I almost never chew gum. It only happens if I've eaten something and don't have a chance to brush my teeth, and I'm going to a meeting or just want to freshen up. Then I choose from the "spiciest" chewing gum... so, give me a good shake off my lava in hopes of getting the contents in and moving on 🙂
The other day, though, I bought bubble gum - I even bought some. Ideal gum. I immediately opened one and chewed briskly. Terrible taste, too big, quickly became hard and popped my mouth. But I was very pleased. Today I found them in my pocket - already crushed. I took a picture of them for the purposes of the article you're reading, and snapped another one of the otherwise nasty chewing gums.
Why? Why? Pourquois?
Because they remind me of my childhood - how we used to collect pennies to buy a piece of gum, how we used to swap our pictures. I also remember Mom's remarks about not grinding. She still threatens me now when she sees me putting gum in my mouth, but I was also slapped when I was a kid. I chew my gum now, write my paper, and feel like a kid playing store with tree money and mud balls.
The topic of my post is RETRO - let's face it, because from wandering through memories and emotions, I may not be able to structure my writing clearly. Retro is always in fashion. Retro sells. If you're not convinced by your personal experience, perhaps you'll agree after we take a look at the reasons for this, and cast an eye over a few successful examples.
In the 21st-first century, more than ever, we buy motivated by emotion rather than need. This is not new at all, but it is getting deeper and deeper. Just think about the last time you bought something because you needed it and couldn't do without it? Being aware of this as consumers, we should not overlook it as producers and traders.
Dale Carnegie in one of the greatest books of all time wrote: "When dealing with people, remember that you are dealing not with sober-minded beings, but with beings wrought with emotions..." (From: "How to Win Friends and Influence Others"
Retro motifs bring back memories and stir up emotions associated with childhood. Whether we grew up in difficult years, childhood always brings good memories - of games, carefree, dreams. Anything that brings us back to those emotions is precious, even priceless.
Well, if I could go back to childhood, if only for a moment, wouldn't I give 10 pennies for the otherwise awful gum ideal? I did. I even gave a buck - for all the colors available on the pack. And I'll give again when I run out.
I think it's a nice challenge for any business to steer their creative thinking in a retro direction and consider incorporating elements of the past into their marketing.
I leave aside the examples that prove that "everything new is an old well forgotten" - most often in the design of clothes and accessories. In the examples of deliberate recreations of the past that I find without delving into research, in most cases companies rely on retro themes for packaging design. However, I also see entire ranges of products inspired by the past, and some straight are brought back from oblivion whole products as they existed 20 - 30 years ago. Enjoy the variety below:
- Sugar in lumps from "Sugar Plants" AD - they have not even shown creativity - only boldness to bring back the product as we remember it from the old days. They got a red point for audacity from me!
- Chewing gum "ideal", about which I have already told above. I don't know if anything has changed in the composition of the gum itself, but it seems to me that everything is as it was before.
- Great new retro Phillips models - here the technology or the essence of the product certainly has nothing to do with that of the past, but the product design copies the old radios. Pictured: the Original radio mini, inspired by the legendary 1955 Phillips radio known as the Philetta "254".
- Retro Zagorka - congratulations to the creative team of the brewery. Zagorka retro beat all the competition. I leave aside its taste, but the social networks were flooded with photos of the new old bottle of "Zagorka". I immediately remembered being sent to the village Horemag for a beer with 4 bottles in a net bag and pennies in my pocket for new beers. Grandpa kept the bottle green.
- Here's a gorgeous example of a service (rather than a product) inspired by the past: retro photo shoot by Tonita:
- A whole collection of USB sticks with a design that recreates completely different products of the past, which at the time were the latest in technology:
- Here's my favorite example: homegrown furniture house NIDO recently created an entire furniture brand inspired by the socialist baroque that emanates from our neighborhoods. The collection is called Design Apparatus and is the work of Italian designer Marco Tatarini. My absolute favourite in the collection is hey, this, the leftmost rug in the picture, based on a motif from... can you guess? At the bottom of the post I'll write where the inspiration came from, so as not to spoil the fun for those of you who want to figure it out for yourself 🙂
There are countless examples and I wouldn't have all the time in the world to research and list even just the best, so I'll stop here.
The purpose of this post is to inspire those of us who are faced with the challenge of inventing marketing campaigns to turn our thought and research in a direction: retro! People are crazy about retro and we'll be twice as crazy (and in a bad way) if we don't take advantage of it!
If you already have a retro project, I'd be happy to share it with us. And if you are looking for a partner to create with, give us a call, we might come up with something nice together!
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