Valentine’s Day is the second largest seasonal-giving holiday. No wonder product designers, producers, and retailers take February 14 very seriously!
However, we should be aware that 80 million of our US consumers do not! They’re Millennials, who make up 25% of our population.
It’s not that Millennials don’t celebrate Valentine’s Day. In fact, 56% of them say they do. It’s just that they have a considerably different take on it. Millennials embrace more of a tongue-in-cheek approach to this holiday, which has morphed from love-focused to friendship-inspired.
Just as with preceding generations, Millennials grew up being required to bring a Valentine card for everyone in their class in school. But unlike Baby Boomers and Generation X, this communal approach seemed to stick with them. Even those in a romantic relationship are not as likely to take the holiday too seriously.
This is made clear by the onslaught of meme-inspired cards and trends being created by internet users from Tumblr to Twitter. So, messages like “You’re proof that I have a heart” and “You meme a lot to me” are about as warm, fuzzy and romantic as these greetings get. What’s more, these I’m-fond-of-you messages are set up to appear as though they come from a famous movie character from Millennial childhoods, a sweet animal or anybody but the actual sender.
With these facts in mind we created a trend called Not Quite Ready for Love in our Spring Forward™ 2016 color-and-trend forecast. It’s a perfect approach for the quarter of the population, who want to buy Valentine’s Day cards, gifts and even décor—but on their own terms.
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- Demdaco
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- Räder
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- Scheurich
Amorous shapes, like hearts and cupid wings, only appear in sketchy, abstract, or cartoon-like depictions. Casual materials, like plastic, galvanized metal and concrete, minimize the meaning of hugs-and-kisses symbols. And rather than getting too personal, the word LOVE only appears in phrases like “Love rocks.”
We’ll give you even more details about Not Quite Ready for Love and 10 other trends in our new Spring Forward™ 2016 color-and-trend forecast. This compact package, which also includes 32 carefully selected colors, covers the holidays from Valentine’s Day to July 4th. Read and prosper!
Spring Forward™ 2016