Update: Check out this Free Relationship Advice Ebook to help spice up your Valentines Day

One of the most successful marketing ideas of all time was Valentine’s Day. Valentine’s Day, or Saint Valentine’s Day, is a pretty recent holiday in the West, according to Wikipedia. A little over 100 years ago, Esther Howland started sending out embroidered laced cards from her father’s stationary store. Not much more than a century later and with a little help from Hallmark cards, Valentine’s Day is the second most gifted holiday next to Christmas.

Over a billion Valentine’s Day cards are exchanged worldwide on Feb 14th (also my half birthday). By any estimate, I would say Valentine’s Day is something worth marketing towards. That’s probably why Target has had those little red, white and pink candies out since New Years. It is important to know your audience when creating marketing ideas for Valentine’s Day, such as appealing to women more than men. Did you know roughly 85% of all Valentine gifting is done by women? (wikipedia) It’s true. That little fact would probably also explain the abundance of red, pink and white.

Apart from giving prizes for people wearing red, two-for-one discounts and the usual sales stores have, here other options to attract customers:

Valentines Day Massacre Marketing Idea

One way to get a bunch of guys involved in the fun is to set up a St. Valentine’s Day Massacre at your local paintball course. This also appeals to the men (and maybe some women, too) because now they are exchanging red, pink and white balls at 200 mph. Nothing says I love you more than shooting things at each other. In case you didn’t know, the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre happened in Chicago where 7 mobsters were gunned down on Valentine’s Day.

Where’s Cupid Contest?

In Fargo last summer, a local radio station held a contest to find an intern locked in the trunk of a car. They would let him out periodically to describe where he was at to give more clues to the listening audience. Needless to say it was a big success and many people were out driving around looking for the poor soul. I would do much the same except dress someone up as cupid and attach a bounty on them. Win a very nice dinner, limo ride and suite at the Ritz for the first person to find and bring him in. I am sure everything would go completely as planned.

Half-Priced Dinner

Offer half-priced dinners on the days before and after Valentine’s Day. Everyone will be out en masse on the 14th for dinner and a good time. If you have a restaurant or some sort of eating establishment, offer huge discounts the day before and after to pack the place for 3 days straight. I am sure many people will take up the offer for cheap food, then some not so cheap drinks or the other way around.

Buy a Car, Win a Date

I won’t be surprised with all the crazy car deals going on lately that this idea will probably happen. Step 1. Find the local pageant queen or other heart throbs (men and women) and offer a date with them with the purchase of a car. Step 2. Put them on display at the car dealership for everyone to check out. Step 3. No test drives allowed.

Cupid Escorts

Knowing that the majority of Valentine’s Day shoppers are women, why wouldn’t stores offer their very own version of Victoria’s Secret angels? But this time a bunch of men are dressed as cupids: Speedos … wings … chiseled abs … what more would women want as they spend a lot of money in your store at the recommendation of their very own cupid escort? Go out on a limb and see what happens. Maybe have cupids stick around for the whole week. On the flip side, if stores wanted to attract more male shoppers, I believe the reverse of this would work very well.

Have fun and spread the love by making things interesting and stirring up controversy. I have a feeling if a Fargo store implemented the last idea, it would be the talk of the town on the radio, TV and newspaper as people liberal and conservative duke it out.