Nostalgic Consumption

Scarcity left deep scars in the memories of Romanians, especially when talking about their access to objects, products and even brands, back to 1989. Therefore, after this limit, the scarcity had to be reinvented in an abundant world, as the market was defined by copiousness in terms of products, services and other opportunities. Yet, even before the revolution, Romanian spoiled themselves with certain products (brands), not necessarily better, but rarer than those they were used to. On these premises, the study aims to explore how nostalgia intensity is influenced by the complete moment experience, which consumers by 1989 received when interacting with specific objects or even brands that Romanians continue to interact with even after the moment of 1989, until nowadays. Focus group discussions and in-depth interviews were conducted in Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca and Timisoara, as these are the main cities where the revolution started back in 1989, in order to contact those who were directly involved in changing the political regime. The information obtained through the focus group discussions and in-depth interviews is exploratory and even if the data are rich and valuable, these do not entail any form of statistical analysis in the sense of a quantitative research study. Present results suggest that the complete moment experience, received by interacting with specific objects or brands both before and after 1989 and until now, intensely affects nostalgia felt by consumers / users of those items.