Date

6-16-2025

Department

School of Communication and the Arts

Degree

Master of Fine Arts in Graphic Design (MFA)

Chair

Brianna O'Neal

Keywords

Graphic Design, Nostalgia marketing

Disciplines

Art and Design

Abstract

In an over saturated market, there are many brands that fall into the trap of uniform and formulaic marketing strategies that fail to resonate deeply with consumers. This research explores how a brand can break away from these repetitive tactics by evoking a sense of nostalgia to create emotional connections that lead to long-term loyalty with their intended audience. The importance of this topic is found in addressing a gap in contemporary marketing. The challenge is fostering genuine consumer relationships in a world that is dominated by fleeting trends and consumer engagement that is surface level. Leveraging nostalgia, which is a powerful emotional trigger rooted in personal and collective memories, allowing for many brands to have the potential to create long lasting conections with the audience.

In the past, marketing has evolved from the mass communication efforts to much more personalized digital campaigns, while many brands still struggle to stand out. Marketers have leaned heavily on product-centric messaging in the past, but due to the rise of social media and digital platforms have shifted the focus toward consumer-based narratives. Despite the change in tactic, many campaigns remain to rely on a formulaic basis, relying on the same tactics that appeal to broad audiences but seem to fail when trying to foster long-lasting connections with consumers. Through time, consumers become increasingly desensitized to traditional marketing due to a market that is over saturated. The need for new, or not so new, innovative approaches become more apparent. This need has led to the current exploration of emotional marketing, in which nostalgia offers a promising path forward into consumer and brand success.

The goal of this research is to demonstrate how nostalgia can aid branding and marketing strategies that not only capture attention with a short-term audience, but also create meaningful, enduring relationships with consumers. The findings will provide actionable insights for small businesses that may be looking to move beyond conventional marketing tactics and create campaigns that resonate on a deeper level, and that will ultimately drive brand loyalty and growth that stands the test of time. This research will also guide the visual solution to this issue. The goal of the visual solution will be to create a recourse for how small buisnesses both old and new are able to harness the power of nostalgia marketing.

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