If you can’t manufacture nostalgia, how can younger FMCG brands build lasting connections?
Decades later, the packaging may remain instantly recognisable, even if the product is no longer part of the weekly shopping basket.
For established fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) brands, these associations represent a competitive advantage that is difficult to replicate. They are built through years of repeated exposure, shared experiences and a presence in everyday routines.
As marketers increasingly revisit retro packaging, heritage-led storytelling and familiar advertising, a question emerges for newer businesses: how do brands build emotional connections when they have no decades-long history to draw on?
The answer lies less in recreating the past than in giving consumers reasons to remember a brand in the first place.
The commercial value of familiarity
Nostalgia can influence how consumers relate to brands, products and purchasing decisions. A systematic review published in the Journal of Marketing Communications, examining 139 Scopus-indexed papers, explored the relationship between nostalgia, consumer behaviour, identity and brand promotion.
Food and drink are particularly relevant to this relationship. Taste, smell, packaging and shared occasions can become associated with specific people, places and periods in consumers’ lives. Over time, a product can acquire emotional meaning beyond its functional purpose.
For marketers, these associations can help sustain recognition and preference in crowded categories where products may offer similar functional benefits.
However, longevity alone does not guarantee continued relevance.
South Africa’s KOO brand, for example, has been part of local households for more than 80 years. When Tiger Brands refreshed KOO in 2023, it sought to balance the brand’s heritage with changing consumer needs.
The lesson is that recognition can provide a valuable starting point, but brands still need to give shoppers a reason to choose them today.
“You can't decide that a brand is going to become nostalgic,” says Anthony Silber, head of marketing at Pura Beverage Co South Africa. “You have to give people something worth remembering first.”
Why younger brands cannot borrow a past
For newer FMCG businesses, competing against established brands often means entering categories where consumers already have strong habits and familiar choices.
The temptation is to borrow the visual language of heritage: vintage packaging, retro advertising or references to an imagined simpler time. While these cues may attract attention, they cannot substitute for a credible brand history or a product experience that earns consumer trust.
“There is a temptation for brands to borrow heritage because heritage carries credibility,” says Silber. “But consumers are very good at recognising when something doesn't belong to you. A younger brand shouldn't try to manufacture a history it doesn't have.”
Instead, younger brands need to build familiarity through consistent execution. Product quality, distinctive packaging, clear communication and reliable availability all contribute to whether consumers recognise a brand, remember their experience and consider buying it again.
Advertising can introduce a product, but repeat purchases depend on what happens after that first encounter. If the product meets expectations and remains accessible, an initial trial can develop into a habit. Over time, that habit may become associated with particular routines, people and occasions.
For businesses competing for shelf space and a share of household spending, the commercial objective is to move beyond awareness towards sustained preference.
Nostalgia is not limited to older consumers
Nostalgia is not necessarily confined to people who personally experienced the period being referenced. Research published in the Journal of Global Marketing in 2025 examined nostalgia and brands across Generation X and Generation Z in an experiment involving 132 consumers. It found that nostalgia increased purchase intention in both generations, although the effects differed.
Younger consumers also engage with music, fashion and cultural references from periods they never experienced first-hand. Brand familiarity can be passed between generations through family traditions, shared consumption and household purchasing habits.
For FMCG marketers, this creates opportunities to connect with consumers through cultural references and shared experiences, rather than relying exclusively on personal memories of a product.
The South African market adds another layer of complexity. Food traditions, household routines and cultural experiences vary widely, meaning there is no single nostalgic reference that will resonate equally with every consumer.
Brands need to understand the audiences they are trying to reach and avoid treating nostalgia as a universal emotional shortcut. A familiar reference may build a connection with one group while feeling irrelevant or inauthentic to another.
Building brand equity in the present
For younger brands, the more practical strategy is to establish a clear identity and deliver a consistent experience that consumers can recognise and trust.
That requires alignment between what a brand promises and what shoppers encounter, from the product itself to its packaging, availability and communication. Distinctive positioning can help a business stand out, but consistency is what gives consumers a reason to remember it.
There is also a difference between generating attention and building brand equity. A campaign may create short-term interest, while long-term value develops through repeated interactions that reinforce what a brand stands for.
In a competitive FMCG environment, where consumers face pressure on household budgets and have numerous alternatives, brands must make their value clear. Emotional appeal can contribute to that proposition, but it cannot compensate indefinitely for an inconsistent product experience or an unclear reason to buy.
The challenge is therefore not simply to create memorable marketing. It is to make the brand itself meaningful within consumers’ everyday lives.
Building tomorrow’s brand memories
The products on family tables, the drinks packed into coolers and the brands repeatedly appearing in supermarket baskets are all becoming part of consumers’ everyday experiences. For marketers, these are consumption occasions and brand touchpoints. For consumers, they are simply part of life.
Twenty years from now, shoppers may not remember the advertising campaign behind a product launch. They may, however, remember the product that was always present when friends got together or the brand associated with a particular family tradition.
For established FMCG businesses, the challenge is keeping those associations relevant as consumer expectations change. For younger brands, it is creating the familiarity, trust and positive experiences that could become meaningful over time.
Nostalgia cannot be manufactured overnight. The brands consumers remember tomorrow are built through the experiences they have today.
