Who would have thought that Jawa would come roaring back on Indian roads? The ‘big red horse’, as the Czech bike was called, ruled Indian roads in the sixties and seventies before vanishing from the country in the 1990s.

Now the brand has been brought back by industrialist Anand Mahindra, Anupam Thareja of Classic Legends and Boman Irani of Rustomjee Group. The trio has come together to launch iconic bikes under the Classic Legends umbrella. A lot of effort has been made to make the Jawa bike sound the same — the di ding ding ding sound that defined the machine totally resonates.

Jawa’s comeback story is totally riding on nostalgia. But it is not the only old machine coming back into our lives. In an era of streaming and downloading music, Saregama’s Carvaan, the radio-like digital audio player with 5,000 plus pre-loaded retro songs, has become the new cool. Its success is confounding many. In December last year, Carvaan touched the one-million mark in sales, solidifying its position as the hip new innovation that spells retro in its looks.

Analysing why the product has proved such a hit, Vikram Mehra, MD, Saregama India,says it has found its sweet spot with consumers aged 40 and above. Unlike younger consumers who want to control their music and playlists, older consumers enjoy the no-control lean-back experience and Carvaan provides just that. “Carvaan has struck a chord with consumers who grew up in the era of cassettes, CDs and pocket transistors and are not comfortable with downloading apps,” he says.

As he points out, music is connected with nostalgia and memories and hence the retro song collection that Carvaan offers also works very well with this section of consumers. The brand has created a new category from scratch.

Look around and you will find a host of brands engaged in nostalgia marketing. Facebook flings memories at you, as does Google Photos. Last year, when Mondelez celebrated its 70th anniversary, it launched a limited-edition vintage Cadbury Dairy Milk box pack that older consumers would associate with the brand as an e-commerce-exclusive proposition.

As Abhishek Ahluwalia, Head of eCommerce, Mondelez India, had noted, “These days, consumers are not just looking at products and services, but at experiences that can create long-lasting memories.”

Past connects with future

Going retro has unexpected benefits. As Saregama’s Mehra describes, while they found that consumers aged above 55 years spend as much as 7.5 hours in a day listening to Carvaan, the product has started finding salience among kids aged 6-9 years as well.

The company is capitalising on the success of the product by introducing it in various variants and languages, including Carvaan Mini, a cheaper and portable variant targeted at consumers who travel. It has also launched its top-of-the-line variant Carvaan Gold, designed using Harmon Kardon sound technology and speakers.

“We are now focusing on expansion in the smaller towns and cities as we believe it has a huge potential across all cities,” says Mehra.

The LED TV space is another category that has seen the entry of a spree of brands that are cashing in on their nostalgia value.

Most of these brands were popular as CRT TVs but now finding salience among consumers as they buy their LED TVs or move to smart LED TVS.

Kodak, Thomson, Onida, Philips and BPL are among brands that are banking on their connect with older consumers.

Avneet Singh Marwah, Director & CEO, Super Plastronics Pvt Ltd (SPPL), the brand licensee of Kodak TVs and Thomson TVs in India, says, “Both Kodak and Thomson enjoy a strong brand recall among Indian consumers.

Today, Kodak TV, which was launched in August 2016, is the top LED online TV brand in the country. With the portfolio of Kodak TV and Thomson TV, we have now grabbed 5 per cent market share in India.” In fact, the company was pleasantly surprised when it started seeing Thomson-branded CRT TVs getting exchanged with Thomson LED TVs.

Meanwhile, buoyed by the success of brand Kodak, SSPL is also gearing up to launch Kodak-branded washing machines. Besides TVs and washing machines, the American owner of Kodak has also been scouting for prospective brand licensing partners to expand its presence across various products such as apparel, white goods, home automation products and audio products, among others, in India.

Globally, Kodak has struck a deal with brands such as H&M and Forever 21 in the apparel segment, which it expects to be launched in India.

The company believes that partnering with fast fashion brands will be a sure-shot way to develop brand recall among younger consumers who will eventually move to other Kodak products.

From Kodak moments to Kodak dresses, that’s really stretching the brand proposition — will it click with customers?

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