Retro food brands boost market

Nostalgic food brands such as Wispa have been credited with reinvigorating the food and drink market.

Such retro brands are apparently being utilised by food companies to tap into the recessionary-induced emotional eating trend, and as a way to introduce new products which have proven demand and high consumer awareness (albeit several years ago, but which do not require a huge investment in development.

Products such as Cadbury's Wispa, Bird's Eye Arctic Roll and Steakhouse brands are being lauded for ratcheting up several hundred million pounds worth of UK retail sale, due to their nostalgia value.

The nostalgia wagon has also been leapt on by products seeking to make the most of their extensive heritage such as Guinness (celebrating their 250th anniversary), M&S and Hovis.

However there is a risk with the nostalgia brands - usually, such products were discontinued for a reason, they didn't sell well. There is always the chance that bringing back such brands for the sake of it will fail. A prime example of this is the Cadbury Aztec bar from the 1960s and 1970s. Re-launched in 1999, it was met with poor sales and quietly forgotten about.

The way products are advertised and marketed has also changed dramatically. Even retro food adverts have started to be reused in order to get consumers to reinvest in food stuffs from their childhoods. A prime example of this being the recent Red Car/Blue Car Milky Way advert.

It is online marketing however, that has appeared to be the key in bringing back old brands. After-all, it was Facebook that brought back Wispa, so perhaps social networking sites will soon be trawled by food companies to see what other food stuffs have a cult following.

Personally, I'd love to see Vice Versas return... anybody? Anybody?

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