One of the most popular branding strategies today is known as “embracing an era”. This is when companies try to associate their products or services with a particular point in time.

What era you embrace depends on the branding message you are trying to project. The era could be as recent as the early 2000s or as distant as the Roaring ’20s. The idea is to take your prospective customers back to a simpler time that is associated with happier memories and events, offering a temporary escape for people through the products or services your business offers.

Top to Bottom Branding

When you choose to embrace a particular era, nearly every aspect of your business can reinforce this decision, from advertising to decor, even to the fonts you use on your signage or marketing materials. For example, an ice cream store may choose to commemorate the Victorian Era with employees wearing costumes from that era.

Or a business seeking to link its branding with the 1970s might use thick and curvy fonts and neon colors in its signage and advertising. Larger companies might license music from a particular era or use celebrities famous during a particular decade to be their spokespersons.

Nostalgic and Fun

Associating a particular era with your business injects a bit of nostalgia into your branding while making it fun for people to interact with your products or services. By including references to a particular era in your branding, you can create instant connections with people that serve as a sort of shorthand for your specific message — whether it’s the buttoned-down “Mad Men” era of the early 1960s or the patriotic preppiness of the 1980s.

With today’s world becoming increasing complicated, associating your branding with a past era lets customers escape into a time that was simpler and more familiar.