Valentine’s Day

By Benjamin Fain, Logan McConville, and Mark Kincaid

Valentine’s Day, celebrated annually on February 14th, has evolved from its origins as a commemoration

of the martyrdom of Saint Valentine to a modern-day celebration of love and affection.

The origins of Valentine’s Day can be traced back to the third century in Rome, where it was

initially observed as the anniversary of the persecution and execution of Saint Valentine. Saint Valentine,

a holy priest, defied the orders of Emperor Claudius II by performing Christian marriages in secret. The

state considered his actions to be treasonous, and thus, he was martyred on February 14th by Rome for his

devotion to the Christian faith.

In the early years, Valentine’s Day was primarily celebrated as a Christian holiday, similar to

Easter or Christmas. People celebrated Valentine’s Day in order to honor the memory of Saint Valentine

and his sacrifice for the Christian faith. However, as Christianity spread throughout Europe, so did the

observance of Valentine’s Day, with varying customs and traditions.

The transformation of Valentine’s Day into a romantic holiday can be attributed to the influence of

popular culture and the evolution of societal norms. During the Middle Ages, Valentine’s Day began to

take on romantic connotations, with the exchange of love letters and tokens of affection becoming

standard practices among couples. The association of the holiday with romantic love continued to grow

over the centuries, fueled by literature, poetry, and art. These gestures of love during the Middle Ages

were much different than what the societal norm is now.

The evolution of Valentine’s Day into a consumer holiday is an excellent example of the power

consumer behavior holds. In the 19th century, the mass production of Valentine’s Day cards became

widespread, thanks to advancements in printing technology, which allowed for the widespread

distribution of pre-made cards. Due to this, Valentine’s Day cards began to be the primary way of

showing appreciation or love to another person. Furthermore, the marketing efforts of retailers and

advertisers played a significant role in shaping the modern-day celebration of Valentine’s Day. From

heart-shaped chocolates to elaborate bouquets, consumers were inundated with advertisements promoting
the idealized image of romance and love associated with the holiday. As a result, Valentine’s Day became

increasingly commercialized, with retailers capitalizing on the opportunity to boost sales during the

“holiday season.”

Today, Valentine’s Day is celebrated in various ways worldwide, ranging from romantic dinners

and extravagant gifts to simple gestures of love and kindness. While some view it as a commercialized

holiday driven by consumerism, others see it as an opportunity to express genuine affection and

appreciation for their loved ones. In some ways, this overshadows the religious roots of the Christian

holiday; however, the current “version” of the holiday has become so synonymous with consumers that

no one really minds how much it has changed.

In the U.S., Valentine’s Day, as the modern American holiday most are familiar with, took off.

Products specifically celebrating the holiday were starting to be manufactured more than ever. With this

increase in products, so did advertising. Since then, the holiday has morphed even more into a romantic

American holiday for gift-giving. The origins of the holiday have since been forgotten by many and are

replaced by modern symbols, such as chocolate, flowers, romantic dinners, and much more. Many of

these symbols are examples of how the holiday has been influenced by marketers and how the holiday has

become “Americanized.” The symbols many associate with the holiday are mainly products to buy for

yourself or others. In the U.S., it is reinforced that you must give to loved ones on Valentine’s Day if you

want to show that you care.

The topic of consumer well-being as it relates to Valentine’s Day is an interesting one. Nowadays

in America, the holiday is mostly about gift giving to important people in consumer’s lives. The original

focus, and still the main focus of the holiday was more particular to romantic relationships, and this did

actually cause some issues with consumer well-being, hence why the holiday has undergone a shift in

focus in America. With the focus on romantic relationships, marketing was typically about more

important and expensive gifts, encouraging people to give the nicest things possible to their partners, and

having an undertone that not spending enough money on them could mean that you care less about your
partner than other people. It also contributed to many consumer’s feelings of loneliness on the holiday,

which is why all sorts of online articles and videos have sprung up in attempts to help people manage

their loneliness on and around Valentine’s Day.

Crisis Text Line, an international organization dedicated to combatting loneliness and other

mental health issues, has an entire article dedicated to not only what to do about loneliness on Valentine’s

Day, but also a look into the many reasons the Holiday can cause people to feel that way. “The societal

emphasis on romantic relationships and the cultural celebration of couples on this day can enhance the

sense of isolation for those who are single or recently heartbroken. Seeing images of happy couples on

your social media platforms can intensify feelings of inadequacy or exclusion.”

