Retro brands also called nostalgic brands help the consumers to connect emotionally with them. Nostalgic branding involves incorporating elements from the past, such as antique designs, retro packaging, fragrance, taste, or classic advertising slogans, into a brand’s image and personality. It captures the nostalgia and charm associated with a specific period. Retro items are classical belonging to golden era, yet newly manufactured by incorporating elements, colors, patterns, and materials reminiscent of the designated era. The marketers use symbols from the past to associate the modern product with the audience’s fond memories.

Fashion is a typical cyclical trend that alternates between the past and the present constantly. Retro fashion trends are making a comeback.  Flared wide jeans, oversized blazers, platform shoes, flared skirts, palazzo, saree, tight salwar kameez are becoming popular once again. This reflects the cyclical nature of fashion trends, where styles that were once considered outdated have become fashionable again.

Retro music, retro outfits design, retro jewellery, and retro food items experience cyclical demand. Retro garment style or design are often made from contemporary fabrics, using modern machinery and methods. It is given a modern feel. Fashion trends come back in market back over time, bringing with them a sense of nostalgia and a renewed appreciation for previous styles. There has been a surge of revival in retro styles in ethnic wear that catches attention in the fashion, resulting in a delightful combination of the old and the new. In today’s digital age, social media campaigns are a crucial component of retro marketing for businesses.

In the last few years, we have witnessed many legacy brands taking birth again. Among white goods products we saw Kelvinator and BPL getting revived. Kelvinator brand was revived in 2019, when the retail arm of Reliance Retail signed a licensing, manufacturing, marketing, and distribution deal with Electrolux. They currently sell a range of appliances of whitegoods under the Kelvinator brand. Similarly, Reliance has acquired the license to manufacture and market consumer durable products under the BPL.  Both brands were iconic brands and ruled the market in the 80’s and the 90’s. In both the cases, Reliance Retail was instrumental in bringing them back.

Reliance Consumer Products, the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) arm of Reliance Retail Ventures Limited, had also acquired Campa Cola from Pure Drinks Group in August 2022 for Rs 22 crore. the iconic Indian soft drink brand Campa Cola is making a comeback in the country’s market.

API (Automobile Products of India) used to manufacture the famous Lambretta brand of scooters. It was the first Indian scooter manufacturer. The early models were the Lambretta 48, a 48-cc moped and the D and LD – Series of scooters. This brand of scooter is now going to re-enter the Indian market in a new avatar, which will be the electric version. The Lambretta electric scooter will be showcased to the public at the Milan Motorcycle Show in 2023(an annual trade show in Milan, Italy featuring two wheelers) and the same model will be produced in India a year later, in 2024. The brand is planning to recreate the magic of its past. They are going to partner with Bird Mobility for the comeback in India. According to news reports, the Lambretta electric scooters will launch their premium version of their models.

But Lambretta must handle a tough challenge in hand as the remaining equity of this brand hardly exists and the generation that experienced the earlier Lambretta is way past its prime. How much of that brand equity will be leveraged remains to be seen. It is almost like a brand-new product launch from scratch with new features. Lambretta V125 is expected to launch in India in July 2024 in the expected price range of ₹ 80,000 to ₹ 90,000.

Lots of devices, including CD players, polaroid cameras, and MP3 players, have shot up in sales over the last few years. However, perhaps the most popular device that is growing in popularity is the classic flip phone that most people had back in the ’90s and early 2000s before smartphones came about.

There is too much information out there for our minds to consume. Every streaming platform has thousands of movies and TV shows to watch, every news outlet can flood our smartphone with stories 24/7, and the content we scroll through on social media is endless.  Although the Gen-Z may be grateful for their devices, they probably wonder what it was like for their parents and grandparents before all this technology was not available.

Despite past troubles with comic sales, technically speaking, comic books never went away. They had been around for decades and enjoyed readership for ages. Who can forget Archie comics? Arguably the most successful non-superhero comic book ever, Archie debuted in 1941. In an era of superhero comics like Captain America dominating the scene, how did Archies come about? The fictional teenagers Archie Andrews, Jughead Jones, Betty Cooper, Veronica Lodge, Reggie Mantle, Sabrina Spellman, Josie and the Pussycats and Katy Keene were adored by the world.  It enjoyed fans from the age of 7, all the way up to 70. The characters of the comic have remained young forever.

