Starter Story - Unlock the power of nostalgia

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This is Pat, founder of Starter Story — I wanted to give a warm welcome to the 884 people who joined us since our last newsletter. To anyone reading this, your support means a lot! I hope you enjoy reading our content as much as we enjoy creating it.

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And now, let's dive in: 

Unlock the power of nostalgia

Quick fact: In 2022, Vinyl records outsold CDs last year for the first time since 1987.

You may be asking yourself, why should you care about it?

Fair enough.

To me, this is another signal of how powerful nostalgia can be as a business booster.

Nostalgia is powerful because it appeals to people looking for a sense of comfort and familiarity, and who have developed an emotional connection with a product, service, or business.

Can all businesses use this element to their advantage?

Pretty close to 100%, I’d say. 

You can leverage nostalgia to attract customers seeking to relive their own past experiences, as well as those drawn to the aesthetics, values, and cultural references of previous eras. This means there are plenty of ways and levels of adding the nostalgia ingredient to your business, from core values/benefits (this was better before) to visual elements (this looked better before) to the bare minimum (marketing).

Let’s see how some founders unlocked the power of nostalgia:

$9.6M/year old quilts

Quilts are already super niche as a product, but making quilts from old t-shirts is a crazy good spin because:

You already stand out from all the other quilt makers.

People who wouldn’t be interested in buying a quilt might want one of these because they’re made of old t-shirts, and nostalgia is a hell of a trigger.

$60K/year sneakers side hustle

The sneakers market is huge; that’s no secret.

And that the most popular models today were released 30-40 years ago is no secret either.

People who are in their 40s and into sneakers want those sneakers from their childhood. And they’ll happily pay extra to someone who took the time to source them and make sure they’re authentic.

$400K/year themed gift box

Homesickness and nostalgia go together very well. They’re powerful triggers that make us spend money and buy stuff.

This founder was able to build a product that appeals to those feelings. Did you know that Maryland is one of the top states people move from? Now he has the perfect gift box for them. Genius.

Two things you can learn from this story: (1) you can replicate this business verbatim and simply change the city; and (2) subscription boxes are still great businesses, low overhead, and super cheap to start.

$2.4M/year pop culture t-shirts

This company crowdsources designs from hundreds of artists and gives them a percentage of the t-shirt sales.

And they handle everything else like marketing, customer service, printing, fulfillment, etc.

Each day, new designs go live. That’s your only chance to get them discounted… if they don’t sell out.

Nostalgia and FOMO. Brilliant combination.

$1M/year traditional recipe

This Polish family took a traditional recipe to the supermarket’s shelves, and it became a hit.

Food is an element that triggers people’s feelings quite easily. It’s often tied with celebrations and moments with your loved ones.

When people with Polish family sees this product, they don’t see a package; they see their grandma cooking. And that’s an instant buy.

$1.8M/year with vintage watches

Vintage watches fans are crazy. They’ll spend insane amounts of money on watches because they never lose value.

At just 23, this founder has cracked the formula for sourcing amazing watches from all over the world AND building an amazing Youtube community that will buy a $10K watch in 18 minutes.

Conclusion

In general, businesses that can tap into the emotional appeal of nostalgia can create a strong bond with their customers and differentiate themselves from their competitors. However, it's important for businesses to strike a balance between honoring the past and innovating for the future, as customers also value authenticity, relevance, and innovation. 

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