Valentine’s Day Index 2008: Price of Love = $113.00

Posted on | February 13, 2008 |

Brand Keys’ Valentine’s Day Index 2008

“More and more gifts are being exchanged between friends and family in the name of St. Valentine, and that’s turned Valentine’s Day into a major retail holiday,” said Robert Passikoff, president of Brand Keys, Inc., a New York-based brand and customer engagement research consultancy.

“Again this year consumers report higher after-Christmas redemption rates of gifts cards, a large majority of which are going for purchases for Valentine’s Day. The event gets bigger every year,” notes Passikoff. “This year the average price placed on love is $128.00, although the anticipated increase is about half of what it was in 2006.

As part of its bi-annual Customer Loyalty Engagement Index, Brand Keys asked 1,200 men and 1,200 women (18-60 years of age) drawn from the nine Census regions what they were going to do, what they were going to buy and how they were going to celebrate Valentine’s Day this year.

“Men and women intend to exchange gifts this February 14th to the tune of an average of $166 spent by men, and $90 spent by women,” noted Passikoff.

There are demographic differences in gift giving. The 18-34 year olds plan to spend the most (as they seem to do every year) at an average of $162, 35-49 year olds plan to spend $69, and the 50+ group plans to spend an average of $52.”Gift-giving will be slightly skewed this year as purchases of gift cards have nearly doubled now that they’ve replace ‘gift certificates’and have become a more-than-acceptable gift,” said Passikoff.

The top-10 gifts for 2008 include:

“Valentine’s Day has become gender-neutral in terms of how men and women think when it come to how they’ll celebrate,” noted Passikoff. “What they expect to actually do to celebrate doesn’t seem to vary all that much.” Top-4 Valentine’s Day activities included:

Who’s Your Dream Date?Do you have a dream date?Everyone was asked, “next to your very own sweetheart, whom would you like to celebrate Valentine’s Day with?Fantasies included:

Robert Passikoff is founder of Brand Keys Inc. (New York), a brand and customer loyalty consultancy. He can be reached at 212-532-6028, x12, or robertp@brandkeys.com.