Journals Proceedings

Abstract

Lack of products and brands left deep scars in the collective memory of Romanians, especially when we take into consideration their access to objects, products and even brands, before the revolution of 1989. After this moment in Romanian economical history, the scarcity or the lack of access to goods had to be reinvented in a different world, an abundant one. All of these because the market was perceived as a place filled with copiousness in terms of products, goods, brands, services and other opportunities. But, even if the load of scarcity was important, back in 1989, Romanians spoiled themselves with certain products (brands) before revolution, not necessarily better than those which are present on the shelves today, but rarer than those they were used to. With all these things in mind, the present study aims to explore how nostalgia actually is influenced by the complete moment experience of those who are old enough to experience both 1989 consumption and nowadays consumption. Focus group discussions were conducted in Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca and Timisoara, because these are the main cities where the revolution took part back in 1989. So, in order to contact those who were directly involved in changing the political regime, I have chosen to call them around the table of discussions. The information obtained through the focus group discussions and in-depth interviews is exploratory and even if the data are rich and valuable, these do not entail any form of statistical analysis in the sense of a quantitative research study. These results suggest that the complete moment experience, received by interacting with specific objects or brands both before and after 1989 and until now, intensely affects nostalgia felt by consumers / users of those items.