No wonder, Zoya Akhtar directed “The Archies” with new Bollywood stars. It is a nostalgic tribute for people of a certain vintage era. Archie Comics were first published in December 1941 in Pep Comics. The comics, set in the fictional town of Riverdale, told the story of an archetypal American teenager, the red-headed, freckled Archie Andrews, and his friends.

Culture constantly recycles the past by bringing it into a new and improved look in the present. Technological advances have made it easier for businesses to create retro themed products and concepts in the most unique ways. Retro themes are popping up everywhere.

Recently, in the movie Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani, director Karan Johar cleverly used a retro hit to trigger the nostalgia factor which added to Dharmendra and Shabana Azmi’s chemistry. Good versions of old songs can also help boost the streams of the original compositions. “Abhi na jao chodkar” the old classic song made the movie a hit. 

Businesses can benefit greatly by capitalizing on the consumer’s fascination with the past and the positive memories associated with it through retro marketing. The nostalgia associated with classic brands and trends is making a big impact in the consumer market. In today’s technology-driven world, people are beginning to realize the value of tangible and emotional things. Vintage t-shirt shops are popping up in major cities, making retro branding a trend that’s here to stay. Marketers are enjoying the reintroduction of vintage products.

Challenges faced by Legacy brands

Most legacy brands are almost over 3 decades old and catered to a different generation. Today, when these legacy brands seek to re-enter the market, they are selling and talking to a totally a new breed of audiences who hardly remember the earlier equity and values that these brands delivered years back. While the market presents an opportunity, but one is not sure whether they could enjoy their old positioning. Infusing a fresh breath of life into an age-old brand is a huge challenge as the brand needs to meet the new desires and aspirations of the new generation consumer. Technology advances faster than we can keep up. The number of devices we have access to and what they can do for us can be overwhelming for the manufacturer.   

Requires creativity in advertisement

Essentially, if the purpose is to get a consumer to think about a message, a nostalgic ad is not effective because the consumes expect more of their thoughts towards their memories instead of the ad’s content. It’s a very tricky game.

Conclusions

Retro marketing has become a phenomenon, and businesses are bringing it to products in almost every area such as automobile, fashion designing, beverages, music, and entertainment industry. The list is big. A feeling and emotion have wakened in the modern-day consumer. The business is cyclical; old brands are renewing and coming back to market. Nostalgia is powerfully triggering the consumers to purchase retro brands.

EPRG full form stands as Ethnocentric, Polycentric, Regiocentric, and Geocentric. It is a framework created by Howard V Perlmutter, Jerry Wind and Douglas in 1969. The EPRG Framework helps organization choose which approach is most suitable for it to achieve successful results in countries abroad. When organizations decide to go overseas in search of market expansion they need to adopt one of the styles as in ethnocentric, polycentric, regiocentric, geocentric. EPRG model often is also called EPG Model in International Business.

Organizations choose strategies based on what suits them most, therefore making them differently oriented. As a result, costs and profits are generated in different ways, depending on the mentioned kind of orientation. Therefore the identification of the right orientation is essential. For example, it is important that different activities of the organization are consistent between headquarter and SBUs situated in other part of world at various stages. It is also important that the culture of organization, its marketing strategy, financial strategy, operational strategy is consistent. Only then, the organization can operate efficiently in the market. Let us look at the four approaches as follows:

Ethnocentric: means to apply one’s own culture in social science and anthropology. Japan has a reputation for being ethnocentric. Ethnocentric comes from ethnicity which means belonging to a social group that has a common national or cultural tradition. Ethnicity as a frame of reference is used to judge other cultures, practices, behaviour, beliefs and people, instead of using the standards of the particular culture involved. Since this judgment is often negative, some people also use the term to refer to the belief that one’s culture is superior to, or more correct or normal than, all others especially regarding the distinctions that define each ethnicity’s cultural identity, such as language, behaviour and customs.

There is no change in terms of product specifications, price, promotion, and other aspects and is same as compared to the native market.

Typical examples of ethnocentric companies are Japanese companies such as Panasonic, Sony and Hitachi. In Ethnocentric Approach, the key positions in the organization are filled with the employees of the parent country. All the managerial decisions viz. Mission, vision, objectives are formulated by the MNC’s at their headquarters, and the same is to be followed by the host company. It is based on the rationale that, the staffs of the parent country is best over the others. In the host countries in top position the organization appreciates having parent country employees at top.

The head office is given more importance as compared to the overseas subsidiaries or offices situated in the international markets.  These companies ignore the potent opportunities outside the home country and they are referred to as domestic companies.

