Marketing Valentine’s Day

All the world loves a lover and people go all dreamy eyed and feel mushy at the thought of romance. Oh! How wonderful it is to be in love and float on pink dreamy clouds all day.

Valentine’s Day has been around for many years, it is considered an age old tradition in the west, and it is now catching up in eastern countries. There are many stories about how the tradition started; and the way in which it is celebrated has been changing over time. In the beginning Valentine’s Day was not really associated with romantic love; it was to do with some pagan celebrations for fertility, then it was about some Roman God who watched over shepherds and their flocks, some say it was a day for expressing universal love, this is backed by the fact that even little children celebrate valentine’s day in school they make valentine cards for their teachers and friends.

Somehow this universal love got mixed up with romantic love and slowly universal love faded out of the picture and these days it is the romantic variety of love that dominates the day. In many ways the marketing strategies of companies are responsible for setting the tone in which the day is celebrated. Valentine’s Day is a wonderful platform for various companies to market their products, be they chocolates or flowers or rings or perfumes or any other kind of gifts and gift hampers. Suddenly it seems like the day is more about gifts and less about love. Many have great expectations from the day and then are disappointed when those expectations are not met. It is how the day is marketed. Romance means business. It has great commercial value on Valentine’s Day.

Friends, colleagues, neighbours, families and the world at large want to know whether or not you have a valentine – which means a ‘significant other’ in your life, and if you do not have a valentine, they want to know why you have not found one yet and if there is something wrong with you, they will shake their heads about and wonder what will become of you, and you silently agree with them; if you do have a valentine, they want to know what gifts your valentine gave you. So it suddenly seems very important that you get a gift worth showing off. The market flourishes at such times. One sees advertisements for jewellery, gift hampers, lingerie, perfumes, flowers and many other articles. Hotels and restaurants are not to be left out of the competition. They too have exclusives offers at ‘exclusive prices’. They advertise romantic dinners, cruises, and getaways like the world is on its honeymoon.

There are many emotions that run rampant. Young lovers fret and spend sleepless nights thinking about the perfect gift to give their sweetheart. The commitment phobic person will think of ways in which he can just disappear for the day as the prospect of making a public statement of his love seems to stifle him/her. Single people or old people stand by and watch from the sidelines and sigh with regret that ‘love’ seems to be passing them by. (It is not really love that is passing them by, but more like romance that seems to be passing by)some may just want to slip away to some quiet place to be by themselves, or plan to spend the day at home by themselves and not worry about gifts and paraphernalia. Then there are the singles that really have to figure out what they want for the day.

Change is always taking place and these days more and more single people are making a conscious choice to be single and do not let the lack of a valentine bother them. Instead of singles and other non romantically inclined people getting depressed and angry and staging anti valentine's day protests, just change the way in which you will celebrate the day. Change the image associated with Valentine's day, change the way in which Valentine’s day is marketed and celebrated.

Every day is what you make of it. Why let somebody else's idea of Valentine's day ruin your day? Set your intention to enjoy the spirit of the day and you will!

Now there is a need for less romantically frivolous gifts and more practical gifts that can be exchanged between friends and family members. People in old age homes or orphanages can be part of the celebrations too.

Singles can get together to celebrate the spirit of valentine’s day and make it more about universal love. And one can give a romantic gift to a friend who just wants the spirit of romance for day. Maybe just a free hug can turn out to be priceless. And when ‘free hugs’ are the flavour of the day, we will have some bright spark who will want market those hugs!