(https://www.crisistextline.org/blog/2024/02/08/5-tips-to-combat-loneliness-during-valentines-day/ ) This

quote pulled from that article helps highlight two important pieces of the puzzle.

First, the celebration of romantic relationships. Having a holiday entirely dedicated to romantic

relationships naturally creates an in-group for those who are in romantic relationships and celebrate the

holiday. People who are unable to be a part of this in-group can easily feel left out, inadequate, and

alienated from society, purely based on their relationship status. There is even the issue of people who are

in relationships and in a way, forced to celebrate the holiday because of the societal focus on it. If

somebody were to be in a romantic relationship but refused to celebrate, whether by choice or situation,

they may be negatively viewed by those in society who do celebrate as another weird outcast from the in-

group itself. This is one of the core issues with consumer well-being surrounding the holiday, by nature of

a selective in-group there will always be those isolated and left out. This issue is amplified by their

second point, social media. Social media has created practically a surveillance state in many people’s

lives, where all important happenings must be displayed. In the context of Valentine’s Day, this means

showing off either your partner themselves or however you are celebrating. Putting more eyes on people’s

celebrations increases the societal pressure to have a partner as well as spend more on celebrating with

them.
 This issue is interesting, since typically when talking about consumer behavior and well-being the

issue often relates to companies and their advertising practices. In this case, the issue is in society itself

and how they celebrate the holiday. In recent years, companies have done a pretty good job actually at

helping to break some of these pressures, even if it isn’t always their intention to. Companies have started

using more diverse relationships in their ads, as well as expanding the audience of celebration beyond just

partners to people that you care about, which has helped many people feel more secure with how they

spend the holiday. While some of these changes have been done to boost target audience and profits or

consumer opinion of the company, the outcome has led to an overall more inclusive holiday, and better

consumer well-being.

The topic of consumer well-being leads into and briefly alluded to the reference groups that

consumers consider when shopping for the holiday. Due to historical gender roles, typically men buy gifts

for women in relationships or experiences like nice dinners that the both of them can share. In order to

figure out what exactly to buy though, people typically use numerous reference groups, as the holiday

being romantic in nature really stresses the importance of getting it right. The most common reference

group would be the partners themselves, whether the partner of the person buying, or somebody else they

know who is in a similar relationship. Being direct ensures that the gift is important to the person being

bought for. This also works well in the ever changing landscape of relationships where traditional values,

ideas, and thus gifts, may not work well.

Another reference group commonly used is the internet. Whether looking at online communities,

articles, influencers, or other online sources of information, the internet provides a wealth of information

on Valentine’s Day gifts that can make people happy. Often when people want to do something a little

more personal or homemade, the internet is used for ideation or skill learning to bring a homemade gift to

life.

One more important reference group to mention is family members. Parents or siblings can give

good advice based on their own experiences and relationships, and are easy to access, so many people opt
to ask family to help them with decisions about Valentine’s Day celebrations. Additionally, with the

shifting focus of the holiday to be about more than just romantic partners, family members may assume

the role of the one being bought for, and then asking them is another use of the direct questioning method

mentioned previously. There really is no teacher like experience, so family, especially parents, are a very

common reference group for Valentine’s Day shopping.

Moving on from the outside world of reference groups to internal influencers, there is a good bit

to talk about. Valentine’s day is a holiday that is extremely vibrant, as it is most commonly associated

with the color red. Red by itself is good at grabbing people’s attention, which plays into getting people

from the exposure to attention side stage of perception. While people do develop some level of perceptual

defense to red, it is still easily strong enough to grab people’s attention, or else it wouldn’t be in use by so

many fast-food companies like KFC, Wendys, McDonalds, and more.

Red also just works well with the theming of Valentine’s Day. Grand Canyon University reports

that “The color red is associated with energy, love and passion. It is attention-grabbing and vibrant.”

(https://www.gcu.edu/blog/performing-arts-digital-arts/how-advertisers-use-color ) Since Valentine’s

Day is all about love, it is a natural pairing, and one that resonates with consumers. Adding in all the

passion of the color red can help evoke people’s emotional responses to commercials and promotions

surrounding the holiday, especially when combined with messaging about love for one’s partner. This

helps open consumers up to the idea of buying gifts to show their love, and makes them more

responsive to advertisements, as they will typically be in some form of information search for a good

gift. Having the meaning of red correlated to the meaning of the holiday also means that the third

stage of perception, interpretation, is automatically started upon just viewing the advertisement. It

doesn’t get much better than that when it comes to getting through the consumer perception process.

