Development and validation of an emic scale to measure ad-evoked nostalgia in France

Abstract

The practice of imbuing marketing communications with nostalgic reverie is prevalent in numerous countries. However, scholarly research investigating consumer response to such communication across cultures is lacking. This inquiry follows an emic approach examining and measuring ad-evoked personal nostalgia in France. Findings from five studies (N = 699) reveal significant differences in consumer reactions in France, as compared to earlier research based on American samples. Among the French, nostalgic advertising evokes personal memories and cultural nostalgia, contrasted to reports of past imagery, physiological and positive and negative emotional reactions in the United States. Furthermore, while cultural nostalgia is an important component of the French personal nostalgic experience, it is the personal memories that are the key to the creation of positive impressions about the ad and brand (brand heritage, brand bonds, and attitudes), and driving behavioral intentions. The emic French scale was found to be superior to an etic ad-nostalgia measure, in terms of fit and variance explained of the endogenous variables. The findings contribute to cross-cultural advertising and marketing research, and can be instructive for advertisers targeting the French market.

Keywords:

• nostalgia
• culture
• emic
• etic
• advertising
• heritage
• emotions
• memories

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the four marketing faculty members who served as expert judges in study 1: Christian Derbaix (Catholic University of Louvain-Mons), Maud Derbaix (Kedge Business School), Marc Filser (University of Burgundy) and Ingrid Poncin (Catholic University of Louvain-Mons).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.