It’s 4:20 on Friday afternoon, and East London independent bookshop Libreria is temporarily closed for a meditation session. A few groups of bewildered would-be customers are turned away and told to come back in half an hour.
Friday afternoon meditation sessions might sound very 2016, but there is something wonderfully traditional about the store, packed to the ceiling with tomes from summer blockbusters to cult reads from boutique publishers. It’s a digital free zone – no smartphone scrolling is allowed as you browse the shelves.
Independent book shops had been facing a gloomy future, with e-books and Amazon’s low prices eating in their market. However in 2016, readers are going back to basics, with book sales up 9% according to Neilsen Book Research, and a spate of new stores opening.
And it’s not just old school bookshops that are on trend in 2016. Elsewhere, the nostalgia economy is booming. London’s restaurant scene is flourishing with eateries decked out like grandma’s 1950s living room, or replacing kale and quinoa salads with baked potatoes or spam fritters.
Nostalgia pays
The public has always had a penchant for nostalgia. From music to movies, fashion to food, it’s tempting to look back through rose tinted glasses at a past that seems more glamorous than it really was. So for a small business, imitating a sexed-up version of history or – even better – having a genuine long standing heritage is a great PR story to get your name out there.
For Ania Macadam, a history spanning centuries was just the USP she needed to make a multipurpose skincare balm standout in the market. She relaunched Pommade Divine in 2014, after taking it over from the previous owner who had been running it as a very small operation.
The heritage of the brand is certainly a story that sticks with you. The name comes from herbal remedies concocted by monks using mashed apple, and according to Ania’s research there’s evidence of it going back as far as the Viking era. There are records of Princess Elisabeth Charlotte of Bavaria, Marie Antoinette’s great-grandmother, extolling its virtues in 1720. In the 18th and 19th centuries, apothecaries would have their own pomade divine recipes, and the one on sale today was originally known as Butler’s Pommade Divine and dates back to 1800.
“Butler’s became the only version available in the early 1900s because they were chemists to the Royal family. So all the other versions like Ogilvy’s, they all disappeared,” Ania explains.
Skincare is a notoriously tough market to crack, crowded with hundreds of brands from major multinational corporate labels to boutique kitchen-table startups. “When I was researching whether it was right for a brand like this to even enter the beauty category, there was a bit of a shift post 2007, when consumers actually began to reject the big conglomerates a little bit, and look towards more niche, independent British brands, and so it fit in well,” Ania explains.
The heritage of the brand was enough to capture the attention of the beauty press and iconic retailers when Pommade Divine was relaunched in 2014. “In the end, the retailers that were most receptive to Pommade Divine happened to be the retailers that have their own British heritage: Liberty, Fenwicks, Fortnum & Mason, John Bell of Croydon,” she says.
A great story must be supported by great quality
But while a great story might be enough to get you some brilliant PR and attract the attention of the consumer, it’s not enough to sustain a business long term. Ros Windsor, managing director at Paxton & Whitfield cheesemongers, which has been running since 1797, says that although the heritage of her company might help some new customers hear about the shops, it doesn’t keep the business going.
“Our regulars wouldn’t come back if we weren’t delivering great cheese and great service from really knowledgable people. They wouldn’t come just because Paxton & Whitfield’s been around for 200 years,” she says.
Steering a brand with a long history comes with its own challenges too. “I guess always at the back of your mind is the fact that your reputation has been built up over a very long period of time, and one action, one thing that you do could blow that out the water,” she says.
Ros has been at the helm since 2002, overseeing two rebrands and various contemporary business initiatives like social media strategy. She says Paxton & Whitfield was one of the first cheesemongers to start retailing online, and lately they’ve started selling on Amazon Marketplace.
“We continue to try to evolve,” she says. But the trick is, she explains, to be clear on the core values of the brand that have made it stand the test of time. “For us, that’s quality – be that product or service,” she says.
Likewise, Ania says that Pomade Divine wouldn’t be doing as well if it wasn’t a great product. “It’s stood the test of time for a reason,” she says. Coming from a background at Proctor & Gamble working on Olay, she thinks that beauty consumers are more savvy and selective than they used to be. “Heritage is important and it’s a big part of our communication and we’re very proud of it, but we focus very much on the results and on the specific benefits of the products,” she says.
And it’s working. “This last 18 months have been about proving that the concept works, and that you can bring out a 300-year-old multi-purpose natural balm and it will sell.”
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