Making it in Marketing: Memory and Nostalgia

Remember that? and aaahh the good old days...

Memory; think of your mind as a computer where when things happen and they go into this computer as inputted data and stored in a file somewhere at the back of your head. Now when this event happened your mind may have also stored certain details such as smells, tastes, songs, items of clothing etc. These extra details may then in the future act as triggers to restore this memory file.

External Input - Encoding of Information - Storing and Reataining Information - Retreaval when needed.

These memories that are related to events are called episodic memories according to Solomon as they have personal relevance to that person. Eg choosing a wedding song to remind a couple of their wedding day will trigger memories and feelings that someone else would not have as they do not share this experience linked to the song.

There are different types of memory, long term, short term and Sensory. In our minds (computers) we have a limited amount of “storage” for Short-Term Memory and the duration is only about 20 seconds before it is disposed of. Long-Term Memory however lasts for long or a permanent duration and the mind has an unlimited “storage” space for it. Sensory memory however has a high capacity of temporary storage with the duration of lasting only a second or so.

The way you turn sensory memory into Short-Term is through Attention, if it catches the attention it is then transformed. Then, Short-Term memory into long-term memory is by Elaborate Rehearsal, certain Short-Term memory will be deeply processed with its meaning considered and then it is automatically transferred into the storage of Long-Term memory.

So basically, something happens, if it grabs your attention it goes into short term memory, if you consider it, it is then stored in long term memory. Something can either stay in your mind for 1 second or permanently. How strange is that?! For marketers this is important, the first must figure out a way to grab the attention of its consumers and then make them think about it for it to even be remembered and therefore follow through with a purchase.

Now an outcome of certain long-term memories can be Nostalgia; an emotion where you look back in fond memory of something but also feel a sense of sadness that you can’t experience it in real time once again. The science of it goes: “a stimulus at times is at times able to evoke a weakened response much later, an effect known as spontaneous recovery, and this re-established connection may explain consumers’ powerful nostalgic reactions to songs or pictures they have not been exposed to in many years.” Thanks Solomon. Any clearer?

Well an example might help, for me personally, something nostalgic would be seeing a Leonardo Porcelain Doll, from the age of about 6, I collected these dolls and had around 40 at one point, all on a shelf that circulated my room. I would recall taking them out of the box, playing with their dresses and hair so they didn’t look so stiff and securing them on their supports so they stood upright. It’s strange to say but thinking about it allows me to remember the texture of the dress materials and hair, and even how hard it was sometimes to fix them to their stands and balance them. If you think hard enough what do you think of from back when? (I know it’s harder to do without a trigger! I sat here for a good 10 minutes before the dolls came to me!)

Here’s a montage of my nostalgia, what would yours look like?

Marketers use this as a good tool to reach reactions from consumers, as I suppose it’s difficult to not pay attention to something that has meaning to you. Apply the nostalgic approach to your desired target consumer and you could be on to a winner!

A great example of companies using nostalgia in their marketing is the recent 2010 Intel "over the generations" advert.