Here we begin to see evidence of the intertextuality spoken of by Porter. I believe he is even mentioned in this work. The annotated bibliography is obviously a large step on the route to the research paper. The course outcome of Information Literacy is most apparent here, as this paper involves the analyzing and collection of scholarly articles to be used in the research paper. Several different sources appear here, most of them relating to either nostalgia or FOMO. Of course, to come up with the question that inspired the research, the student had to use the outcome of Generating Inquiry by examining the rhetorical choices used in marketing. In the case of this paper, the student is looking at how the LEGO Group is using the power of nostalgia and FOMO to market their GWPs.
— Majisto
P.S. The link to the draft for this paper is located at the bottom of the page.
Michael Zmed
Professor Gardiakos
ENC1102H
26 September 2023
My topic for this research is a rhetorical analysis of the combined effect of nostalgia and the fear of missing out in advertising and product development as it is used by the LEGO Group. To do this, I will be examining advertisements and sets. For the purposes of this paper, nostalgia will be defined by Kamil Lubiński’s dual definitions. Historical nostalgia is wanting to have been born in a different era. Personal nostalgia occurs over things one has personally experienced. This paper focuses on personal nostalgia. I would also like to examine how they use the fear of missing out (FOMO) in tandem with nostalgia when releasing gift-with-purchases (GWPs). In recent years, the LEGO Group has started to produce remakes of sets that sold particularly well in the 1980s, 1990s, and early 2000s. For the purposes of this paper, a remake is defined as a LEGO set that shares a name or evokes the design of a set that the company produced previously. These remakes try to emulate the appearance of their predecessors through the use of more modern, advanced pieces and building techniques.
In recent years, I, along with several other LEGO fans, have noticed that LEGO is starting to market more heavily towards adults. Around August of 2021, LEGO launched their “Adults Welcome” initiative. During 2020, the LEGO Group saw an increase in sales largely due the increased number of people stuck at home with nothing better to do than buy LEGO sets. The “Adults Welcome” initiative primarily served as a way for LEGO to encourage adults who had not grown up with LEGO as a child to purchase the building toy as an adult. To do this, LEGO started producing larger, more expensive sets based on pop culture icons, famous vehicles, artistic display pieces, and other sets designed to draw in a more mature audience. Even the packaging was changed to be minimalistic and sported an 18+ age rating. Most of these adult-oriented sets would be lumped under the Icons theme. For the purposes of this research paper, a LEGO theme is defined as any sets produced under the same intellectual property or that otherwise share similar properties to other sets in the theme.
Notably, there is another notable group of adults who grew up with the building toy and continued to support the company into their adult years. These adult fans of LEGO (AFOLs), while potentially having nostalgia for some of the pop culture sets produced under the “Adults Welcome” wave of sets, also likely have nostalgia for the LEGO sets they grew up with. This group of lifetime LEGO fans will be the primary focus of my research.
On June 15th, 2022, LEGO released 40567 Forest Hideout as a GWP. This set was a remake of 6054 Forestmen's Hideout, first released in 1988. Initially, the only way to get 40567 Forest Hideout was by spending $150 or more USD on other LEGO sets on lego.com or in LEGO stores between June 15 and June 22, 2022. After that period, the only way to get the set was through third-party sellers. The promotion was very successful for LEGO[citation needed] likely due to a mix of nostalgia for the set and the FOMO surrounding the set’s short window for purchase. Shortly after, nostalgic sets like 40580 Blacktron Cruiser and 40581 Tahu and Takua also became GWPs.
For primary research, I want to look at the LEGO Group’s history of marketing to adults in general along with their history of remaking nostalgic sets. I will likely examine LEGO advertisements and sets that could be considered geared towards adult audiences and try to define what makes them different from LEGO advertisements and sets made with children in mind. For secondary research, I will read through research articles done on the effect of nostalgia in toy marketing. There are a couple of YouTube videos I have in mind that cover the topic from a buyer’s perspective and made me aware of the issue in the first place. I have the YouTuber’s contact info on multiple platforms and he’s fairly active online, so I might try to ask him where he got his sources from.
