Manufacturers are claiming this is the case, and correspondingly, there is a plethora of column inches on the subject of brand nostalgia.
In many, but not all, cases, these nostalgic relaunches may simply be a way of disguising a lack of successful new product development. After all, it is a lot cheaper to leaf through the back-catalogue of brands than pay for all the extras involved in developing something fresh. Using a known brand is also a lot less risky.
Frozen-food brand Birds Eye has just followed up the relaunch of 70s favourite Arctic Roll by bringing back Steakhouse. The company may say that this launch has little to do with mawkish sentimentality, but the media has picked it up as part of the trend all the same.
Walkers is attempting to reverse a drop in sales by relaunching Monster Munch using the original packaging design. It hopes to unlock the appeal of the brand to older consumers. (Interestingly, Walkers has applied this switch only to its Big Eat packs, so I am not sure where that leaves it in the obesity row.) In addition, Cadbury may have successfully relaunched Wispa, but the question both for it and Walkers is how recently has either had a really successful NPD launch?
Along with ad budgets, NPD looks like it is being strangled at many firms. While I am not accusing Birds Eye, Walkers or Cadbury of scrimping with these nostalgia trips, other companies throwing a nostalgic relaunch line to the media most certainly are.
Indeed, this return to the scrapheap to forage for old brands seems symptomatic of the lack of confidence in NPD at many FMCG companies.