Brands try to rekindle the language of love this season with interesting campaigns and quirky messages
The season of gifting is here, yes, Valentine’s Week is close at hand. While most spend time searching for that special someone online, some will find ways to show how much they care, and some may want to relax and treat themselves to a Netflix romcom and simply order-in. No matter whether you are single or in a relationship, the lovebug bites everyone. Brands and businesses are going all out, post pandemic, to make this day special for anyone in love. With rejigged and innovative ideas, these brands aim to rekindle the feeling of love within us. Indeed, from Pepsi to online dating apps, brands are leaving no stone unturned to capture the hearts of consumers. While several popular brands use Bollywood stars to advertise, several others stick to defining love in today’s world.
Wooing the consumer, a bit differently
Unlike most years, romantic love seemed to be the theme of Valentine’s Day campaigns, yet this year, themes like self-love and sisterly love seem to resonate across digital campaigns.
From Gucci to Cadbury, almost all brands are reigniting the pre-pandemic enthusiasm for sharing and gifting this season, but in a slightly different way. While Gucci (#Guccilovestory) reminisces eternal love story to showcase their monogram geometric heart-shaped bags, Caratlane by Tanishq showcases sisterly love to market their pendants.
Some brands, like Pepsico India, brought Bollywood superstar Salman Khan, and spread the message of being content despite being single with their #SwagseSolo campaign. Others, like Tiffany, say blue is the colour of love, being their iconic brand colour itself. Havells India also roped in Bollywood biggies Vicky Kaushal and Shraddha Kapoor and spread the message of restricting judgements or assumptions based on people’s looks.
Nestle India teamed up with a SaaS-based startup, Tarsense to engage customers in a unique way via the most popular social media platform, Whatsapp. While KITKAT Love Break captures personalized gifting trends, Cadbury 5 Star, a product of Mondelez India, has channelized the thoughts of all those who are doing nothing on this day with its ‘Do Nothing’ campaign.
Sweeties for my sweet, every year
Candies, flowers, jewelry, greeting cards, or a dinner out, millions engage in gifting various knickknacks to lavish dinners and heavy jewelry. Believe it or not, almost all local and large retail sweet-meat makers and bakeries see a rise in profits from online and offline channels. Mainly due to the rise in disposable income in the hands of the growing millennial population, several firms design their marketing campaigns to capture the short spell of increasing returns. Despite the rise in marketing spending, this sector sees the most revenue in the week of or the week before.
Love around the world
According to reports, Valentine’s Day is perhaps one of the largest spending events in the US alone. The large spending on this day has been comparable to the other days like Mother’s Day or Christmas. Internationally, Hong Kong has seen the highest average spend, followed by the UK and US, per Statista. India has slowly climbed up the ladder, following Thailand and Vietnam, to become the sixth topmost Asian country with the highest average spends on this day, per Statista.
No doubt, India isn’t far behind, and has contributed largely to the market share of major brands in industries ranging from confectionaries, jewelry, ecommerce, dating apps, and virtually any firm trying to monetise from this day. Yes, Indians are hooked on gifting around this time, apart from Diwali and Christmas. A recent study found that around 80% of Indians, believe it’s important to gift on this. Most in the age group of 16-24, believe in spending at least Rs. 2000, while other age groups believe in spending Rs. 500 or below. Nowadays, restaurants and malls are gathering momentum with discounts for dinner-for-two schemes.
Indian consumers have experienced timely delivery of products, quick and easy access to all products online and at affordable rates and attractive discounts. Not surprisingly, several startups and home-grown companies seek to kick-off the year with significant profits by tapping into these trending topics.