I am not sure if this is necessary, but I was also thinking of creating a survey for AFOLs in the various communities I’m part of. The survey will show them different nostalgia-inspired LEGO advertisements and ask them how effective they find them and why.
I hope that my study will shed some light on how LEGO is becoming slightly predatory with their heavy usage of nostalgia and FOMO when selling new products. Ideally, I will be able to show the degree to which nostalgia and FOMO is able to convince people to buy more than they initially want. Based on my sources, I hope to determine which ages are most susceptible to nostalgia bait and if these nostalgic sets have any market for younger fans who did not grow up with the sets the remakes are based on. Since LEGO is one of the largest toy companies on the planet, I hope my findings will be applicable to the wider concept of nostalgia and FOMO being to market toys to older audiences. Ideally, my research will make buyers more aware of how nostalgia and FOMO can lead them to poor financial decisions.
Alfina, et al. “FOMO Related Consumer Behaviour in Marketing Context: A Systematic Literature Review.” Cogent Business & Management, vol. 10, no. 3, 2023, https://doi.org/10.1080/23311975.2023.2250033.
Alfina from the Department of Management at Airlangga University in Indonesia along with others studied how the fear of missing out affects the marketing world. They mention that previous research mostly revolves around the psychological effects, but there is not as much on how it is specifically used in marketing. The researchers reviewed the literature that has been written on the subject of FOMO already and examined the history of how consumers reacted to experiencing FOMO. They found that FOMO is often viewed negatively. However, it also leads to positive consumption behaviors. This article is useful because it examines the scope of FOMO research so far while also delving into how it affects consumers.
Baxter, Jane Eva. “Adult Nostalgia and Children’s Toys Past and Present.” International Journal of Play, vol. 5, no. 3, 2016, pp. 230–43, https://doi.org/10.1080/21594937.2016.1220046.
Jane Eva Baxter from the Department of Anthropology at DePaul University in Chicago, IL wrote this article in order to examine how the nostalgia of adults affects what kinds of toys are being produced in the market today. The paper specifically looks at certain toys that keep reappearing in the toy market because parents recognize them from their childhoods and purchase them for their own children. The article examines two nostalgic toys: The Fisher-Price Chatter Telephone and Mickey Mouse Ears. The article mentions that although toys like these do not necessarily prepare children for the modern world, they make it easier for older generations to work their own childhood into the experiences of current children. This paper is relevant to my work because it examines how adults prefer to purchase toys that they recognize. My research does not necessarily consider intergenerational relationships and how adults might use redesigned LEGO sets to play with their children. However, the reasoning behind nostalgic purchases of any type is likely similar enough that I can use this article to examine how LEGO preys on adults’ nostalgia in their marketing schemes.
Devitt, Amy J. “Genre Performances: John Swales’ Genre Analysis and Rhetorical-Linguistic Genre Studies.” Journal of English for Academic Purposes, vol. 19, no. 25, 2015, pp. 44–51, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeap.2015.05.008.
Amy J. Devitt from the University of Kansas in the United States wrote this article in order to examine the concept of genre as it was previously examined by John Swales. Swales proposed that the genre of a group of texts can be discovered through rhetorical analysis. The process of discovering a genre involves looking for the rhetorical moves the author of a text makes. A rhetorical move is any type of writing artifact that appears frequently throughout texts in a genre. LEGO’s marketing belongs to a genre and has its own rhetorical moves, many of which will be examined in this research paper. Several advertisements and sets will be examined to look for rhetorical moves that make them appeal to nostalgia in older viewers.
Hodkinson, Chris. “‘Fear of Missing Out’ (FOMO) Marketing Appeals: A Conceptual Model.” Journal of Marketing Communications, vol. 25, no. 1, 2019, pp. 65–88, https://doi.org/10.1080/13527266.2016.1234504.
