Can younger FMCG brands build the kind of loyalty that lasts generations?

Established FMCG brands have decades of consumer memories to draw on. For younger brands, the challenge is building the familiarity, trust and emotional connections that could become their greatest commercial assets.

There are certain brands South Africans don't simply recognise, they remember them. It might be the biscuit that was always in a grandmother's cupboard, the tin that appeared at family gatherings or the cooldrink poured at childhood birthday parties. Even decades later, the packaging remains instantly recognisable, whether or not the product is still part of the weekly shopping basket.

For established FMCG brands, these associations represent something competitors cannot easily replicate. They are the result of years, sometimes generations, spent occupying a place in consumers' everyday lives. Yet as brands turn to retro packaging and familiar advertising to reconnect with audiences, it raises an interesting question. How does a younger brand begin building the emotional connections that established competitors already enjoy?

“Nostalgia is interesting because people don't experience food and drink brands in isolation,” says Anthony Silber, Head of Marketing at PURA Beverage Co South Africa. “They experience them around tables, at celebrations, in lunchboxes, on holidays and through family traditions. Over time, the memory of the brand becomes connected to the memory of the occasion.”

You can't manufacture memory

Research suggests nostalgia can influence how consumers connect with brands and make purchasing decisions. A systematic review published in the Journal of Marketing Communications, examining 139 Scopus-indexed papers, explored nostalgia's relationship with consumer behaviour, identity and brand promotion.

Food and drink have a particularly interesting role in this relationship. Taste, smell, packaging and shared occasions can become associated with particular people and periods in consumers' lives.

However, longevity does not automatically guarantee relevance. South Africa's KOO brand, for example, has been part of local households for more than 80 years. When Tiger Brands refreshed KOO in 2023, it emphasised balancing the brand's heritage with evolving consumer needs. Recognition matters, but consumers still need a reason to choose a product today.

“You can't decide that a brand is going to become nostalgic,” says Silber. “You have to give people something worth remembering first.”

For younger FMCG businesses, the challenge is entering categories where consumers may already have years of familiarity with competing products. PURA Soda, for example, does not have generations of South Africans who remember drinking it at their grandparents' homes. Founded in 2017, The PURA Beverage Company is relatively young in FMCG terms, making the challenge less about drawing on an established past and more about creating experiences consumers will remember in the future.

“There is a temptation for brands to borrow heritage because heritage carries credibility,” says Silber. “But consumers are very good at recognising when something doesn't belong to you. A younger brand shouldn't try to manufacture a history it doesn't have.”

For a younger brand, building that familiarity takes more than an effective advertising campaign. Packaging, consistent communication, product experience and repeated consumer interactions all play a part. Advertising might introduce a product to thousands of consumers, but the longer-term commercial opportunity lies in whether those consumers recognise it again, develop a preference for it and return to purchase it.

Nostalgia isn't reserved for older generations

Nostalgia is not limited to consumers who personally experienced the period being referenced. Research published in the Journal of Global Marketing in 2025 examined nostalgia and brands across Gen X and Gen Z in an experiment involving 132 consumers. It found that nostalgia increased purchase intention in both generations, although the effects differed.

Younger consumers also engage with music, fashion and cultural references from periods they never experienced firsthand. Familiarity with brands can travel between generations through family traditions and purchasing habits.

In South Africa, where food traditions and cultural experiences vary considerably, there is no single nostalgic memory that brands can rely on. What feels familiar in one household may carry little meaning in another. For marketers, understanding those differences is as important as creating a recognisable brand identity.

How PURA is building familiarity today

For PURA Soda, the response starts with giving consumers a reason to choose the product today. Its offering combines flavour with less sugar than many traditional full-sugar soft drinks, while its four-ingredient formulation provides a straightforward product story.

Flavours such as Cucumber & Lime and Lemon & Elderflower give consumers something distinctive to recognise and return to. These are present-day reasons to try the brand, with the potential to become familiar preferences through repeated use.

That product offering sits alongside its Live a Little PURA philosophy, which centres on small choices and everyday moments of enjoyment. The brand's communication connects that philosophy with experiences such as catching up with family, walking the dog or taking a few minutes to watch the sunset.

Rather than asking consumers to connect with a history it does not have, PURA is positioning itself around occasions that already matter to people.

The commercial task is to make that connection repeatable. A recognisable product and a consistent message may give consumers reasons to remember a brand, but the experience still has to earn the next purchase. For PURA, bringing its product offering and brand philosophy together is a way of building familiarity through everyday consumption rather than relying on borrowed nostalgia.

Whether those experiences eventually become nostalgia will depend on the place consumers allow the brand to occupy in their lives over time.

Building tomorrow's brand memories

Perhaps the greatest lesson younger FMCG brands can take from established competitors is that brand heritage begins long before anyone recognises it as such.

The products sitting on today's family tables, the drinks packed into coolers and the brands repeatedly appearing in supermarket baskets are all becoming part of consumers' everyday experiences. For marketers, these may be consumption occasions or brand touchpoints. For consumers, they are simply part of life.

Twenty years from now, people may not remember the advertising campaign behind a product launch, but they might remember the drink that was always around when their friends got together.

For established FMCG brands, the challenge is keeping those memories relevant. For younger brands, it is creating the familiarity and positive experiences that could become meaningful in the years ahead.

Nostalgia cannot be manufactured overnight, but the brands consumers remember tomorrow are being built through the experiences they have today.