ADS GET US TO BUY A PIECE OF THE PAST
WSU researchers studying why using nostalgia is successful Does that advertisement showing “Mom” making Chex mix in the 1960s make you cry?
Does the recent Coke ad showing people again wanting to teach the world to sing make you long for the Age of Aquarius?
When you see pictures of old muscle cars, do you want to buy a new Dodge Challenger?
When Leonard Nimoy finally spreads his fingers in the Vulcan salute, are you ready to buy Aleve?
These are all examples of nostalgia advertising, a successful but little studied branch of marketing.
Two researchers at Washington State University Darrel Muehling and David Sprott are studying why nostalgia ads work. They contend that as the baby boomers age into their 60s, such ads are likely to become much more common.
“Right now, the major television networks tell you that those between 18 and 49 years of age are the only ones who count,” Muehling, chairman of the marketing department at WSU, said. “But that’s an assumption that needs to be revisited.”
And because older people have much more life experience than the young, “you logically assume that you will see an even more pronounced effect with nostalgia-based advertising” according to Muehling .
Muehling also has studied the long-term effectiveness of negative vs. positive ads and the influence of ads on people who aren’t paying much attention. He was recently honored by the American Academy of Advertising for a lifetime of work.
A nostalgia ad is any ad that evokes a bittersweet recall of the past, Sprott said. It can recall an earlier time in which a person was alive, or even a time before he or she was born. Nostalgia ads are particularly popular during the Christmas season, when the media are filled with ads showing people rushing home for the holidays.
Bill Northrop of Miller Whiterunkle, Spokane’s largest advertising agency, also agreesthat nostalgia works well. His agency used vintage photos and other old imagery in creating ads for Henry Weinhard’s Private Reserve beer.
In a recent study, Muehling and Sprott explored a number of assumptions about nostalgia ads. They wanted to know if such ads were truly effective in prompting “nostalgic reflections” among consumers; whether such thoughts were generally positive; and whether they prompt more favorable opinions of products than ads lacking the nostalgia factor.
They took a group of 159 WSU students and showed them two nearly identical-appearing print advertisements. One ad focused on the good old days, the other focused on seizing the possibilities of the present. Their survey found that people who were shown the nostalgic ad tended to exhibit more favorable attitudes toward the advertised brand than those who did not.
Nostalgia tends to be affective rather than cognitive, meaning it is feelings-based rather than thought-based, they said.
So how does this apply to marketing your chiropractic practice? I can think of many ways, but let me tell you about my own experience. I am a history buff; my area of interest is in American History and of course the history of Chiropractic. Many of you know that The Association of Chiropractic History at Palmer has published my book dealing with the history of Chiropractic in New Jersey. My office is littered with vintage photographs of chiropractic schools from the 1920’s including dissection classes and technique classes. All of my photographs stimulate some form of discussion with new patients, which serves to break the ice and calm them down; I can immediately tell that there is a change in attitude.
Recently I started using the 3 Stooges and Little Rascal posters that I told you about in my own office. They are the first thing that patients notice when they walk into an adjusting room; they laugh and immediately start to reminisce about “the good old days”. This is especially true of patients who are parents and start trying to name all of the Little Rascals on the poster. (I know them all except the little girl up front, any help out there?) Anyway, this immediately gives me the opportunity to begin a discussion about the benefits of chiropractic for children. For those of you who like me who have found it difficult at times to start or find an entrée for the discussion of pediatric chiropractic care, this poster is a miracle. The same is true of the Stooges posters, while by themselves they have a value in their humor; they also bring back those warm and fuzzy feelings, a remembrance of childhood. This then sets the tone for how a patient will not only hear you but how they will listen to you. There is a bonding effect.
Remember, although most practices think they have a new patient problem the truth of the matter is that they have a retention problem. This problem begins on day one, when the patient first walks in the door. You must bond with this individual. If you do you have gained a patient for life.
Everything you do in your practice should be to the benefit of developing and increasing this bond.
