If you are still a long way from retirement age, but the more the years go by, the more you love to get together with your peers to look with vague disgust at the habits of the younger generation, reminiscing with excitement and melancholy about the dear good times of your youth, then you are most likely among the backers of the growing nostalgic consumer trend.
For the past few years we have been witnessing an ever-increasing desire for a return to the past that is gradually spreading to all areas of consumption: cinema, TV, events and, last but not least, technology.
After all, at a time when technology is able to radically change lifestyles in just ten years or less, when the future is increasingly uncertain and the certainties that have characterized the lives of past generations have collapsed, what could be more comforting than taking refuge in the past?
So many brands are carrying out genuine nostalgia marketing operations-a strategy that leverages consumers' memories and emotions to bring them closer to their brand.
The most recent and well-known nostalgia marketing operation has been carried out by HMD Global, a Finnish company that develops mobile devices under the Nokia brand, which has relaunched the most cult cell phone of the 1990s-2000s: the famous Nokia 3310.
Loved and coveted by all young people at the time, the Nokia 3310 debuted on the market in 2000 and managed to sell as many as 125 million units in just 5 years. The reasons to love it were: its attractive design, polyphonic ringtones, games, and, last but not least, its indestructibility.
The new 3310 was launched on February 27, 2017 in Barcelona at the Mobile World Congress, and it was surprising to see how a small, colorful feature phone managed to steal the show from the latest generation of innovative smartphones.
The strengths of this new version are its small price (49 euros) and a very powerful battery that promises a battery life of 29 days when left on standby and 22 hours of phone calls. A nice breath of fresh air that would free from the charger yoke we are forced to with current smarthphones.
How did this cell phone with a 2.4-inch display, a 2-megapixel camera, and a ridiculous data connection attract so much interest? Simple: nostalgia effect!
But will excitement be enough to make up for the lack of a decent camera and the absence of now-core apps such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and, most importantly, Whatsapp?
We will find out in a few months!
In Nintendo 's case, thenostalgia operation proved more than successful.
July 2016 saw the launch in America of the Nintendo Classic Mini, a mignon rendition of the historic NES console, which was released in 1986 and became a cult favorite for everyone born between the 1980s and 1990s.
The new 2016 version presents the perfect mix of nostalgia and innovation, allowing old emotions to be relived with the convenience of new technologies.
In fact, the console is sold with 30 cult games already installed with HDMI connection that allows it to be connected to the latest generation of TVs. Each game can be played in three different modes: cathode ray tube, which reproduces the same display mode as older televisions, complete with scan lines; 4:3 mode, which ensures that the original look is retained, with a slight stretch horizontally; and pixel perfect mode, a new technology that ensures sharp images even on very large screens.
The sales results have been eye-popping with a nostalgia effect that has led to stock breaking and placing the new Nintendo Classic Mini at the top of the charts, immediately behind Sony's Playstation4 and Microsoft's market-leading Xbox One.
The nostalgia effect also proves successful on the big and small screen.
n March 16, Beauty and the Beast, a live-action remake of the 1991 classic, debuted in theaters with an impressive 7.4 million earned in the first weekend alone.
Disney is getting attached to the excellent results achieved by live-action remakes in recent years: Alice in Wonderland earned $116 million, The Jungle Book 103, Maleficent 74 and Cinderella 68.
Not surprisingly,2018 at Disney will still be remake-themed: from Genius (prequel to Aladdin), to Tink (spinoff of Peter Pan), to the Little Mermaid, there is every reason to dive back into sweet childhood memories.
It is not only Disney that has been trapped in the abyss of memories, but most of 2017's movie releases will be nostalgia-themed.
2017 will be the year of remakes of 80s and 90s cult films.
We will witness the return of Jumanji, the return of cult horror film It, see the reboot of Blade Runner, and even the transformation into movies of Baywatch and Power Rangers, television series that marked the childhood of those born in the 1980s and 1990s.
T2 Trainspotting, from Danny Boyle's 1996 cult film of the same name, made its theatrical debut on Feb. 23.
The second chapter, as much loved by some viewers as hated by others, is a distillation of pure nostalgia that well follows the trend of recent years.
Trainspotting 2 teaches us that no matter how imperfect and uneasy the past may have been, in the face of change and the constant uncertainties imposed by the future, the temptation will always be to rediscover the warmth of the certainties of times gone by.