Nostalgia Is Not A Strategy

When The Bay relaunched Zellers, I knew it was a strategy that was going to fail. The Bay relaunched it for the wrong reasons, and it was not only poorly done, it was doomed to fail because nostalgia has a limited reach, and potential for revival or even survival of the host brand would be short-lived.

Once a brand, corporate or even a human brand, such as an actor, author, or influencer, has become less relevant and more ceremonial, and a memory of a bygone era that can never or is unable to represent or define the future. They will fail.

I see it in organizations all the time, leadership having wrapped themselves in veils of the past without explaining how they are prepared to survive the future, other than hope and gumption, has surrendered its future to the very elements they are trying to avoid. Whenever I am asked to evaluate a company, it’s like taking the roof off, and when you look inside, you discover an all too familiar pattern. Leadership spends more time reminiscing about the past and the good old days than it does trying to figure out how to deal with the future; it has also dismissed the present.

In these scenarios, nothing has changed; the systems are antiquated, limited in their power to leverage data and create predictions for next-generation strategies. Too often, the leaders may be aware of what’s changing, but deep down inside, they know they cannot deliver that change or finance it because they have another deep dark secret, they know their brand is failing, and they are only milking what is left of their old dynasty or rein in stardom.

Often, these leaders are faced with a choice: sell or go down with the ship. Suddenly, it is up for sale, the price is high, once again, the ego that can’t let go, they are selling nostalgia. Many potential buyers show up, they kick the tires, and see that only a weak opportunity for longevity is left; the brand is forty to sixty years old, or a lot more like Hudson’s Bay. Buyers know that brands like these will not survive unless you can merge them into a brand complex.

The only shoppers, readers, listeners, and watchers of these brands and personalities are themselves hanging around because they are enamored with history and a connection, but there are so few left because so many keep looking for something new and a real innovation and refresh.

My biggest takeaway over the years has been that when there is a lack of respect for a changing world, the next move is nostalgia. It begins internally with stories and accounts of days gone by, and how little has changed, and that they still have longevity.

At the end of the day, nostalgia is not a strategy, and I have been very adamant about this with the media and executives over the years. Longevity does have a strategy. But for that, you will have to call me. It is a much longer soul-searching discussion.  And that goes for authors and actors as well.