K Viswanatham, a Mumbai-based executive in his mid-40s, recalls making a dash to the World Trade Centre in end-2014. HMT, the watch brand that many from his generation had grown up with, had announced that it would be shutting shop. “My first watch was an HMT Janata, a watch worn by India’s former PM Indira Gandhi. And I wanted to buy another HMT before they stopped manufacturing,” he recalls. At the showroom, Viswanatham recalls meeting a gentleman from Bangalore who had come searching for an HMT NASS Blue Dial. Ironically, HMT’s headquarters was in Bangalore, but the gentleman could not find the elusive NASS in his own backyard. The Mumbai store was a source of disappointment too. All the mechanical watches had been sold out. The salesperson said that one man had purchased around 70 watches at one go for a sum of Rs 1.5 lakh, just a few days earlier. The Bangalore gentleman’s search for the Blue Dial continued, and even Viswanatham had to compromise. He went to buy a mechanical watch, but had to settle for a quartz watch.

This surge in sales had probably come too little, too late for HMT. When rival Titan had launched quartz watches, customers had deserted HMT in droves. Now, in its last few days in the market the same watches which had no takers just a few months ago were flying off the racks.

Elsewhere, collectors and nostalgia-hunters were picking up HMT watches from marketplaces such as eBay for a premium. HMT models such as Janata, Pilot and Sona had a new-found power in their dials.

The power of yesteryear Could HMT have survived if it had used the power of nostalgia to stave off Titan’s sleek design promise? That’s a question that can only have academic value now as HMT has already shut shop. But as technology alters the brand landscape in industry after industry, could nostalgia offer a strong counter attack to retain loyal customers of brands such as HMT, or Nokia and Kodak before that? After all, when even cassette and CD players are out of fashion, turntables are making a strong comeback (see piece below). On Amazon’s Indian website, there are more than a dozen turntable models on sale from ₹7,000 all the way up to ₹54,000.

“Retro cool is a very powerful sentiment. Even as we are in an age of minimalist design, classic brands are evocative of a beautiful era,” says Srinivas Krishnan, a classic and vintage car expert. That trend is particularly true in the case of the automobile business and auto makers use it constantly to highlight their brand heritage and to tell a compelling product story. When Mercedes held a classic car rally in Mumbai last year, one lifestyle magazine called it a “beautiful traffic jam”.

Even Volkswagen got the classic Beetle owners together for a rally when it launched the VW 2016 Beetle, in end-2015. “It was the company’s way of saluting the keepers of the flame,” says Krishnan.

Childhood memories “ Woh kagaz ki kashti ” (that paper boat), which brings back a flood of childhood memories is a ghazal immortalised by the late legend Jagjit Singh. A beverage brand, Paper Boat, is using that to its fullest advantage by recreating the magic of one’s childhood through its drinks. Another campaign that worked was the Tanishq campaign with Vidya Balan immediately after the release of the movie Parineeta – which was all about an old world charm. Similar was the appeal of the Jodha-Akbar collection. “Remembering the good times from the past can be a powerful emotional driver for a brand,” says Manoj Tadepalli, Co-founder and CEO, RainMan Consulting.

However, Tadepalli has a warning for brands that want to board the nostalgia wagon. “While there is a business opportunity, it needs to be done right, with the right category or it has a big chance of falling flat. Aligning all aspects of the brand to the theme is starting point,” he says. And brands won’t sell just on the power of nostalgia or just because you are a classic. Volkswagen learnt this when the earlier version of the Beetle was launched about 6-7 years agoack in India. It is widely believed that the brand outpriced itself in the market at that time.

Tadepalli adds that nostalgia is all about connecting at a deeper level and not at the level of an ad campaign. “Running a successful campaign after many years, is typically the marketer pining for the good old days,” he says. For example, the Liril Waterfall advertisement which was iconic in its day is just one more lady in a bikini now. Another example he cites is Titan’s return to the gifting theme – this connected in the early 1990s, but seems a re-run now.

But while nostalgia will work with those in the 30s and 40s, will this click with the millennials? After all, many in GenNext believe that they want to move on, rather than hold on to memories from the past. Chances are that the generation that grew up on mobile phones and tablets never played with a paper boat in their childhood. That’s why Neeraj Kakkar, CEO, Hector Beverages, the makers of Paper Boat, says the brand is trying to merge nostalgia with contemporariness. “We want our products to be authentic and alive. The authenticity would stand for innocence and purity and by alive, it should be contemporary, youthful and fashionable,” he says. Also, Paper Boat tries to tickle the imagination of the youth with stories that it writes on the back of the pack. Sanjana Desai, Head Business Development, Desai Brothers, that markets the Mother’s Recipe brand says, “Nostalgia does not alienate any audience. It in fact help brands reach out and connect with the target audience on a more personalised basis.”

But one thing is certain. There is definitely an audience that has the money and resources to reclaim their past. By turning back the watch (hopefully, an HMT), brands can certainly reap the rewards.

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