Kelvinator's revival: Can nostalgia bring vintage brands back to life?

Experts says "Nostalgia can play a powerful role, but it's not a guarantee of success"

6 min read Last Updated : Jul 24 2025 | 10:35 PM IST

Soham Mukherjee, 29, grew up riding his father’s Chetak scooter. Among his fondest childhood memories are standing on its front platform, clutching an ice cream, as the family rode past India Gate — his father navigating it, his mother riding pillion. He remembers the scooter’s quirks too: having to tilt it when fuel ran low, and the relentless kicking it took to start.

When Bajaj relaunched the Chetak in an electric avatar in 2020, the memories came flooding back.

Last week, Reliance’s acquisition of Kelvinator sparked a similar wave of nostalgia across social media. Vintage ads from the brand’s heyday began resurfacing, most notably the one where an old man’s dentures chatter when someone opens a

Kelvinator fridge.

Known for pioneering home refrigeration in India, Kelvinator’s tagline, “The coolest one”, was a staple in households during the 1970s and ’80s. Now, it’s expected to bring strong brand equity to Reliance’s expanding consumer goods portfolio.

This isn’t Reliance’s first brush with a legacy brand. In August 2022, the company acquired Campa Cola for around ₹22 crore. Once a household name, Campa had nearly vanished before Reliance reintroduced it through select grocery channels and soft launches in Tier-II and Tier-III cities.

It also bought a 50 per cent stake in Sosyo, a Gujarat-based carbonated drink that dates back to 1923.

“Reliance has done well with Campa, a brand that had almost faded into oblivion,” says Sandeep Goyal, chairman of Rediffusion. “It also has BPL, and now Kelvinator.” He points to the underlying strategy: “The formula appears to be that nostalgia equals familiarity — a known brand is better than an unknown new one.”

However, beyond that, what matters is the pricing, retail placement, and advertising, Goyal adds. “I think they’ll do something similar for Kelvinator. They’ll use residual consumers, and then put it on an accelerator.”

The revivalists

Reliance isn’t alone in resurrecting vintage favourites.

In 2019, Parle brought back its Rol-a-Cola candy, a fizzy, tangy treat that was popular in the 1990s. The same year, Bajaj announced its plans to reintroduce the Chetak in an electric avatar. Deliveries began in 2020, and a newer version followed in 2021.

In 2022, news broke that the iconic Ambassador car from Hindustan Motors was set for a comeback. Ideal Jawa’s Yezdi motorcycles were also relaunched by Mahindra & Mahindra under its Classic Legends arm. The Lambretta brand, known for its scooters, returned in 2023 and launched an electric variant in 2024.

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Comebacks, globally

Internationally too, several once-defunct brands have been revived, either by their original owners or after being acquired.

Converse, famous for its Chuck Taylor sneakers, experienced a decline in the 1980s but returned to prominence after Nike acquired it in 2003, successfully marketing its retro appeal to a new generation.

The Volkswagen Beetle, developed in the 1930s and wildly popular in the 1960s, was revived in the late 1990s before being finally discontinued in 2019.

Fast-food giant McDonald’s has also tapped into nostalgia. To celebrate Pokémon’s 25th anniversary, it brought back the trading cards that were a rage among children in the early 2000s — bundling them in Happy Meals and spurring a new wave of excitement.

But is nostalgia enough?

Experts say nostalgia is a powerful emotional hook, but it isn’t a business strategy in itself.

“Nostalgia can play a powerful role, but it’s not a guarantee of success,” says Samit Sinha, founder and managing partner, Alchemist Brand Consulting. “Two conditions are critical: first, the brand must have been genuinely loved in its prime; and second, there must still be a sizeable group of consumers who remember and value it from those earlier days.”

Others caution that nostalgia’s reach is often limited. The people who remember these brands are ageing, and one cannot expect all of them to go out and buy the product. So, what the brands are really tapping into is residual awareness. People may have heard of it and that gives a base-level familiarity. However, ultimately, companies must launch a completely new product, brand experts say.

And that’s where modern interpretation becomes key. A revived brand cannot remain frozen in time.

The new Beetle was a very different product. Same with the Mini Cooper. When BMW brought it back, the car was nothing like the original, says one analyst, adding that the Kelvinator people remember was a bulky refrigerator, not quite suitable for today’s compact urban homes.

Sinha agrees. “Campa Cola, reintroduced by Reliance, gained traction, but nostalgia alone wasn’t enough. Pricing and distribution were equally critical.” He believes Royal Enfield to be a stronger example — successfully revived by Eicher when it was on the brink of extinction. “Conversely, Jawa and Yezdi, despite their legacy, have had limited success.”

He stresses that companies must re-establish relevance: “If a brand has strong equity and still resonates with a meaningful segment, it can enjoy long-term success — provided it adapts to today’s market, maintains relevance, and competes effectively. But it also hinges on fundamentals like product quality, pricing, and distribution.”

Beyond the buzz

Analysts also warn against overreliance on short-term buzz.

Brands need to consider everything — from the demographic to the psychographics. For instance, while the Mini Cooper became a global lifestyle product, Volkswagen had to pull the plug on the Beetle after 65 years because it couldn’t compete with more agile Korean and Japanese rivals.

Videocon, once a household name, met a similar fate.

“Nostalgia, at best, is a recessive trigger,” says Goyal. “It’s warm, it recalls cherished memories, and it creates a feeling of goodwill in those idle moments we call our own.” In that sense, nostalgia is a good emotion. “But is it a driver emotion — something that compels you to buy? Rarely.”

As Reliance gears up to resurrect Kelvinator, its challenge will be balancing memory with modernity, turning an old spark into something current, commercial, and cool — if not the coolest one.