Memory and Nostalgia

"In the real world, making a good decision is not mostly about choosing the best option. A good decision means choosing an option that works and allows you to move quickly onto whatever you want to do next." Tim Williams (taken from WARC)

Kotler's Buyer Decision Process assumes optimisation rather than satisfaction, but in terms of buying heuristically (buying quickly with not much thought), it is not optimisation that is focused on, but satisfaction. When we go to a supermarket, we do not tend to look for optimisation, we tend to make judgements on what product has satisfied us in the past (done through referring to memories).

The simplest heuristic is recognition. If there is an option of a recognised brand versus an unknown brand, the recognised brand would probably be chosen. An example could be my mum going food shopping each week and returning mostly with the same brands every time. This backs up the idea that if she has been satisfied by a product previously, she will purchase that product heuristically again and again. This seems to be a safeguard; stick to the product you know and like rather than going for the unknown and being disappointed.

Memory

"Learning is the acquisition of knowledge. Memory is the storage of internal representation of that knowledge." Blakemore 1988.

Everytime an advert or commercial appears, the objective is for the viewer to learn something and remember it. This is obviously crucial, if viewers do not remember what advertisments are promoting, the brand is at a loss. This concept relates back to researching into what target audiences are most likely to take interest in (e.g. humour and simplicity for males and detals for women).

Memory affects different stages of Kotler's buyer decision process, the information search and evaluation of alternatives. When a product is being purchased, the consumer will go back and retrieve information from their long term memory regarding past experiences and thoughts. If the experience of the product was satisfactory or above, the informaton search probably would not be considered, however, if past experiences suggested the product was below satisfactory, an alternative brand may be chosen.

Nostalgia

"A wistful desire to return in thought or in fact to a former time in ones life, to one's home or homeland, or to one's family and friends. It is a sentimental yearning for the happiness for a former time or place."

"When a stimulus is capable of recreating a personal event, even after many years, there often follows a bitter sweet feeling of nostalgia." Dubois 2000.

"Nostalgia has been described as a bitter sweet emotion, where the past is both viewed with sadness and longing." Solomon 2000.

Nostalgia is used frequently by advertisers to remind and take their veiwers back to the prime time of their lives. One company that is especially renound for the use of nostalgia in their adverts is Marks and Spencers; they have used both music and image to create nostalgia, as well as iconic faces such as Twiggy. By using certain music, a feeling of happiness can be achieved through triggering memories from the particualr era. This ultimately creates a positive link between the nostalgic memories and the product being advertised.

To test the effects of nostalgia myself, I have conducted a short interview with my mum and taken her back to the early 80's where she would have been in her early 20's...the age that is supposed to be the prime of your life! The video starts off fairly calmly, but towards the end A LOT of editing had to be carried out as mum got rather carried away...the nostalgic feeling for her got a bit too exciting!!