Heritage marketing, also called retromarketing, is BIG in the whiskey world. Old brands are traded amongst conglomerates and relaunched. Often, they are packaged as if what was in the bottle is the same as it ever was, even though the distillery now producing it is not the one that produced it previously.
This quote of a study from The Journal of Customer Behavior on the subject is pretty sharp:
“Retromarketing is not merely a matter of reviving dormant brands and foisting them on softhearted, dewy-eyed, nostalgia-stricken consumers….It involves working with consumers to co-create an oassi of authenticity for tired and thristy travelers through the desert of mass-produced marketing dreck.“
Source: Rob Walker, “Can a Dead Brand Live Again?”, New York Times Sunday Magazine May 18, 2008, p. 51.
