A trend has been emerging online of people feeling nostalgic for the past, and a world that once was more colourful, simple, and free than today’s modern minimal reality.

So nostalgic, in fact, they’re willing to pay good money to recapture it.

It might be easy to see why. Aside from the rosy feelings of being younger and freer that we all experience when looking back at our past selves, even the way brands marketed was different. Designs were colourful, bold, and had character. Think of the first ever iMac from Apple in 1998. Bright coloured, translucent, with that bubbly futuristic touch. Everyone wanted one.

Skip forward to now, where brands prefer a sleek, minimal look where every design is flat and lacks personality or uniqueness. Compare that bright iMac from the 90s to the modern MacBook designs in the bland colours of silver, white, or black.

People, of course, still shell out thousands for the latest MacBook (the current model retails from £1,999) but all these years later, there is still significant demand for the chunky 90s vibrant desktop tech. Working models of the iMac G3 sell for between £500 and £1,000 on second-hand and auction websites.

Despite having never really lived through it, Gen Z too are beginning to reflect on this period of unique and personality-driven design, and realising that this has been lost in modern technology.

While often a bittersweet feeling, Matt Johnson, Professor of Psychology and Marketing at Hult International Business School, explains that nostalgia can be beneficial. That longing for the past may not be as bad you might assume.

“For centuries, nostalgia was thought to be synonymous with depression. During the Thirty Years War, several Spanish soldiers were discharged from the army with nostalgic symptoms. The term nostalgia – formed from the Greek ‘nostos’ (“homecoming”), and ‘algos’ (“pain) – was coined by the 17th-century Swiss physician, Johannes Hofer, who considered it to be a mental disorder,” he shares in an article on his website Neuroscience Of…

“However, studies have found that people who frequently nostalgize have a greater sense of self-continuity. And that more generally, engaging in nostalgia fosters a stronger sense of meaning in one’s life. Looking back helps us make sense of where we’ve been and how we’ve gotten to where we are,” his article continues.

For mental health, he notes, research has found that nostalgia can reduce cortisol levels – protecting against stress, and even help to reduce depression and anxiety.

It might also hold benefits for retailers.

Selling memories

A study from the Journal of Consumer Research, led by Grenoble Ecole de Management and the University of Southampton, has found that nostalgic feelings increase our willingness to spend money, particularly on things that reinforce our sense of identity.

This is because nostalgia makes people feel socially connected, and when people feel that their social needs are being met, they become less motivated to use money as a way of securing resources and security.

This desire to recapture the past is something that brands have caught onto and are building into their future products and marketing tactics. For example, Build-a-Bear is now aiming their plushies at the adults who – once upon a time – dreamed of picking out their own fluffy best friends at their stores.

For newer, modern brands, a collaboration with an old favourite is also proving is a sure-fire way to get attach customer emotion to a product and make a sale.

Take the Gymshark x Bratz collaboration, “made for the girls with a passion 4 fitness”, allowing marketers to target women who grew up with the beloved doll and tempt them into buying colourful matching gym wear that matches. Even if customers do not typically wear sports clothes, they are inclined to pay for the name and the memory it brings with it.

Eco-deodorant brand Wild has collaborated with beloved fictional rabbit Miffy, Shoe brand Crocs have discovered the appeal of selling sandal accessories (known as Jibbitz) from franchises such as SpongeBob, and phone case maker Casetify markets their Tamagotchi collection as “nostalgia just hatched.

In a study conducted by Heba Abdel Wahab of Future University and Sahar Ahmed Nagaty of Sadat Academy for Management Sciences, both in Egypt, nostalgic emotions were found to have a positive effect on brand trust and brand attachments over 90 percent of the time. The results suggested that companies should consider nostalgia when marketing to improve consumer trust and behaviour towards the brand.

In another exploration, a team led by Jannine D. Lasaleta from the Grenoble School of Management conducted experiments on why marketers are right to use nostalgia. They found that consumers who experienced nostalgic feelings increased their willingness to pay for a product. This also led to warmer feelings about a past they cherished.

Buying modern products won’t bring the past back

It may sound like indulging in nostalgia is both good for business and good for consumers, however, if companies plan to use this tactic, they need to do it right. There is more to it than pasting a familiar childhood character on a product.

Research by Dr Tapas Jain, Dr Vinod Kumar Mishra, and Ms Divya Kothari of IPS Academy, Institute of Business Management and Research Indore in India shows that consumers only become more receptive to nostalgic advertising when the brand’s messaging aligns with the historical brand identity.

This is particularly true for Gen Z, who can tell when brands are emotionally manipulating consumers with their advertising – and won’t be shy about calling them out.

Companies need to be genuine if they’re using nostalgia to market, as it’s the emotional attachment that matters.

