What Did You Do to My Brand? The Moderating Effect of Brand Nostalgia on Consumer Responses to Changes in a Brand

Abstract

Previous research on consumer nostalgia has concluded that nostalgic feelings primarily have a positive effect on consumers, boosting positive feelings and affective responses. However, evidence suggests that consumers who hold nostalgic feelings toward a specific brand sometimes respond negatively to updated or modified versions of the brand. This research tests the moderating effect of consumers' brand nostalgia on their responses to changes to a brand. Across four studies, the authors find that consumers who are nostalgic toward a specific brand exhibit a positive bias toward the original version of the brand that leads them to perceive the brand as having changed more than do less nostalgic consumers. Further, when the change to the brand is perceived to be large, individuals who are highly nostalgic for a brand show a significantly sharper decrease in reported attitude and behavioral intentions toward the changed brand than do their less nostalgic counterparts. This effect is in opposition to the positive effects of a general tendency toward nostalgia proneness. These results are replicated across multiple product categories and both manipulated and real changes, and the effect is found to be mediated by the consumer's biased perception of how much the brand has changed.

How nostalgic brand positioning shapes brand equity: differences between emerging and developed markets

“…The literature has produced results supporting both arguments. Regarding the former, Shields and Johnson (2016) find that consumers do not like large changes to brands they have nostalgic feelings for. Regarding the latter, it is widely accepted that successful innovations help improve consumers' brand perceptions, strengthen brand attitudes, and enhance brand associations (Brexendorf et al 2015).…”

“…As such, several researchers have identified emotional attachment to brands or related constructs to be a consequence of nostalgia. For example, nostalgic memories connected with car brands create emotional safety (Braun-LaTour et al 2007), and nostalgic brands enjoy enhanced brand attitudes, brand attachment, and self-brand connections compared with non-nostalgic brands (Kessous et al 2015;Rose et al 2016;Shields and Johnson 2016). While other constructs have been employed to capture the social distance aspect (e.g., self-brand connection, self-congruence, commitment; see Ford et al 2018;Kessous et al 2015;Rose et al 2016), previous research has identified these constructs as antecedents, factors, or even Bcousin constructs^of brand attachment (e.g., Coulter et al 2003;Malär et al 2011;Park et al 2010).…”

“…Moreover, consumers do not appreciate large changes to a brand they have nostalgic feelings for (Shields and Johnson 2016). The latter set of findings suggests that innovations might hurt the success of nostalgic positioned brands and, as such, appear to contradict the former stream of findings.…”

Understanding Nostalgic Consumers in a Retail Environment: A Review

“…Previous research on consumer nostalgia has concluded that nostalgic feelings primarily have a positive effect on consumers, boosting positive feelings and affective responses (Shields and Johnson, 2016b). In their study, Orth and Bourrain (2004) examined consumer response to scent-evoked nostalgic memories.…”

Retro brands in the retailing environment: A review and research propositions

“…Evidence suggests that consumers having nostalgic feelings toward a specific brand sometimes respond negatively to updated or modified versions of the brand Shields, Johnson, 2016).…”