Research Note: Nostalgia as the Future for Branding Entertainment Media? The Consumption of Personal and Historical Nostalgic Films and Its Effects

Abstract

Nostalgia is increasingly and successfully used as a means to brand entertainment media. However, there is a significant gap in empirical investigations which consider the effects of different types of nostalgic responses to films. Hence, the contribution of this chapter lies first in answering the question of which films evoke which type of nostalgia in media recipients. In our investigation of 41 movies released between 2010 and 2013 we found that not only well-known and old, but also relatively unknown and very recent film stimuli are capable of evoking personal and/or historical nostalgia. Secondly, our main studies (n = 217) reveal that personal and historical nostalgia through films have significant positive effects on attitudes towards the media brand, buying intentions, affective response, and mood. The results of our study help to apply both kinds of nostalgia to media branding to gain competitive advantages in times of digitalization, saturated media markets, and media crises.

Keywords

Personal and historical nostalgia Movies Media branding Media content Media management Audience measurement Media psychology Entertainment media 

References

  1. Baker, S. M., & Kennedy, P. F. (1994). Death by nostalgia: A diagnosis of context specific cases. Advances in Consumer Research, 21(1), 380–387.Google Scholar
  2. Barrett, F. S., Grimm, K. J., Robins, R. W., Wildschut, T., Sedikides, C., & Janata, P. (2010). Music-evoked nostalgia: Affect, memory, and personality. Emotion, 10(3), 390.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  3. Batcho, K. I. (1995). Nostalgia: A psychological perspective. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 80(1), 131–143.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  4. Batcho, K. I. (2007). Nostalgia and the emotional tone and content of song lyrics. The American Journal of Psychology, 120(3), 361–381.Google Scholar
  5. Batcho, K. I., DaRin, M. L., Nave, A. M., & Yaworsky, R. R. (2008). Nostalgia and identity in song lyrics. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 2(4), 236–244.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  6. Belk, R. W. (1990). The role of possessions in construction and maintaining a sense of past. Advances in Consumer Research, 17(1), 669–676.Google Scholar
  7. Chou, H., & Lien, N. (2010). Advertising effects of songs’ nostalgia and lyrics’ relevance. Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics, 22(3), 314–329.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  8. Davis, F. (1979). Yearning for yesterday: A sociology of nostalgia. New York, PA: The Free Press.Google Scholar
  9. Doyle, G. (2015). Brands in international and multi-platform expansion strategies: Economic and management issues. In G. Siegert, K. Förster, S. M. Chan-Olmsted, & M. Ots (Eds.), Handbook of media branding. Cham: Springer.Google Scholar
  10. Hepper, E. G., Ritchie, T. D., Sedikides, C., & Wildschut, T. (2012). Odyssey’s end: Lay conceptions of nostalgia reflect its original Homeric meaning. Emotion, 12(1), 102–119.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  11. Hoaglin, D. C., & Iglewicz, B. (1987). Fine-tuning some resistant rules for outlier labeling. Journal of the American Statistical Association, 82(400), 1147–1149.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  12. Hoaglin, D. C., Iglewicz, B., & Tukey, J. W. (1986). Performance of some resistant rules for outlier labeling. Journal of the American Statistical Association, 81(396), 991–999.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  13. Holbrook, M. B. (1993). Nostalgia and consumption preferences: Some emerging patterns of consumer tastes. Journal of Consumer Research, 20(2), 245–256.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  14. Holbrook, M. B., & Schindler, R. M. (1991). Echoes of the dear departed past: Some work in progress on nostalgia. Advances in Consumer Research, 18(1), 330–333.Google Scholar