Whenever we think of Valentines Day, we automatically think of how it is a large consumer holiday. As

we know, consumers have many methods, devices, and avenues that help them make decisions and

purchase products every day. Valentines is no exception to that rule. The best way to describe the
motivation and decision-making process that consumers face in this holiday season is to describe best with

none other than Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Now we know this pyramid has 5 levels, but how do these

relate to this specific holiday. With this being a large giving holiday, there is a need that is satisfied on

every level. Starting with the bottom, the basic needs on the bottom of the pyramid are met by a

predetermined standard that is set. On the safety and security step, we see a person’s feelings start to come

into play which is important because a person realizes they want to participate in the activity (valentines

day) at this stage. By the time a person reaches the Love and Belonging level of the hierarchy, we start to

see the psychological needs that drive consumerism during Valentines Day. We know that the giving of

gifts as well as ones love to another person is commonplace on this day. Intimacy seeks to make a

connection from person to person. 44% of consumers purchase candy/sweets followed by greeting cards

(33%), and finally flowers (32%) to show outward signs of love and belonging. If we look at the self-

esteem level of this pyramid, we see that this person will most likely want to convey that love that was

originally 2 sided and make it public for the world to see. Social media culture has allowed us to broadcast

our celebratory holidays to a greater audience than ever before. The need to post a picture of the candy

you received or tweet a line from that card you got from a partner, is realized in Maslow’s self-esteem of

the hierarchy of needs. Moving on to the last “top” of the pyramid, we see the Self-actualization that

brings everything together. Here, it combines consumer spending habits with the psychological and basic

needs found at the bottom of the pyramid.

 It is also important to note some of the elements of Valentine’s Day that are unique to the United

States, and what some of the differences are worldwide.

This graphic from worldpopulationreview.com shows all the counties in the world that celebrate

Valentine’s Day, highlighted in orange. (https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/countries-

that-celebrate-valentines-day) As you can see, most of the world celebrates the holiday, but many

countries do it in vastly different ways.

One such example is in Japan. In Japan the holiday is split into 2 separate holidays, Valentine’s

Day and White Day. On the traditional Valentine’s Day of the 14th, it is customary for women to give out

two different types of chocolate. There is the “Giri-Choco” or obligation chocolate that is given to male

friends, coworkers, etc. This chocolate is meant to show appreciation but in a very lowkey way, with no

grand meanings attached to it, so the chocolate can often be very cheap, with the emphasis being placed

on the gesture itself. The other type of chocolate is the “Honmei-Choco” or homemade chocolate. Despite

the title of the chocolate, it does not actually have to be homemade, it can also be just higher quality

storebought chocolate. This chocolate is meant to be given to a guy that a girl has romantic feelings for.
This can serve both as a confession or re-affirmation of love. Next comes White Day, a month later on

March 14th, where guys are inclined to return the favor and purchase gifts or chocolate for the women

they received some from a month prior. This goes for both obligation and homemade chocolate.

While the focus of Valentine’s Day in Japan tends to be on the younger crowd, the holiday is not

just limited to them, and the practicing of Valentine’s Day in the adult workplace has even become a

controversial topic due to the implications of gift giving in the workplace. By comparison, America’s

Valentine’s Day is celebrated by kids, but is mostly for an older demographic that is more likely to be in

romantic relationships. Changing the target demographic even just a little creates massive changes in

many aspects of how businesses engage with the holiday. The products marketed are a lot more limited in

Japan, mostly being chocolate. With White day, new advertisements are needed with entirely new

messages, symbols, and colors. There is more potential for other products like chocolate making kits

which aren’t prevalent in America. There are tons of other little differences as well, and Japan isn’t the

only other country to have different ways of celebrating. Other countries all over the world have added

their own little spins and twists to the holiday that make it unique not only from the consumer perspective

but then from the business and marketing perspective as well.

 Bibliography

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Crisis Text Line. (2024, February 12). 5 tips to combat loneliness during Valentine’s day.
https://www.crisistextline.org/blog/2024/02/08/5-tips-to-combat-loneliness-during-
valentines-day/

Grand Canyon University. (2019, September 19). How advertisers use color. GCU.
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World Population Review. (n.d.). Countries that celebrate Valentines Day 2024.

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