The advantages of ethnocentric approach can be as follows:

1. Better coordination between the host and the parent company.
2. The culture of the parent company can be easily transferred to the subsidiary company, thereby infusing beliefs and practices into the foreign country this also help in controlling the subsidiary effectively.
3. The parent company can have a close watch on the operations of the subsidiary.

Polycentric Orientation: Polycentric approach of business can be defined as host country orientation. Here the host country’s customs, behaviour, culture, language is considered while doing business. Under a polycentric perspective, a company’s management team believes that it is better to adopt host country’s culture to befriend the customers, suppliers and government. In Polycentric orientation organizations see host country’s unique and exclusive conduct because businesses are best run locally as per local culture. This approach lays a strong groundwork because every subsidiary develops its unique marketing and business strategies for success and the country’s domestic market is given equal importance. This approach is best suited for the developing countries in which certain constraints on the front of finance, political, and cultural front are experienced.

The best example of polycentric organization is McDonald. The familiar offerings in their restaurants in the United States may be somewhat less familiar if you venture abroad. In India, where many people do not eat beef, McDonald’s offers the McAloo Tikki, a vegetable patty with characteristic Indian spices. European McDonald’s often serve wine in addition to soft drinks. Customers in the Netherlands can order a Stroopwafel McFlurry, a dessert that mixes in a popular Dutch cookie treat. The product offerings are fine-tuned to individual country or regional tastes, polycentric advertising strategies are equally diverse, relying on music, spokespeople, language and cultural references that are familiar to the local population.

The Google search engine is well-known for its clever “Doodles” the images and text that appear almost daily to celebrate a particular person or event in a country.  Google Doodles are made as per polycentric approach. The doodles announce events around the world; special doodles are designed for Olympics, Soccer World Cup, and Cricket World Cup etc.

The advantages of polycentric approach are as follows:

1. The difficulty in the adjustment of expatriates from the parent country gets removed.
2. The hiring of locals or the nationals of the host country is comparatively less expensive. The morale of the local staff increases.
3. Better productivity due to better knowledge about the host market; the career opportunities for the nationals of the host country increases.
4. Better government support.

Regiocentric Orientation: is an approach adopted by a firm wherein it adopts a marketing strategy across a group of countries, which have been grouped on the basis of their market characteristics; i.e., the market characteristics of these countries would be more or less similar. The company which follows this approach of framework studies the similarities in markets to design strategies. The management of the company records the economic, social, cultural, and political similarities between the native areas of the overseas region to sell its products and services to potential customers. It is worth noting that the cultural and regional identity of India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh is quite similar whereas Norway and Spain that both falls in Europe are very different in terms of culture, climate, and transport amongst other aspects.

Coca-Cola and Pepsi are regiocentric companies. Regiocentric strategy assumes that all countries of the region can be regarded as a single market.

HSBC is one of the largest banking and financial services organizations in the world, with well-established Businesses in Europe, the Asia-Pacific region, the Americas, the Middle East and Africa. They use a regiocentric approach. Organization group countries on the basis of their market characteristics; i.e., the market characteristics of these countries would be more or less similar.

Some of the advantages of regiocentric approach are as follows:

1. Helps cultural fit. When organizations hire the managers from the same region as that of the host country may not encounter any problem with respect to the culture and the language followed there. It costs less in hiring the natives of the host country.
2. The managers work well in all the neighbouring countries within the geographic region of the business.
3. The nationals of host country can influence the decision of managers at headquarters with respect to the entire region.

Geocentric Orientation: is practiced when an organisation does not organise its strategies based on country or regions. Geocentric firms adopt an approach whereby they have a global mind-set. They view the whole world as their market and seek to identify global needs and wants and create products and services. The companies following the geocentric approach of the EPRG Framework are truly the global players. They think global and act global. Their HR policies for staffing and job position approach to staffing assigns job positions to any person best suited for the position, regardless of the employee’s background, culture or country of origin. These organizations understand costing in hiring in terms of immigration policies; costs of worker relocation and diversity management create pressure on HR management.

McDonalds is a global company which follows Geocentric approach because it perceives world as a single market and tries to offer low cost products and services everyone. Even MTV (24 hours music channel) is a geocentric organization.  The Geocentric approach does not connect nationality with the factor of dominance.

Advantages of geocentric orientation are as follows:

1. MNC’s can develop a pool of senior executives with international experiences and contacts across the borders in the world. The expertise of each manager can be used for the accomplishment organization’s objective as a whole.
2. Reduction in resentment, i.e. the sense of unfair treatment reduces.
3. Shared learning, the employees, will learn from each other’s experiences.