  15. Holbrook, M. B., & Schindler, R. M. (1994). Age, sex, and attitude toward the past as predictors of consumers’ aesthetic tastes for cultural products. Journal of Marketing Research, 31(3), 412–422.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  16. Holbrook, M. B., & Schindler, R. M. (1996). Market segmentation based on age and attitude toward the past: Concepts, methods, and findings concerning nostalgic influences on customer tastes. Journal of Business Research, 37(1), 27–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  17. Katz, E., Blumler, J., & Gurevitch, M. (1974). Uses of mass communication by the individual. In W. P. Davison & F. T. C. Yu (Eds.), Mass communication research: Major issues and future directions (pp. 11–35). New York: Praeger.Google Scholar
  18. Katz, E., & Foulkes, D. (1962). On the use of the mass media as “Escape”: Clarification of a concept. Public Opinion Quarterly, 26(3), 377–388.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  19. Kelley, H. H. (1973). The process of causal attribution. American Psychologist, 28, 107–128.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  20. Kelley, H. H., & Michela, J. L. (1980). Attribution theory and research. Annual Review of Psychology, 31(1), 457–501.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  21. Ludewig, A. (2011). Screening nostalgia: 100 years of German Heimat film. Bielefeld, PA: Transcript.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  22. Marchegiani, C., & Phau, I. (2007). Remembering the way it was? Development and validation of the historical nostalgia scale. Proceedings of the Australian and New Zealand Marketing Academy Conference, Maree Thyne, Dunedin.Google Scholar
  23. Marchegiani, C., & Phau, I. (2010a). Away from “Unified Nostalgia”: Conceptual differences of personal and historical appeals in advertising. Journal of Promotion Management, 16(1–2), 80–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  24. Marchegiani, C., & Phau, I. (2010b). Effects of personal nostalgic response intensity on cognitions, attitudes and intentions. Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing, 4(3), 241–256.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  25. Marchegiani, C., & Phau, I. (2011a). Development and validation of the personal nostalgia scale. Journal of Marketing Communications, 19, 1–22.Google Scholar
  26. Marchegiani, C., & Phau, I. (2011b). The value of historical nostalgia for marketing management. Marketing Intelligence and Planning, 29(2), 108–122.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  27. Marchegiani, C., & Phau, I. (2012). The effect of music on consumers’ nostalgic responses towards advertisements under personal, historical and non-nostalgic conditions. The International Review of Retail, Distribution and Consumer Research, 22(1), 27–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  28. McDowell, W. (2015). Emerging industry issues and trends influencing the branding of media content. In G. Siegert, K. Förster, S. M. Chan-Olmsted, & M. Ots (Eds.), Handbook of media branding. Cham: Springer.Google Scholar
  29. McQuail, D. (1994). Mass communication: An introduction (3rd ed.). London: Sage.Google Scholar
  30. McQuail, D., Blumler, J. G., & Brown, J. (1972). The television audience: A revised perspective. In D. McQuail (Ed.), Sociology of mass communication (pp. 135–165). Middlesex: Penguin.Google Scholar
  31. Muehling, D. D., & Pascal, V. J. (2011). An empirical investigation of the differential effects of personal, historical, and non-nostalgic advertising on consumer responses. Journal of Advertising, 40(2), 107–122.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  32. Muehling, D. D., & Pascal, V. J. (2012). An involvement explanation for nostalgia advertising effects. Journal of Promotion Management, 18(1), 100–118.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  33. Muehling, D. D., & Sprott, D. E. (2004). The power of reflection: An empirical examination of nostalgia advertising effects. Journal of Advertising, 33(3), 25–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  34. Ots, M., & Hartmann, B. J. (2015). Media brand cultures: Researching and theorizing how consumers engage in the social construction of media brands. In G. Siegert, K. Förster, S. M. Chan-Olmsted, & M. Ots (Eds.), Handbook of media branding. Cham: Springer.Google Scholar
