The Rearview Mirror and Windshield: Utilizing the Intersection of Nostalgia and Neophila to Target Today\u27s Consumers

In a technologically-advanced, rapidly-changing business world, successful marketing practice is becoming more and more elusive to the competing corporations. Two popular tactics—nostalgia and neophilia—have been shown to both dazzle and destroy, depending upon their use. These concepts have been utilized by a variety of brands—some of the world’s largest beverage companies, the most popular application of 2016 and air fresheners, to name a few—and have resulted in heavy profits and losses for the companies. Nostalgia and neophilia in marketing must first be analyzed as individual concepts, each with their own merits and disadvantages, and then viewed as an intersection where one cannot be successful without a touch of the other. As this is analyzed, patterns begin to emerge as to that brand/product which is successful in the pursuit of these marketing ploys and that which essentially falls flat. These patterns can create a “formula,” if you will, for ideal marketing where nostalgia and neophilia meet. To best understand these concepts individually and this combination, it is perhaps best to view them through the lens of an age demographic that is currently mounting in size and purchasing power. This age demographic is Generation Y (popularly known as the “millennials”) who have their own particular affinity for nostalgia, neophilia and everything in between