Nostalgia - Brand Killer or Brand Builder?

People always want what they cant have and crave the products they remember from their youth/best days. Some Brands manage to use nostalgia to great affect (see recent ads for Hovis and Heinz Baked Beans) but for other brands Nostalgia means the end of the road. Take for example the recent demise of Woolworth's, every night camera crews for news reports stood outside Woolworth's up and down the land talking to people about the fall of the company. Most people related the Woolworth's brand with pick and mix. (I related my local Woolworth's as a handy shortcut through to the bus stop). Oh how the people on camera rejoiced in the memories of pick and mix! My question would be how often did these "champions" of pick and mix actually buy pick and mix from Woolworth's? It would have been interesting to go back in time a few years and ask people about Woolworth's pick and mix and how often they bought it. I would make a guess that it would be relatively few. But I can only speak from what I have seen and experienced. I used to occasionally get a pick and mix from Woolies when I was in my early teens but I have never been since that, every time I went into my local Woolies (on the way through to the bus stop) the pick and mix section was pretty much deserted. Now I don't expect the pick and mix section to be packed all the time but with all these pick and mix "fans" you would expect it to be busy occasionally. What I'm saying is that as soon as people realized that Woolies pick and mix was going to disappear forever they started wanting it again! This was shown in the sale of the last ever Woolworth's pick and mix for a mere £14,500 on eBay! (it was for charity) Now Woolworth's is starting up again in online form and the main thing people are crying out for is a return of pick and mix . If this does feature on the new site I'm sure that it will be incredibly successful for a very short period of time before people get fed up (how long is postage going to take? How much is postage going to be? Is it going to be cheaper than other online retailers or even cinema pick and mixes?) I suspect that the price for postage and the time that you have to wait to get your pick and mix will put people off and once again we could see the demise of the Woolworth's pick and mix. Maybe that demise will cause a upsurge in demand again and if they sell for anything like £14,000 a bag then I'll be at the very back of the queue to get that last pick and mix, all proceeds going to me, I need to pay of my student loan!