  35. Pascal, V. J., Sprott, D. E., & Muehling, D. D. (2002). The influence of evoked nostalgia on consumers’ responses to advertising: An exploratory study. Journal of Current Issues and Research in Advertising, 24(1), 39–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  36. Paus-Hasebrink, I., & Hasebrink, U. (2015). Media brands in children’s everyday lives. In G. Siegert, K. Förster, S. M. Chan-Olmsted, & M. Ots (Eds.), Handbook of media branding. Cham: Springer.Google Scholar
  37. Petty, R. E., & Cacioppo, J. T. (1981). Attitudes and persuasion: Classic and contemporary approaches. Dubuque, IA: Wm. C. Brown.Google Scholar
  38. Petty, R. E., & Cacioppo, J. T. (1986). The elaboration likelihood model of persuasion. In L. Berkowitz (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 19, pp. 123–205). New York: Academic.Google Scholar
  39. Schweiger, W. (2007). Theorien der Mediennutzung [Theories of media usage]. Eine Einführung. Wiesbaden: VS-Verlag.Google Scholar
  40. Sedikides, C., Wildschut, T., Gaertner, L., Routledge, C., & Arndt, J. (2008). Nostalgia as enabler of self-continuity. In F. Sani (Ed.), Self-continuity: Individual and collective perspectives (pp. 227–239). New York: Psychology Press.Google Scholar
  41. Sedikides, C., Wildschut, T., Routledge, C., Arndt, J., & Zouh, X. (2009). Buffering acculturative stress and facilitating cultural adaption: Nostalgia as a psychological resource. In R. S. Wyer Jr., C.-Y. Chio, & Y.-Y. Hong (Eds.), Understanding culture: Theory, research and application (pp. 351–368). New York, PA: Psychology Press.Google Scholar
  42. Severin, W. J., & Tankard, J. W. (1997). Communication theories: Origins, methods, and uses in the mass media (4th ed.). New York: Longman.Google Scholar
  43. Shay, R. (2015). Audience perspectives on the perceived quality of pure play distribution: A cross-platform analysis. In G. Siegert, K. Förster, S. M. Chan-Olmsted, & M. Ots (Eds.), Handbook of media branding. Cham: Springer.Google Scholar
  44. Stern, B. B. (1992). Historical and personal nostalgia in advertising text: The Fin de Siècle effect. Journal of Advertising, 21(4), 11–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  45. Suckfüll, M. (2007). Emotionale Modalitäten der Filmrezeption [Emotional modes of film reception]. In A. Bartsch, J. Eder, & K. Fahlenbrach (Eds.), Audiovisuelle Emotionen (pp. 218–237). Köln: Halem.Google Scholar
  46. Suominen, J. (2007). The past as the future? Nostalgia and retrogaming in digital culture. The Fibreculture Journal, 11. Accessed March 29, 2012, http://www.journal.fibreculture.org/issue11/issue11_suominen_print.html
  47. Suominen, J. (2012). Retrogaming community memory and discourses of digital history. Accessed March 29, 2012, http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/jsuominenpaper.pdf
  48. Tulving, E. (1972). Episodic and semantic memory1. In E. Tulving, & W. Donaldson (Eds.), Organization of memory (pp. 381–402). New York: Academic.Google Scholar
  49. Wildschut, T., Sedikides, C., Arndt, J., & Routledge, C. (2006). Nostalgia: Content, triggers, functions. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 91(5), 975–993.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  50. Wildschut, T., Sedikides, C., Routledge, C., Arndt, J., & Cordaro, F. (2010). Nostalgia as a repository of social connectedness: The role of attachment-related avoidance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 98(4), 573–586.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  51. Wildschut, T., Sedikides, C., & Cordaro, F. (2011). Self-regulatory interplay between negative and positive emotions: The case of loneliness and nostalgia. In I. Nyklicek, A. Vingerhoets, & M. Zeelenberg (Eds.), Emotion regulation and well-being (pp. 67–83). New York, PA: Springer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  52. Zillmann, D. (1988). Mood management: Using entertainment to full advantage. In L. Donohew, H. E. Sypher, & E. T. Higgins (Eds.), Communication, social cognition, and affect (pp. 147–171). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar

Copyright information

© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Institute for ManagementUniversity of Koblenz-LandauLandauGermany

Personalised recommendations