{"rendered":"

From huge-selling reunion tours to blockbuster movie reboots, customers seem increasingly keen to pay for a slice of the past. <\/em>Dr Varala Maraj<\/em><\/a> explains the marketing science behind the cultural movement.<\/em><\/p>\n

Oasis reunion tours, low-rise baggy jeans and other Y2K fashion trends, vinyl records and chunky bedazzled \u2018dumb\u2019 phones \u2013 nostalgia seems to be the gift that keeps on giving for marketers.<\/p>\n

But what is nostalgia, and are consumers actually<\/em> nostalgic or simply being targeted with nostalgia-inducing products? And can we be nostalgic about the recent past, or even for eras we have not lived ourselves?<\/p>\n

Nostalgia has a deep-rooted history, often associated with a particular type of melancholy \u2013 a homesickness, a yearning for yesteryear. Our senses, emotions and memory have the capacity to cultivate rich nostalgic associations.<\/p>\n

Consumer researchers and marketers have long tapped into our tendency to romanticise the past, purposefully designing brands and products that evoke memory and sentiment \u2013 even beyond our own lived experiences.<\/p>\n

Personal nostalgia<\/strong><\/h3>\n

We have all likely felt some nostalgic fondness for our childhood or adolescence. This personal nostalgia is grounded in lived experience \u2013 a rosy retrospection of the \u2018good old days\u2019 when life seemed simpler and more carefree.<\/p>\n

Amid today\u2019s volatile social and political climates, nostalgia can serve as an emotional refuge, helping consumers cope with uncertainty.<\/p>\n

Marketers are especially adept at capturing millennials\u2019 nostalgia. The 2025 Oasis reunion tour is a striking example: a deeply symbolic event that evokes personal memories, British pop culture, and a spirit of reconciliation between the Gallagher brothers \u2013 whose feud undoubtedly makes their reunion all the more celebrated.<\/p>\n

The Oasis reunion continues to bring together crowds in the tens of thousands across the world, reinforcing the warmth of its nostalgic, wholesome appeal in today\u2019s divisive world. For many, seeing the band back on stage feels like watching the soundtrack of their youth come alive \u2013 a powerful fusion of emotion and consumption.<\/p>\n

Collective nostalgia<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Not all fans braving Ticketmaster for tickets grew up with core \u201890s albums such as Definitely Maybe or (What\u2019s the Story) Morning Glory?. This raises an intriguing question: can we feel nostalgic for a time we never lived? Research in marketing and sociology suggests we can.<\/p>\n

Consumers often romanticise eras beyond their lived experience \u2013 a phenomenon known as collective nostalgia.<\/p>\n

Gen Z consumers, for instance, are known for craving authenticity while simultaneously curating aesthetics from eras that predate them. This is demonstrated by recent market demand for Y2K fashion, analogue film photography and vintage technologies.<\/p>\n

These are forms of nostalgia that trade on cultural memory rather than personal experience. They offer consumers comfort, identity and a sense of belonging in an increasingly digital and transient world.<\/p>\n

The comfort economy<\/strong><\/h3>\n

In today\u2019s commercial landscape, nostalgia is more than just a marketing tactic: it\u2019s social currency. Engaging in nostalgia \u2013 be it personal or collective \u2013 can enable consumers to demonstrate taste and cultural capital, offering them identity and status-enhancing benefits.<\/p>\n

The comfort of nostalgic products and brands can reassure us that during rapid technological and social change, some things can still feel familiar. Whether through the crackle of a vinyl record, a retro football shirt or the sound of a long-awaited Britpop chorus reverberating through the crowd, nostalgia connects emotion, identity, and consumption in profoundly human ways.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, nostalgia offers a key to understanding why the past keeps selling \u2013 not because we truly wish to go back, but because we want to remember who we were when the world felt simpler.<\/p>\n

In giving us a way to do so, nostalgia reminds us that even in a fast-moving world, some feelings remain timeless.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From huge-selling reunion tours to blockbuster movie reboots, customers seem increasingly keen to pay for a slice of the past. Dr Varala Maraj explains the marketing science behind the cultural movement. Oasis reunion tours, low-rise baggy jeans and other Y2K...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1377,"featured_media":1210,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[234,167,24,123,148,281],"tags":[10,125,149,379,47],"class_list":["post-1207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-advertising","category-communication","category-consumers","category-economy","category-marketing","category-retail","tag-consumers","tag-economy","tag-marketing","tag-nostalgia","tag-wellbeing"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/business-and-society\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/133\/2025\/11\/jurre-houtkamp-XAyE243LdN4-unsplash-1.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd4Pj1-jt","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/business-and-society\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/business-and-society\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/business-and-society\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/business-and-society\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1377"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/business-and-society\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1207"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/business-and-society\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1207\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/business-and-society\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/business-and-society\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/business-and-society\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/business-and-society\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}