The power of brand nostalgia: Contrasting brand personality dimensions and consumer‐brand relationships of nostalgic and non‐nostalgic brands

Abstract

Integrating the theories of nostalgia, brand personality, and consumer‐brand relationships, this research examined the power of nostalgia in explaining brand personality dimensions and five relational constructs. Online survey data across two separate studies (n = 374 for both studies) with two different sets of nostalgic and non‐nostalgic brands was collected via Amazon MTurk with U.S. based participants to unravel relationships between constructs. The data analysis revealed that nostalgic brands received stronger ratings on the brand personality dimensions of sincerity, excitement, and competence in both studies. In other words, the nostalgic status of brands served as a differentiator to account for the strength of brand personality dimensions. Nostalgic brands also showed stronger brand attachment, self‐brand connections, separation distress, relationship quality, and brand engagement behaviors on social media rather than non‐nostalgic brands. These findings provide the utility of nostalgia as a marketing communication tactic that can enhance important brand‐related outcomes. Furthermore, the sincerity and excitement brand personality dimensions appeared to be important mediators to explain the link between the nostalgic status of brands and relational outcomes in both studies. Theoretically, this research advances our knowledge of the theoretical mechanism behind how the nostalgic status of brands elucidates consumer‐brand relationships by exploring the mediating role of perceived brand personality. Practically, the findings provide strategic insights into the power of channeling nostalgia in retro‐marketing campaigns by maintaining or emphasizing brand personality (e.g., sincerity, excitement, or competence), which leads to desired relational marketing outcomes.

Analyzing Intention to Purchase Brand Extension via Brand Attribute Associations: The Mediating and Moderating Role of Emotional Consumer-Brand Relationship and Brand Commitment

“…Besides, theoretical support on how the purchase intention of a brand extension is influenced by these dimensions. For instance, Youn and Dodoo (2021) confirm that the brand image is likely to influence the perceived quality of the brand even before making a purchase. So, these dimensions influence how a consumer will evaluate a brand extension (Awan et al, 2021b;Ma et al, 2021).…”

Brand attachment: a review and future research

“…Several studies examined the role of consumers' personal and historic nostalgia on brand attachment (Gillespie and Noble 2017;Chen et al 2021a). Finally, researchers have discovered that brand attachment is stronger for brands perceived as nostalgic than their non-nostalgic counterparts (Youn and Dodoo 2021).…”

Impact of brand nostalgia on intention to purchase brand extensions: moderating role of brand attachment

“…Consumers may identify with a brand that evokes nostalgia on multiple levels – as users of a product category, as brand owners, as members of a group of brand users (Shin and Parker, 2017), as individuals who existed during the brand’s zenith (Saju et al , 2018), or through memories of specific brand-related episodes (Youn and Dodoo, 2021). All of these associations represent a connection between the consumers’ past and the brand’s present.…”

“…Consumption of nostalgic products helps consumers feel emotionally linked to other people (Heinberg et al , 2019). To do so, consumers should be more likely to form self-brand connections with and be more attached to brands that invoke personal or lived brand nostalgia (Kessous et al , 2015; Park et al , 2013; Oh et al , 2019; Youn and Dodoo, 2021).…”