But what about capturing the minds of those who didn’t experience the hysteria the first time around? Many people, particularly on social media, tend to reminisce a period they didn’t even live in, and they gain nostalgic emotions towards that time. Romanticised perspectives of the 1990s, or even the 80’s (the reason why Stranger Things became such a hit!), are helping to persuade younger consumer groups to buy products representative of a time they’ve never truly experienced in an attempt to capture its magic.

However, while buying a new refurbished version of a Tamagotchi or a remake of an original Gameboy game won’t teleport you back to that time, it can help consumers feel as if they were back when those products were first released, and even give them an opportunity to build connections and a community with others.

Research from Singapore Management University found that nostalgia can motivate social interaction and make people more tolerant of outsiders, and make people more patient,  as when people see something that reminds them of a happier time, they spend more time reflecting and recalling that moment.

Dr Tapas Jain, Dr Vinod Kumar Mishra and Ms Divya Kothari proved that Gen Z are more likely to engage with vicarious nostalgia, which are memories they never lived through, but have encountered through social media or digital means. Which begs the question: why do people miss a time they may not have even experienced?

Why are we still living in the past?

Research by Claire Neave, Hannah Freemantle, and James Lappenman at the School of Management Studies at the University of Cape Town noted that nostalgic products are seen by many as a method of detachment, especially in stressful or uncertain times.

Participants in their study expressed a wish for simplicity and the familiarity that a nostalgic product could bring. One participant noted that “during a time of stress, everybody feels very unsure about the future, and so the past is kind of a safe bet […] I think it’s the simpler time.”

The Promised Future

When looking through the lens of nostalgia at the Noughties, Gen Z created a term that represents both the aesthetic, and the vision that previous generations had in mind for the future.

Meet Frutiger Aero. Clean, simple and idealistic.

The Frutiger Aero aesthetic is known for its vibrant colours, glossy textures, elements of nature, and often features a utopian future. Whether that is skyscrapers or built-up cities, the aesthetic always showcases technology alongside nature.

This nature is rarely seen outside of the now iconic default 2001 Windows XP screensaver, yet other pictures tied around Frutiger have overly saturated green fields that stretch for miles, often with buildings and animals cropping up – showing that technology and nature living together can be possible.

While it’s aesthetically pleasing to look at, it also represents a future that humanity never got.

Frutiger Aero has started to make a comeback in recent years. Gen Z are reviving the aesthetic due to the nostalgic aspect, but also because it represents hope, optimism, and escapism. In a world filled with grey and minimalist designs, businesses damaging the planet, and AI in every corner of our lives, people need a happy escape route, and a longing for something better.

The escapist tendencies are crucial here, Matt Johnson reminds us that people engage with nostalgic products because it allows them to escape to a better, if not acccurtely remembered time.

“Not all experiences in the past may have been positive, but when we look back in this way, we tend to think about very general periods, as opposed to particular details. We naturally paint our memories with a very broad brush, which, luckily for us, tends to gloss over the small negative details,” he shares in his blog.

People ignore the negative sides of these times, such as economic issues, war, racism, sexism, fatphobia – the list goes on. While these issues are still present, people want to bring the best parts of those time periods to the present day.

A Sense of Responsibility

In an article published by Ivey Impact,  June Cotte, Professor of Marketing at Ivey Business School, shares that when it comes to marketing, nostalgia works best when consumers are feeling negative about their current state, as nostalgic products offer an emotional refuge to reconnect with a time that felt safer.

Brands may feel they’re on to a winner by using people’s longing for the past to increase their sales, but there are a few lessons that can be learned in order to do so successfully and ethically.

If purchasing a remodel of a favourite toy, or a remake of a much-loved game allows customers to remember better times – is there any harm in cashing in?

Well, yes. Companies using nostalgia can risk being critiqued as caring more about profit than consumer satisfaction. Additionally, if marketed wrong or insincerely, companies risk consumer backlash if they feel they are being manipulated into a purchase.

A good example is the surge pricing tactics used by event ticket sellers such as Ticketmaster, when much loved bands from the past reform for a reunion tour.

Additionally, although the research shows that people will happily pay the price for a sweet taste of the past, it is worth bearing in mind that  customers miss both easier and  cheaper times.

As we no longer live in the 90s, there is also the issue of sustainability to consider. Frutiger Aero being coined as a lifestyle alongside an aesthetic is important. It represents a promised future of technological advancements moving with sustainability.

Research from Vlerick Business School even proves that consumers consider a company’s ethics before purchasing from them. So, if brands are going to continue to market nostalgia, they need to embed ethics that are valued by modern and younger buyers – which includes remaining sustainable and eco-friendly.

Clearly, nostalgic marketing works. It makes consumers feel happier, makes them trust the company, and allows a sense of community to be built by meeting new people.

But if brands really want that nostalgic feel, it’s time to start considering that living in a clean and eco planet used to be promised, and now it’s something we must work for instead.

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