Red, White, and Pink: Valentine's Day Drops Overtaking the Media

Cover Design by Audrey Chau

Red, White, and Pink;

Valentine's Day Drops Overtaking the Media

By Elliot Larky

The clothing industry has become repetitive: the same colors, patterns, and styles are everywhere. But there is a new solution to this problem: limited-edition drops. These drops are explicitly themed around a significant event, such as a holiday- a big one being Valentine’s Day. Love is in the air, especially when you can make some money off of it.

Skims is a brand that commonly uses this marketing tactic. They use short clothing drops to grab shoppers’ attention, ensuring they know their hot new item will never come back. This year, however, many consumers have reported being disappointed with the exclusive Valentine’s Day options and are unlikely to purchase. This is a significant shift from last year, as, according to NSS magazine. An analysis of Launch metrics found that their campaign with Lana Del Ray generated 13.7 million in MIV [Media Impact Value] and 4.1 million MIV for the Skims page [1]. This was a massive success for the brand, as it drove foot traffic to Skims’ social media pages, attracted a new group of potential customers, and drew attention to the brand's name. Lana Del Ray’s feature was iconic in the marketing world.

Besides Skims, another brand that thrives on limited drops is Parke. Parke is a newer brand but is popular for its themed collections, and last year, its Valentine’s Day collection sold out in minutes, according to The Diamondback [2]. This year, the collection performed similarly well, even under the pressure of increasing its stock.

While these two are huge brands, smaller ones still capitalize on the love-themed holiday. Clothing brand Hill House organizes its pieces, based on capsules- small drops, that contain clothing pieces that cannot be repurchased. For a smaller brand, mass production is not an option, making its theme pieces even more limited. Hill House relies on limited advertising to generate demand for its products, as Meta reports running only around 370 ads across its platforms [3]. This may seem like a large number, but to put it in context, a much larger brand like Skims has produced 5,400 advertisements across Meta’s platforms [3]. This stark difference really illustrates the importance of Valentine’s Day, and better yet, all Holidays in the clothing industry. It may be repetitive, but it allows smaller brands to profit from the captive consumer who enjoys the unique color scheme.

Unlike the others, Alo yoga has a theme collection around the holiday, but it uses colors consumers have seen in stores. The “bright red” featured on their website for Valentine’s Day was already used for their Christmas collection, making their consumer demographic smaller. Brands that reuse the same limited colors tend not to perform as well in themed collections, as there is a risk that customers have previously owned a very similar item.

The key takeaway is that these Valentine’s Day collections are so sought after because they’re unique. A customer can’t buy these designs or colors in May, adding a virality complex. Consumers don’t have another chance to buy it; they can only shop now.

For many consumers, Valentine’s Day cannot come soon enough. Its unique color scheme draws in customers from around the globe, as it’s one of the biggest holidays to contain pink! Brands capitalize on the rarity of the occasion, creating collections that are just as limited.