A big element of reducing user churn through creating experiences is making people feel something. Not only that, but also immersing them into the experience, so as to springboard this.

An immortal go-to feeling has always been nostalgia. I say immortal as it’s been there for us amongst eons. Whenever a generation gets mature, callouts to their childhood (not necessarily that though) can be a very powerful channel to get their attention and possibly more than that.

As we know, attention is expensive. If you don’t believe that, just look at top tech companies and let me know why they’re so highly valuated. I’ll save you some time: the attention they’ve got ahold of.

A strong emotional connection between a consumer and a product is the most bullet-proof user churn prevention strategy. The problem? What I just said is pretty vague as that’s the lowest common denominator — every path is unique depending on industry, company etc.

What does that mean in practice?

I’ve read the other day about a successful mobile game. The reason why it’s successful among its niche is that they’re porting a very popular back-in-the-day game that was on NES, Playstation and what not — Final Fantasy.

I can’t talk for myself as I’m not a fan of these but I was seeing how crazy people went for this iOS game just because it brought back so many memories for them.

Corporate got to this game so many times. Both Pepsi and Coca Cola — ad remakes, throwbacks, bringing back the old glass bottle etc.

It happens naturally sometimes with fashion trends. At the same time, it’s one of the reasons why artists still release Vinyls — besides the fact that they earn more from vinyl sales than from internet streams.

What can I take out of this?

My intuition says there could be elements that can make a call to nostalgia. For instance, in one of our projects. Alter is a company that, as their first product, put out an Amazon Prime of tailoring. Their mission is bigger than that but getting garments tailored through a couple of clicks is the incipient phase.

As a result of collaborating with chagency, the element of nostalgia was involved in their branding-marketing dimension. We noticed that the clientele that would constitute Alter’s community is aware of the period of time when having bespoke-made clothes. They would feel a strong connection to that period of time or otherwise understand the lost importance of tailors in today’s society.

They would have a switch turned on when they’d be consuming works set in the 1920s — The Great Gatsby (both the movie and the book). At the same time they’d watch Mad Men (pictured earlier in the article) and notice the suits. It could also just be as simple as thinking of an older relative like their grandparent or seeing pictures of them.

The consequence? See for yourself here but I’ll also link this picture below:

The conclusion

This is one of the many ways to bridge a connection between the company and the users. It doesn’t have to be nostalgia but this is a good card. How strong is your connection?

About Ch Daniel

I run chagency, an experiences design agency that specialises on helping tech CEOs reduce user churn. We believe experiences are not only the reason why users choose not to leave but also what generates word of mouth. We’re building a credo around this belief.

I’ve also created an infinitely-valuable app for sneaker/fashion enthusiasts called Legit Check that impacted hundreds of thousands over millions of times – check it out at chdaniel.com/app

Cover Photo Credit: Foreal Studio — amazing artists

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