Chris Hodkinson from the University of Queensland Business School in Brisbane, Australia wrote this article in order to examine how consumers react to FOMO-based advertising. Hodkinson mentions that previous research only examined how consumers initiate FOMO in themselves regardless of whether or not the sellers are making an effort to market it that way. This article is greatly helpful because it shows how companies have used FOMO in their marketing schemes and suggests how they can continue to do so. It also examines the origins of the term FOMO as it appeared in academic research which can be used in this research paper to define the specific type of FOMO I am looking at. The study’s method involved using several experiments involving a sample of younger university students since they are of an age most susceptible to FOMO. It also involved examining several texts that involved FOMO marketing. Hodkinson also covered regret and anticipated regret. Although regret is not covered in my research paper, it is likely worth mentioning. If consumers begin to feel bad about spending more money for nostalgic gift-with-purchases, LEGO will have to change their marketing strategies to keep them satisfied.
Jun, Sung Youl, et al. “The Effects of Nostalgia Marketing on Consumers’ Brand Extension Evaluation.” The Journal of Brand Management, vol. 29, no. 3, 2022, pp. 271–86, https://doi.org/10.1057/s41262-021-00264-4.
Sung Youl Jun from the Sogang Business School at Sogang University in Seoul, South Korea and other researchers studied how nostalgic marketing affects how consumers rate a brand extension project. They also provided a couple different definitions of nostalgia, such as collective nostalgia compared to personal nostalgia. The article also discusses the purpose of nostalgia in society. This article, along with a few others, also helps bring in an international element to the research paper, showing that people from all across the world are susceptible to nostalgic advertising.
Lubiński, Kamil. “The Effects of Nostalgia-Based Advertising on a Toy Company’s Brand Equity: The Example of the LEGO Group.” Zeszyty Naukowe (Uniwersytet Ekonomiczny w Krakowie), no. 6(990), 2020, pp. 29–48, https://doi.org/10.15678/ZNUEK.2020.0990.0602.
Kamil Lubiński from the Lodz University of Technology interviewed 255 Polish consumers in order to determine the degree to which nostalgia affects brand loyalty. To do this, he specifically examined how prior experience to the LEGO brand influenced purchasing choices inspired by nostalgia. He also cited sources that stated that toys were the nostalgic product purchased the most often second only to music. Lubiński claims his article is relevant to marketers who want to increase brand loyalty. This article is particularly useful to this research project because it has great relevance to the nostalgic half of the research question. It covers how people who had positive experience with a brand when they were children are more likely to trust the brand when they are adults and will favor them when having to decide between similar products. LEGO also produces sets based on other nostalgic intellectual properties (IP) like Star Wars or Indiana Jones, so brand loyalty to other IPs can also help boost sales. People who would not normally purchase from LEGO might be encouraged to do so if a model from a treasured brand were produced.
Macneill, Paul. “Response—A Critical Response to ‘Discourse Communities and the Discourse of Experience.’” Journal of Bioethical Inquiry, vol. 19, no. 1, 2022, pp. 71–77, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11673-021-10156-6.
Paul Macneill from Sydney Health Ethics at the University of Sydney in Sydney, Australia reviewed an article written by Little, Jordens, and Sayers. In their article, they discuss the idea of “discourse communities”. Discourse communities are groups that revolve around a certain topic to share opinions and create guidelines on how to contribute to the knowledge surrounding the topic. Macneill’s article explores the concepts the authors introduced and examines how these discourse communities hold up in the face of the “current onslaught on truth and meaning” (Macneill 1). For the purposes of this research paper, the LEGO Group, their marketing, and the people who purchase from LEGO are all part of similar discourse communities. There are certain words and acronyms that are understood among these groups, many of which must be defined in this paper so as to avoid alienating readers who are not in the relevant discourse communities.
