Childhood Brand Nostalgia, Perceived Self-Continuity and Brand Loyalty

Research on retro and nostalgic consumption has gathered much interest in the recent past, but little is known about the role of nostalgia in buffering psychological threats such as loneliness, particularly in the context of brand consumption. In this study, we adopt the perspective of emotional loneliness with which we examine the role of childhood brand nostalgia in building brand loyalty. We posit that the negative emotion of loneliness triggers individuals to engage in nostalgia, particularly towards brands that relate to their childhood. This phenomenon is operationalized in this study by the construct of childhood brand nostalgia. We draw on consumer brand relationship theory and develop a sequential mediation model to explain the mediating processes of how emotional loneliness, nostalgia and perceived self-continuity create childhood brand nostalgia and ultimately contribute to brand loyalty. The results from a sample of 211 respondents suggest that when individuals are emotionally lonely, they are likely to engage in nostalgia to enhance their need for perceived self-continuity. Subsequently, the need for perceived self-continuity is fulfilled by the consumption of childhood brand nostalgia as well as by developing a long-term relationship with the brands that are associated with their childhood. Most importantly, our findings imply that emotionally lonely individuals use childhood brand nostalgia to retrieve their fond childhood memories to enhance their perceived sense of connectedness, which in turn may be a means to manage emotional loneliness.