Everyone's a sucker for a heart-shaped, red version of a product they are already familiar with around Valentine's Day. Almost everyone takes part — no matter how reluctantly — and brands across the globe are dressed in red for two weeks every February. Have you ever wondered why that is?
The most effective marketing tactics tap into consumers' behavioural patterns and cause them to act in a desirable way. In other words, the best marketing tactics convince consumers to shop without realising why they are making that purchase.
This can be achieved in multiple ways and brands often utilise only one or two methods at a time. But it looks like Valentine's Day is a special enough occasion that its marketing includes a wider variety of tactics.
media update's Joreke Kleynhans explains the phenomenon that is Valentine's Day marketing and what marketers can take from it for the rest of the year's campaigns.
Tapping Into People's Emotions
Marketing campaigns that appeal to the emotions of a target market can be incredibly powerful. An emotional response to marketing from a brand drives sales more effectively than factual information like product features.
Valentine's Day is the source of many emotions. Love, disgust, annoyance, loneliness, nostalgia — you name it. In February, brands capitalise on the emotional highs and lows people experience to ensure that their marketing lands well.
The Bandwagon Effect
The bandwagon effect is what happens when people develop interests in things or adopt behaviours simply because everyone else is doing it. After all, it is only human to want to fit in!
The bandwagon effect can be powerful enough to override people's personal beliefs or opinions. In other words, no matter how much you "hate the commercialisation of relationships" you'll most probably feel some pressure to get involved and possibly even fold.
Valentine's Day is one of those days when it almost feels wrong to not take part. The tradition has expanded to celebrate all kinds of love — romantic, friendly, or familial — which further encourages people to join in.
Brands don't usually use this phenomenon explicitly in their marketing. However, they use commonly experienced peer pressure as a foundation for their marketing and build campaigns on it to convert more sales.
Time-Exclusiveness and Limited Edition Offers
Valentine's Day marketing is only in full swing for about two weeks per year. Products and experiences associated with the holiday are therefore also only available for this short time period.
The added element of limited-time availability creates a sense of urgency and even curiosity in consumers. Even though you might not be particularly interested in chocolate on a stick during the rest of the year, if Woolworths can make it heart-shaped, wrap it in red foil and sell it in February, consumers could be more inclined to buy it because of its limited availability.
In contrast to the bandwagon effect, people also crave the social currency of being different from their peers. Some brands therefore rather focus their Valentine's Day tactics on the exclusivity of owning a special edition of a product.
For example, Dior has a limited collection of Valentine's Day-themed items of which the designs feature hearts, roses and hues of pink and red. The urgency of time constraints and the exclusivity of owning a themed designer item effectively convinces Dior's target market to purchase their products.
Promotional Offers
South Africans are known to love a deal whenever they shop. Thirty-one percent of South Africans actively search for promotions while shopping and twenty-two percent will actually choose one store over another based on its promotional offers.
Promotional offers perform well in the South African market and this form of marketing is often used for Valentine's Day. For example, getting a course meal at a fancy restaurant for a good deal, buy one get one free promotions, or “buy any 3” mix-and-match offers are some of the most common ways brands use promotions around Valentine's Day.
Even though such deals often cost more than it would have to buy a single product or have a simple dinner, they are perceived as more value for money. As a result, people not only make purchases more often, but also at higher price points than usual.
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*Image courtesy of Canva