Consumer storytelling as an element of word-of-mouth communication of nostalgic brands: evidence from Poland

Abstract

Nowadays, brand storytelling is an important element of successful brand management on the business-to-consumer market. Based on brand storytelling, consumers create their own brand stories. Therefore, consumer storytelling becomes an essential component of word-of-mouth communication. The objective of the paper is to evaluate the possibility of using consumer storytelling as an element of word-of-mouth communication of nostalgic brands. The results of the empirical studies concerning 24 international and Polish, generational and transgenerational nostalgic brands, conducted among 1,000 Polish consumers, are presented. The research is based on a personal interview technique, an online survey technique and a focus group interview. Research results confirm that nostalgic brands – that reflect personal history – generate stories more often than their non-nostalgic counterparts. Consumer storytelling is more common among older respondents. Consumers create stories about nostalgic brands and are happy to share them. Given the strength of consumer storytelling, it is worth encouraging consumers to share stories about the brand that can be an important element of word-of-mouth communication. AcknowledgementThe research project was funded by the National Science Centre (project Opus 9, No. 2015/17/B/HS4/00945, “Nostalgia in brand management”) for the period 2016–2020.