Nostalgia and ethnocentric product preferences

Abstract

Understanding consumers’ preferences is central in marketing. Their tendency to prefer products of domestic rather than foreign origin, and the impact their emotional and affective state has on their purchasing decisions are well-documented in the literature. This thesis connects these two research themes by examining the impact feelings of nostalgia have on ethnocentric product preferences. The focus on nostalgia is not accidental. Advertising and marketing campaigns of several multinational companies have recently attempted to trigger such feelings amongst consumers in order to promote their products. The thesis begins by offering a more robust investigation for the presence of country of origin effects and the impact of consumer ethnocentrism on it, using a multi- cultural sample and measuring individuals’ actual preferences. Using separate inducements for nostalgia — at the ‘personal’ level, referring to past events the consumers experienced alone, and at the ‘collective’ level, referring to past events the consumers experienced in the company of others — it proceeds by providing evidence suggesting that feelings of nostalgia significantly increase preferences for domestic products, as well as ratings of their perceived quality. Both inducements have similar effects on preferences and ratings. Subsequently investigating the underlying psychological mechanism responsible for the effect of nostalgia on ethnocentric product preferences, the thesis provides evidence that self-reported ‘meaning of life’ — a composite measure previously linked to nostalgia — is a significant mediator of this effect; having a significantly positive indirect effect on both preferences for and ratings of domestic products. The thesis concludes by discussing the implications these findings have for man- agerial practice and outlining future directions for marketing research in this field.