nostalgia as a factor in influencing consumer willingness to adopt new brands in emerging markets

164 Pages·2014·2.66 MB·English

by  Yolisa Phahle

NOSTALGIA AS A FACTOR IN INFLUENCING CONSUMER WILLINGNESS TO ADOPT
NEW BRANDS IN EMERGING MARKETS CHARACTERISED BY RAPID SOCIAL MOBILITY

Yolisa Phahle

Student Number 411350

A research proposal submitted to the Gordon Institute of Business Science, University of
Pretoria, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Business
Administration.

November 2014
© 2014 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria.
ABSTRACT
Typically nostalgia has been a valuable sales and marketing tool that has extended the life cycle
of legacy brands. This study sought to determine how nostalgia could be leveraged to increase
the willingness of consumers to adopt new brands.
Support was sought to confirm that a positive impact of nostalgia as an influencing factor is that
it increases consumer willingness to adopt new brands in emerging markets characterised by
rapid social mobility
This research clearly differentiated between the factors that drive consumption of physical
products in relation the drivers of consumption of intangible services and illustrated that the
benefits conspicuous consumption triggered by past deprivation is not limited to the acquisition
of physical products.
The results of this qualitative research, which was conducted through face-to-face in-depth
interviews with south African consumers, provides new insights that can be used by businesses
to leverage the ability of nostalgia to drive exploratory consumer behaviour and growth in
emerging markets where upward social mobility has resulted in increased spending power.
Additionally the research found that the advent of social media has facilitated the development
of nostalgic, virtual, verbal consumption; essentially it can be regarded as an extension of word-
of-mouth referral. This online socialisation is increasingly driven by the aspiration of the
upwardly mobile populations that characterise emerging markets and is closely aligned with
nostalgic memories from the past.
In summary the findings of this research confirmed the ability of nostalgia to drive new brand
adoption and demonstrated that through nostalgic virtual verbal socialisation, even non-tangible
service and information goods are conspicuously consumed by the upwardly mobile consumers
in South Africa.

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© 2014 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria.
DECLARATION
I declare that this research project is my own work. It is submitted in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the degree of Master of Business Administration at the Gordon Institute of
Business Science, University of Pretoria. It has not been submitted before for any degree or
examination in any other University. I further declare that I have obtained the necessary
authorisation and consent to carry perform research.

Yolisa Phahle
10th November 2014

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© 2014 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This research was made possible by the unconditional support of my parents, my ever-inspiring
husband, the infinite understanding of my children and the insightful, guiding hand of my
supervisor Kerry Chipp.
Thank you to Claire Pienaar, my editor, and the staff employed at the GIBS research centre at
the Gordon Institute of Business Science, University of Pretoria.

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© 2014 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria.
DEDICATION
This research is dedicated to the memory of my sister.