According to the old-school of thought, the marketing funnel appeared like this: in this funnel the marketer required to fill the top of the funnel with as many leads (prospective customers) as possible since the bottom of funnel only filters out a small percentage of concluding customers.

But today, a majority of business firms understand that their relationship with the customer should not end at the bottom of the cone-shaped marketing funnel. Instead, it should open up the funnel after a person purchases a firm’s product. Firms today invest on retraining the customer forever. Firms try to capture the customer’s journey after a person buys product of the firm. At its core, customer relationship management (CRM) is all of the activities, strategies and technologies that companies use to manage their connections with their current and potential customers. The proverb “customer is king/queen” is literally practiced through the marketing funnel; therefore today’s funnel looks like this.

Role of CRM:  Customer Relationship Management helps firms to build association with their customers. CRM helps firms to create loyalty and customer continuation. Customer’s experience with a firm increases their loyalty towards it. Product quality and loyalty goes hand in hand and increasing the sales of a firm. CRM is a management strategy that results in increased profits for a business. At its core, a CRM as a tool creates a simple user-related collection of data that helps businesses recognize and communicate with customers in a quantifiable way.

A far-sighted business firm therefore needs to adopt various strategies to influence consumers at each stage of the funnel. Stages such as awareness, comprehension, conviction, action can be geared by follow-up telephone calls, sending them positive press reviews, reminders, or updated corporate communication. The sales and marketing departments must guide this traffic of the prospective customers through the funnel using strategies that are designed to be effective at each stage. At each stage of the corporate communication, firms need to update it with latest trends.

Role of Social Media: A marketing funnel starts with awareness. Please understand this fact that a firm cannot do anything until consumers become aware of the existence of their brand. Social media gives business marketers a direction to communicate with customers, and to find specific potential consumers. It personalizes the “brand” and helps business to spread the firm’s message in a comfortable and informal way. It helps in creating awareness and harnessing the power of word-of-mouth, which is much more effective than traditional advertising.

Effective marketing strategies a must in each funnel stage:  marketing activities must be conducted in such a way that they must facilitate consumers through the funnel process. The activities must engage promotional activities to create awareness about the products, detail of the benefits compared with the competitor’s product, chart the advantages of how a purchase will benefit the customer, or offer a special promotion that infuses the sale. Once the sale is complete, marketers needs to engage the customer to get feedback and retain loyalty, as that can lead to repeat business and referrals.

Marketing and sales funnel is one and the same: Some companies differentiate between a marketing funnel and a sales funnel, but both can work together seamlessly. The distinction in both is immaterial. Marketing is responsible for generating traffic at the top and through the middle of the funnel, and as these leads or buyer prospects get closer to a decision, the sales activity clicks.

Marketing funnel is based on technology: Digital technology is part and parcel of business and cannot be ignored by marketers. The marketing funnel offers a good example of this fact. The buying process has become faster than before. Majority buyers do their own research online, comparing features and benefits of competitive products, rather than relying on a company’s traditional marketing activities to guide them through the funnel stages. This means buyers enter the funnel at a point where they are more prepared to make a sale. It also means companies need to get information online; they need to upgrade their website, blogs with product content, price, discounts, warranty, guaranty etc, etc. Post purchase review has become an essential feature these days.

Funneling is a continuous non-stop process: No company can ever say that they have completed marketing activity. The world is changing fast. So does the customers’ needs, wants and demands. The competition is fierce in every walk of life. There is nothing called product loyalty in business world. Continuous improvement in marketing helps firms to achieve better returns on their investment in marketing. Continuous improvement is a form of quality management that focuses on making small additional improvements to a process, rather than trying to achieve major changes. In marketing, at each stage of funneling, firms can keep doing continuous improvement to achieve goals such as increasing the accuracy in segmenting, targeting and positioning of course by using product differentiation strategy.

The marketing funnel is visualization and perceptive to understand the process of turning leads (prospective customers) into real customers. The idea is that, like a funnel, marketers cast a broad net to capture as many leads as possible, and then slowly nurture prospective customers through the purchasing decision, narrowing down these customers in each stage of the funnel.

The funnel is a term for describing the route by which prospective customers, or prospects, become customers. The visualization of the process looks like a funnel. A larger number of prospects go in the top and are reduced to a lesser number of customers who come out at the bottom.