McCarthy, Kayla. “Remember Things: Consumerism, Nostalgia, and Geek Culture in Stranger Things.” Journal of Popular Culture, vol. 52, no. 3, 2019, pp. 663–77, https://doi.org/10.1111/jpcu.12800.
Kayla McCarthy, a graduate of Indiana University, discusses the recent resurgence of popular culture from the 1980s, specifically through the lens of Stranger Things. McCarthy explores how Stranger Things uses consumer culture from the 1980s and today in order to market itself through nostalgia. McCarthy also explores the development of geek culture and its evolution. This article is useful due to its examination of why popular culture from the 1980s is making a resurgence and how geek culture has developed with it. Many of the LEGO sets being remade were first released in the 1980s and are likely being bought by the so-called geeks that McCarthy writes about. McCarthy also discusses how younger generations “appropriate” the nostalgia of other generations, an idea briefly mentioned by Kamil Lubiński in his article. For this article, the idea of younger consumers desiring nostalgic sets that they should not be nostalgic for may be worth mentioning.
Porter, James E. “Intertextuality and the Discourse Community.” Rhetoric Review, vol. 5, no. 1, 1986, pp. 34–47, https://doi.org/10.1080/07350198609359131.
James E. Porter at Indiana University–Purdue University Fort Wayne writes about the concept of “intertextuality”. Intertextuality is the concept of every text that has ever been written influencing every text that will be written. When someone creates a text, it is based on every text the author viewed in combination with all of their personal experiences. In that way, every text is based on the works that came before it while being completely original. Furthermore, a text does not necessarily have to be a document filled with words. It can be a painting, a film, or in the case of this research paper, a LEGO set. Every LEGO set is partially based on the sets that came before it. Certain parts and building techniques were developed that have been repeatedly used and have evolved throughout the company’s history. These nostalgic remake sets could not exist if the sets they are based upon did not exist in the first place. As such, intertextuality plays a large role in my research paper and the concept of nostalgia as a whole.
Reisenwitz, Timothy H. and Jie G. Fowler. “Personal and Social Determinants of Fear of Missing Out (FoMO) in Younger Consumers.” Journal of Business Strategies, vol. 40, no. 1, 2023, pp. 21–36, https://doi.org/10.54155/jbs.40.1.21-36.
Timothy Reisenwitz and Jie Fowler from the Department of Management and Marketing at Valdosta State University in Valdosta, Georgia write about how several different variables affect the level of FOMO in a consumer. The variables analyzed were “social media usage, self-concept, social identity, smartphone usage, innovativeness, and gender” (Reisenwitz and Fowler). The study also elaborates on previous research that stated that there are two parts to the construct of FOMO: A personal and social dimension. Personal FOMO is missing out on an experience one wishes for oneself. Social FOMO is the fear of missing out on experiences that other people are enjoying. This distinction between these two types of FOMO is useful for this research paper because it may help with the examination of the rhetorical moves used in LEGO’s nostalgic advertising.
Singh, Ramendra, et al. “A Road Less Traveled in Nostalgia Marketing: Impact of Spiritual Well-Being on Effects of Nostalgic Advertisements.” Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, vol. 29, no. 3, 2021, pp. 289–307, https://doi.org/10.1080/10696679.2020.1836975.
Ramendra Singh from the Marketing Group at the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta in Kolkata, India and several others wrote this article in order to examine the different emotional responses people have to nostalgic marketing. Specifically, they wanted to see how spiritual well-being affects how people receive nostalgic marketing. For example, when seeing a nostalgic advertisement, where one person would be filled with happy memories of simpler times, another would be filled with dread when they consider how far removed they are from that perceived simpler time. This article may not be urgently relevant to this research paper, but the concept of different audience responses is a useful idea to keep in mind while examining different advertisements. It matters whether LEGO is encouraging adults to purchase these remade sets from their childhood in order to display them or play with them like they did all those years ago.