Nostalgia...Good or Bad

The advantages of nostalgia marketing are that it reminds people of a different time in their life; whether that would be childhood or just a happier time. These instances in their lives can make these people want to buy this product because of what it meant in their life. For instance, someone might buy the new VW Beetle because it reminds them of their childhood when their parents drove around in them. The reason superhero movies are good revenue is because many people want to share their childhood experiences with the younger generation. Heroes like Superman, Spiderman, Hulk and many more continue to live in the minds of people because they are constantly revived through the media. The nostalgia marketing strategy can increase sales and revenue of a product. Everyone likes to relive their past, that's the reason for photos; to remember the past. A product might remind someone of a loved one that isn't around anymore. Nostalgia is usually seen in a positive way which is why it is advertised to sell products. The remembering the past makes people feel younger and their is an added familiarity to the product.

The disadvantages of nostalgia marketing are that it can invoke negative feelings toward the product or alienate a group of people because they don't understand the reference. These can also make the product less accessible. The negative nostalgia will make the sales of the product decrease rapidly. Once example is the movie Speed Racer that was released in 2008. This movie was a huge flop because it was upgraded too much and didn't attract the old Speed Racer fan base that it had as a television show in the 60's. The fans didn't see the Speed Racer from their childhood and weren't reminded of the positive times that they had as kids.

Some of these strategies might not be successful because they overreach an upgrade like in Speed Racer. They changed too much of it to be accessible to its previous audience. There needs to be subtle advances in a product from a different generation or the product will fail. Pokemon has not failed because of the upgrades being small from just adding a few more creatures to the world in which to battle or capture. The goal of the game is still the same which is to upgrade your creatures until you are the best in the game. There are different challenges but it is essentially the same because the changes are  mainly switching up the challengers. The visual effect also gets better each time there is a new release but they were not changed as drastically as Speed Racer which did not attract it's previous audience from the '60s.

New Speed Racer

Old Speed Racer