Innovative nostalgia
A dissertation at LUISS University tackles the topic of the meanings of retro productions which companies use as leverage
Looking at the past with the right outlook, better to build the present and lay the foundations for a better future. This is also true for businesses. And it is not always a question of major strategies, but often merely taking care in repeatedly proposing solutions (and objects) which come from far away.
The reasoning about the “past” that is still all around us is one of the most interesting aspects of the commercial strategies of many companies. The proposal of vintage objects is the clarification of a highly topical past, one might say, so topical as to constitute not merely a marketing strategy but something more complex, that involves the entire production culture of many companies. Vintage as growth leverage, therefore, and not only as a strategy to sell more.
The past vs present combination is the topic on which Jacopo Maria Conti focused in his dissertation “Between nostalgia and innovation: how the meanings related to retro can help businesses develop innovative offerings” presented at LUISS. Conti’s starting point is simple: “In a world where the Internet has made it impossible to forget anything – writes Conti – the Past only remains so to the extent that we are not permitted to change it. For all the rest, all the suggestions, the memories, the manufactured articles, the ideals of a bygone era can continue to relive, to be rediscovered. And since people feel disorientated, dragged along by the stream of excessively rapid changes that only even need to be rationalised, the Past emerges like an anchor of salvation, the only firm point in a sea of unstable perspectives”.
Conti then reasons on the fact that the common vision that marketing has something vintage about it can often be misleading. It is not only a question of bringing people back in time, but something different and more complex. Something that can really contribute to the creation of a new production and consumption culture.
Conti’s work then goes on to examine one of the most popular phenomena linked to vintage – i.e. retrogaming -, and then makes a closer analysis of all things vintage and retro seen as cultural elements; an analysis which follows that of the connections between businesses and communities of consumers who are loyal to these types of products.
One of the most important aspects of the entire research lies in an effort to understand the process that leads from tradition (the consumer’s “nostalgia”) to business innovation.
The work by Conti is certainly original and not everyone could possibly with it. But it does have the advantage of not only speaking clearly, but also of exploring new markets, little known forms of business, production and consumption cultures that are still far from well-known.
Between nostalgia and innovation: how the meanings related to retro can help businesses develop innovative offerings
Jacopo Maria Conti
Dissertation. LUISS University, Department of Business and Management, Chair of Marketing Communication & New Media Languages, 2018
A dissertation at LUISS University tackles the topic of the meanings of retro productions which companies use as leverage
Looking at the past with the right outlook, better to build the present and lay the foundations for a better future. This is also true for businesses. And it is not always a question of major strategies, but often merely taking care in repeatedly proposing solutions (and objects) which come from far away.
The reasoning about the “past” that is still all around us is one of the most interesting aspects of the commercial strategies of many companies. The proposal of vintage objects is the clarification of a highly topical past, one might say, so topical as to constitute not merely a marketing strategy but something more complex, that involves the entire production culture of many companies. Vintage as growth leverage, therefore, and not only as a strategy to sell more.
The past vs present combination is the topic on which Jacopo Maria Conti focused in his dissertation “Between nostalgia and innovation: how the meanings related to retro can help businesses develop innovative offerings” presented at LUISS. Conti’s starting point is simple: “In a world where the Internet has made it impossible to forget anything – writes Conti – the Past only remains so to the extent that we are not permitted to change it. For all the rest, all the suggestions, the memories, the manufactured articles, the ideals of a bygone era can continue to relive, to be rediscovered. And since people feel disorientated, dragged along by the stream of excessively rapid changes that only even need to be rationalised, the Past emerges like an anchor of salvation, the only firm point in a sea of unstable perspectives”.
Conti then reasons on the fact that the common vision that marketing has something vintage about it can often be misleading. It is not only a question of bringing people back in time, but something different and more complex. Something that can really contribute to the creation of a new production and consumption culture.
Conti’s work then goes on to examine one of the most popular phenomena linked to vintage – i.e. retrogaming -, and then makes a closer analysis of all things vintage and retro seen as cultural elements; an analysis which follows that of the connections between businesses and communities of consumers who are loyal to these types of products.
One of the most important aspects of the entire research lies in an effort to understand the process that leads from tradition (the consumer’s “nostalgia”) to business innovation.
The work by Conti is certainly original and not everyone could possibly with it. But it does have the advantage of not only speaking clearly, but also of exploring new markets, little known forms of business, production and consumption cultures that are still far from well-known.
Between nostalgia and innovation: how the meanings related to retro can help businesses develop innovative offerings
Jacopo Maria Conti
Dissertation. LUISS University, Department of Business and Management, Chair of Marketing Communication & New Media Languages, 2018