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© 2014 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT ..................................................................................................................... I
DECLARATION .............................................................................................................. II
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ................................................................................................ III
DEDICATION ................................................................................................................. IV
LIST OF FIGURES......................................................................................................... IX
LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................... X
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION .................................................................................... 1
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW ......................................................................... 6
2.1 Nostalgia ........................................................................................................................... 7
2.2 Nostalgia proneness.........................................................................................................11
2.3 Verbal nostalgia ...............................................................................................................12
2.4 Consumption of services and information brands .............................................................14
2.5 Conspicuous verbal consumption .....................................................................................17
2.6 Brand nostalgia ................................................................................................................19
2.7 Nostalgia and brand trust .................................................................................................20
2.8 Brand love ........................................................................................................................21
2.9 Social identity theory and its impact on local and international brands .............................22
2.10 Nostalgic conspicuous consumption ...............................................................................24
2.11 Nostalgia as an alternative to globalisation .....................................................................25
2.12 Conclusion .....................................................................................................................26
CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH PROPOSITION AND QUESTIONS ................................ 29
3.1 Research Proposition .......................................................................................................29
3.2 Research Questions .........................................................................................................29
CHAPTER 4: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ............................................................ 30
4.1 Research philosophy ........................................................................................................30
4.2 Research approach ..........................................................................................................30
4.3 Exploratory study .............................................................................................................30
4.4 Research strategy ............................................................................................................31
4.5 Secondary data ................................................................................................................32
4.6 Corroborating the primary research findings .....................................................................32
4.7 Sample selection ..............................................................................................................33
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© 2014 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria.
4.7.1 The population ..............................................................................................................33
4.7.2 The sample ...................................................................................................................33
4.8 Interview process and schedule .......................................................................................34
4.9 Unit of analysis .................................................................................................................35
4.10 Data gathering and analysis ...........................................................................................35
4.11 Limitations ......................................................................................................................35
CHAPTER 5: RESULTS ............................................................................................ 37
5.1 Overview ..........................................................................................................................37
5.2 SUMMARY OF INTERVIEWS AND INTERVIEWEES ......................................................38
5.3 DEFINITIONS OF NOSTALGIA .......................................................................................40
5.3.1 Code Families ...............................................................................................................44
5.4 RESEARCH QUESTION 1 ...............................................................................................50
5.4.1 Nostalgia .......................................................................................................................50
5.4.2 Childhood brands ..........................................................................................................53
5.4.3 Aspiration ......................................................................................................................56
5.4.4 International brand localisation ......................................................................................60
5.5 RESEARCH QUESTION 2 ...............................................................................................63
5.5.1 Personal identity and social belonging ...........................................................................64
5.5.2 Black-owned brands ......................................................................................................66
5.5.3 White-owned brands .....................................................................................................68
5.5.4 Buying behaviour by racial preference ...........................................................................70
5.6 RESEARCH QUESTION 3 ...............................................................................................75
5.6.1 International brands .......................................................................................................77
5.7 RESEARCH QUESTION 4 ...............................................................................................84
5.7.1 Service and information brand admiration .....................................................................84
5.7.2 Conspicuous consumption ............................................................................................86
5.7.3 DStv: A new service and information product ................................................................89
5.7.4 Subscribers’ allocation of airtime to conspicuous consumption......................................95
5.8 Conclusion of results ........................................................................................................96
CHAPTER 6: DISCUSSION OF RESULTS ............................................................... 98
6.1 Discussion of Research Question 1 ..................................................................................99
6.1.1 Nostalgia .......................................................................................................................99
6.1.2 Childhood brands ..........................................................................................................99
6.1.3 Childhood brand emotions ........................................................................................... 100
6.1.4 Aspiration .................................................................................................................... 101
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6.2 Discussion of Research Question 2 ................................................................................ 103
6.2.1 How is nostalgia impacted by social identity, in-groups and out-groups? ..................... 103
6.2.2 Black-owned brands .................................................................................................... 104
6.2.3 White-owned brands ................................................................................................... 106
6.3 Discussion of Research Question 3 ................................................................................ 107
6.3.1 Local brand awareness ............................................................................................... 107
6.3.2 International brand admiration ..................................................................................... 109
6.4 Discussion of Research Question 4 ................................................................................ 111
6.4.1 Service brand aspiration .............................................................................................. 111
6.4.2 Conspicuous consumption .......................................................................................... 113
6.4.3 The mechanisms employed by DStv to increase brand relevance in its new target
markets ................................................................................................................................... 113
6.5 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................... 115
CHAPTER 7: CONCLUSION ................................................................................... 117
7.1 Research background and objective .............................................................................. 117
7.2 Main findings .................................................................................................................. 118
7.3 Nostalgic verbal display .................................................................................................. 118
7.4 Nostalgic brand aspiration .............................................................................................. 120
7.5 Virtual nostalgia .............................................................................................................. 120
7.6 Proposed model for nostalgic verbal consumption ......................................................... 121
7.7 Factors that increase new brand trial that leverage the impact of nostalgia .................... 121
7.7.1 Technology.................................................................................................................. 121
7.7.2 Virtual (social) nostalgia .............................................................................................. 121
7.7.3 Uniqueness ................................................................................................................. 122
7.8 Factors that inhibit new brand trial despite the impact of nostalgia ................................. 122
7.8.1 Affordability ................................................................................................................. 122
7.8.2 Accessibility ................................................................................................................. 123
7.8.3 Time ............................................................................................................................ 123
7.9 Recommendations ......................................................................................................... 124
7.9.1 Recommendations for business .................................................................................. 124
7.9.2 Recommendations for marketers ................................................................................. 125
7.9.3 Recommendations for psychologists ........................................................................... 125
7.9.4 Recommendations for future research ......................................................................... 126
7.10 Limitations .................................................................................................................... 126
REFERENCES ............................................................................................................ 128
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APPENDICES ............................................................................................................. 136
Annexure A: M-NET Research Details .................................................................................... 136
Annexure B: Proposed Questionnaire ..................................................................................... 140
Annexure C: Research Questions for current research study .................................................. 143
Annexure D: Consistency Matrix ............................................................................................. 145
Annexure E: Full list of codes used in analysis of data on Atlas.ti............................................ 148

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LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1: Nostalgia increases optimism, Arndt et al. (2011p?) ...................................................10
Figure 2: Social consumer evolution adapted from Basile et al. (2012) .....................................16
Figure 3: Verbal Consumption Model ........................................................................................18
Figure 4: Structure of findings for definition of nostalgia ............................................................41
Figure 5: Structure of findings for Nostalgia ..............................................................................50
Figure 6: Structure of findings for childhood brands ..................................................................53
Figure 7: Structure of findings for childhood brand emotions .....................................................55
Figure 8: Structure of findings for aspiration ..............................................................................57
Figure 9: Structure of codes associated with personal identity and social belonging .................64
Figure 10: Structure of findings relating to the code Black-owned brands .................................66
Figure 11: Structure of findings relating to White-owned brands ...............................................68
Figure 12: Structure of findings relating to the brand preference by race...................................70
Figure 13: Structure of findings for local brand admiration ........................................................75
Figure 14: Structure of findings for international brand admiration.............................................77
Figure 15: Codes associated with “Service brand aspiration” ....................................................84
Figure 16: Structure of findings for conspicuous consumption ...................................................87
Figure 17: Codes associated with “The value of DStv” family ....................................................90
Figure 18: Enhanced BPM ...................................................................................................... 124

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