The Nostalgic Economy: The Domination Of Nostalgic Focus In Contemporary Media And Its Influence On Streaming Preferences

ABSTRACT

Nostalgia refers to the mixed feelings of happiness and gloominess that occurs while reminiscing the past. In everyday life, we come across many situations or people, where there is longing for the time begone. This intense emotion has played a major role in building a set of audience for the streaming media, wherein this intense emotion of longing for the past has been put to use to influence or manipulate the preferences of the mass. The interlink between the media and human psychology has influenced the change in choice of the mass. This paper will focus on the on the domination of nostalgic focus in contemporary media and its influence on streaming preferences with the objectives of understanding the concept of nostalgia and its psychological functions,potential of streaming media in evoking the feeling of nostalgia among viewers and how it manipulates our preferences using our fascination towards ‘good-old-times’ and our obsession with the things that we missed out on in the past. The study is conducted based on the primary data collected from 150 samples in Moodbidri.

INTRODUCTION

Nostalgia is a term used to refer to that sentimental feeling of both joy and sorrow on account of a past memory. It if often accompanied by a desire to go back to those ‘good-old-days’. It is an impulse to look back to our happy times and wish that we were there. The term was coined by a Swiss medical student Johannes Hofer. It is a combination of two Greek words namely, nostos which means homecoming and algos which means pain. Thus, etymologically ‘nostalgia’ roughly translates to homecoming pain.

Nostalgia is considered as an emotional experience that triggers the longingness for the days that have gone by. This intense feeling that causes complex emotional surge is, however, at present being used as an effective marketing strategy across products and services all over the world. It plays a major role in attracting and maintaining customers as it is a very fine tool that is instrumental in effective communication. The technique of deceptive advertising wherein the understanding of human psychology is put into use to manipulate the mass by tapping on their emotional soft spot has become rampant in the day.

As known the video and music streaming applications are very popular among the youth, who are more in number in our country. These very platforms are used to induce the feeling of nostalgia among them which would trigger them to perform an action as desired by the marketer which would in turn be used to condition them to make a purchase of a product or service that is associated with it, thereby easily manipulating the preferences of the mass.

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

A Review of Nostalgic Marketing by Rubo Cuidiscusses the nostalgia in marketing that is “how it is used as a way to communicate with consumers and is converted into an effective marketing field. It presents the concepts and mechanism of nostalgic marketing, the target group and strategies of nostalgic marketing, etc.”

Consumer Nostalgia Literature Review and an Alternative Measurement Perspective by Justina Gineikienediscusses the “represents an attempt to comprehensively assess extant research in consumer nostalgia field, distinguish developments in the literature by summarizing the main findings of previous research and establishing theoretical trends.”

An Involvement Explanation for Nostalgia Advertising Effects by Darrel D. Muehling &Vincent J. Pascal “seeks to offer additional insights regarding why positive “nostalgia effects” in advertising may be observed, that is, why nostalgic ads tend to elicit more favorable consumer responses than do non-nostalgic ads. Using the personal relevance component of advertising involvement as a theoretical foundation, the study supports hypothesized expectations that nostalgic ads are capable of inducing greater levels of self-reflection and advertising involvement.”

OBJECTIVES

The intense emotion of has been put to use to influence or manipulate the preferences of the mass by interlinking media and human psychology. This paper will focus on the on the domination of nostalgic focus in contemporary media and its influence on streaming preferences with the objectives of understanding the concept of nostalgia and its psychological functions, positives and negatives of nostalgia, potential of streaming media in evoking the feeling of nostalgia among viewers and how it manipulates our preferences using our fascination towards ‘good-old-times’ and our obsession with the things that we missed out on in the past.

METHODOLOGY

The study originated from the need to explain the domination of nostalgic focus in contemporary media and its influence on streaming and buying preferences. Survey method was adopted in the study wherein questionnaires were given to 150 respondents between the age group of 18 to 30.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The intense emotion of has been put to use to influence or manipulate the preferences of the mass by interlinking media and human psychology. This paper will focus on the on the domination of nostalgic focus in contemporary media and its influence on streaming preferences with the objectives of understanding the concept of nostalgia and its psychological functions, positives and negatives of nostalgia, potential of streaming media in evoking the feeling of nostalgia among viewers and how it manipulates our preferences using our fascination towards ‘good-old-times’ and our obsession with the things that we missed out on in the past.

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DISCUSSION

The study was conducted on the age group of 18 to 30 years to analyse how the feeling of nostalgia has been put to use to influence or manipulate the preferences of the mass.

By the results if the study, it is indicated that the majority of the people of the age group have access to internet and spend an average of more than 4 hours a day on social media platforms, streaming applications and internet surfing.

Amazon Prime is the most popular video streaming application among this age group with 23.72 percentage of people subscribing to it and Wynk Music is the most subscribed for music streaming application with 42.4 percent subscribers. 74.57 percentage of people have experienced the feeling of nostalgia triggered by various video and music streaming applications and 68.18 percent of them claim that music is the most effective component that triggers nostalgia. Lyrics(74.5) are the component of music streaming applications that induce nostalgia the most.

45.8 percent of people find themselves looking for nostalgia triggering content at times and 60 percent claim to be influenced by nostalgia and associated products while making a purchase of which the major influence is of the movies as indicated by the percentage of 39.2. The majority of people agree that nostalgia is a very effective tool of marketing.

The access to internet, the rapid growth of technology, the process of digitalisation are the major contributors to the increasing number of users for both freemium and premium streaming media.

As far as the choice of streaming applications are concerned, the preference in both video and audio streaming is influenced by the factors such as the affordability of the subscription fee, the marketing strategies and benefits associated with subscribing to them and also the influence of recommendation and trend set by the peers. The difference among male and female is very negligible as far as various dimensions surveyed about are concerned, though psychologically females are considered to be more prone to reciprocate to emotional appeals.

The influence of nostalgia is clearly seen in the consumer trends as indicated by the figures mentioned earlier. Movies, brand names and advertisements play a major role in evoking such trends.

CONCLUSION

Nostalgia undoubtedly plays an important role in altering the preferences of the mass indicating that emotional appeal, irrespective of increased education and advancement in technology still has a strong hold over human decision.

The rapid growth of technology and affordability of various gadgets plays a major role in the increasing number of streaming media users. But there is a distinction as far as subscription to freemium and premium applications are concerned that is, the majority prefers to go for those applications that provide services at minimum affordable prices or that provide a good number of benefits associated with its subscription.

The music streaming applications are more effective in evoking the feeling of nostalgia than video streaming applications. The lyrics and the background music play a major role as far as audio induced nostalgia is taken into consideration. Movies and brands are the major aspects that influence nostalgic purchases.

REFERENCES

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