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Valentine’s Day: not your typical marketing excuse anymore

Posted in General, Marketing February 13th, 2007 by Melinda Varley

According to shopping search engine Kelkoo, loved up men and women will spend £3.6 billion pounds this Valentines Day.

Men are set to be the biggest spenders, and so they should be, splashing out an average of £104 compared to the £75 that will be spent by women.

But does the amount of money we spend, the things we buy or the restaurants we go to, really communicate what the day is actually supposed to be about?

Valentine’s Day has taken a bit of a wrong turn in the past couple of years, while retailers insist on selling a host of stupid, useless and tacky knick-knacks for couples, singletons have decided to turn the day into a celebration of their singleness.

Not only are they stealing restaurant tables from loved up couples to dine with their friends, they’re taking over clubs by engaging in speed dating and they’re buying all the chocolates and ice cream from supermarket shelves.

In fact, one in three singletons (29 per cent) plan to buy themselves a gift on the day and one in ten (11 per cent) plan to take the initiative to go out in search of that special someone.

Valentine’s Day is not a day to celebrate being single and according to the ever reliable source, Wikipedia, Saint Valentine’s Day or Valentine’s Day is the traditional day on which lovers express their love for each other; sending Valentine’s cards, sweets, and flowers.

Although it would be easy to believe that the day was invented by Hallmark or Thornton’s, it in fact was not and therefore should be taken seriously.  

Its quite surprising that there hasn’t actually been much marketing activity for the day by chocolate maker’s, florists or restaurants - suggesting that the general public are returning to the traditions and not actually buying into all the marketing hype of the day. However, according to Kelkoo, the traditional gifts of the day are no longer on our shopping lists.

According to the online shopping site’s survey, the top five Valentine’s Day gifts for men this year include:
         
1. Diesel watch - £80    
2. Davidoff Cool Water gift set - £29.99         
3. Tank paintball - £75        
4. Samsung A503 digital camera - £79           
5. Pole dancing pole £49.99    

And the top five gifts for women include:
 
1. Lejaby half cup bra and brief - £70
2. A dozen red roses - £19.50 
3. Spa day - £45     
4. Swarovski silver ring - £125      
5. Pink Apple iPod Nano (4GB) - £129  

And further to the point, what women actually want on the day:

A romantic weekend away - 63%
A card - 61%
Flowers and chocolates  - 57%
To be wined and dined – 53%
Jewellery – 49%
 
What men expect:

A card – 47%
A romantic weekend away – 39%
Some good old fashioned loving – 39%
To be wined and dined – 31%
Breakfast in bed – 28%

The survey also revealed that “ill thought out” gifts, such as imitation perfume and tacky underwear, were instrumental in ruining Valentine’s Day for couples. So beware.