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Today’s mom is ‘connected’ in more ways than you can count. She has a Blackberry or an iPhone. She has a Facebook page and Twitter account. And she no longer seeks information only from books. She reads blogs!
As a mother of two young kids, I am often seeking out information that is not only factual but practical. I am searching for answers of how to handle a 6 year olds temper to what other moms used to clear a bad diaper rash. And yes, I can get all of this information from something that has 2 covers with perfect stitching, but why? Why would I choose to read a dated reference book when I can talk to other moms with my same issues and read about how my fellow moms handle certain situations?
Not only am I huge blog reader, I now have a blog of my own. An outlet where I share my funny family stories with friends and families. During my blog research, I have come across many successful mommy blogs that offer everything from family stories to product suggestions.
One of these such mommy bloggers is at the top of the mommy blogging world. She has made her personal blog her main income for her family and has currently landed a spot on HDTV. DOOCE.com is by far my favorite mommy blogger. She is real. She offers an honest look at married life with kids. While she spends her days updating her blog, she is also supporting her site with banner ads which now support her family and has allowed her husband to stay home with her.
What a great idea and one I wish I had thought of! To think that you can support your life with marketing through banner ads on a site that you update because you love to write about your life, family and what you are having for breakfast. BRILLIANT. And for those companies who advertise on a blog like this are not brave, but smart. Those who follow blogs daily are exposed to targeted product placements without evening knowing it.
In the words of Heather Armstrong herself (the Dooce!) “Here in this tiny space on the web is an example of just how awesome and life-altering the Internet can be.”
Check her out. I am sure once you read her blog once you will be hooked.
Remember when it was cool to be Friends? Or when reality TV trumped real life? Maybe I’m too simplistic or even too TV-centric in my view of the world, but I have to believe that network television programming reflects how we feel as a culture. And if that’s the case, America is once again all about the family.
The reason for my supposition is the recent influx of TV shows featuring families like the critically acclaimed Modern Family as well as the all-too-real The Middle. They point to the fact that we want to see how the family is doing. Today’s families may not look like the Waltons, but like the Depression-era brood, these shows have their own unique blend of chaos, forgiveness and laughter.
Modern Family and The Middle, in particular, deal with issues so current and relevant that as a parent, I don’t feel crazy, I feel befriended. Not since the Bradys and the Partridges have I wanted a TV family to live next door. Even the newer dramas are revolving around family, case in point, Brothers and Sisters, The Good Wife and Parenthood that debuted this week.
The shows embrace their family-ness. The Modern Family website has a family scrapbook and a family tree. This week, the Hecks of The Middle went on a road trip to a spelling bee. Both show are affirming and uplifting, all while shrinking the jeans or thinking up punishment for shooting a sibling with an air-rifle pellet.
To quote The Middle’s mom Frankie Heck “People end up in places they don’t want to be because of two things, drugs or kids.” If you don’t have kids, this may seem like nothing. To those of us in the throes of it, it is our reality.
If you’d like to check out episodes, I recommend Modern Family episodes: Fears, Fifteen Percent and Fizbo. The Middle: The Bee, The Yelling or Valentine’s Day.
Both shows offer a great take on today’s moms and dads. Interested to see what Parenthood brings to the party. Let me know what you think.
When it comes to sporting events, there have been a variety of proud sponsors over the years. Typically these exclusive sponsorships are reserved for big brands with big budgets and can afford to seek after the spotlight of The Olympics, The Masters or the Ther Super Bowl. Although these sponsors pay handsomely for these coveted sponsorships, the exposure is hard to beat.
But as we begin a new decade, a new type of sponsorship has emerged. Gone is the the sponsorship of the event and in its place is the sponsorship of a target audience.
Proctor and Gamble supported the 2010 Winter Olympics with an emotionally riveting campaign called Thank You, Mom. 60-second advertisements focused on the support Olympian’s moms give to them throughout the years as they strive for athletic excellence. And each spot comes to a close with the P&G, Proud Sponsors of Moms message.
After seeing the commerical for the first time, I had the same reaction as many mothers I polled, it sparked an emotion for moms who want the best for their kids and would do anything to support them. But after seeing the spots over the last two weeks, as an advertising professional, I found myself asking: do they really need to keep saying “proud sponsors of moms” at the end of every spot? The spots were emotional enough that if they just ended with a simple P&G product message, the audience could have made their own connection to the spot. It almost felt like I was seeing the strategy line being broadcast over and over: P&G products are purchased by moms and we wat to show our support of our key target audience.
As a mom, I also pondered, how does Dad feel right now. The Winter Olympics draws not only the female members of the household but the entire family. And with approximately 75% of moms in the workplace, the household responsibilities are falling more onto Dad. And I know the Dad in my household was annoyed that he wasn’t getting any love for supporting his son.
So I applaud P&G’s effort to create a commerical that wasn’t product focused and engaged the audience, but I wish we didn’t see their mom strategy over and over. Moms appreciate a brand that understands what it takes to be a mom, but they engage with brands because they organically fit into their lives. I’m not sure because P&G said they were a proud sponsor of mom, that mom returned the favor and claimed they were a proud sponsor of P&G products. And a mom marketers true sucess is measured by the mom advocates that willingly sponsor and support its products as that is the ultimate driver of sales.
What do you think, did P&G’s Thank You Mom campaign gain them more followers, or did it just make Mom feel good (and Dad feel left out)?
Trone, Inc. recently (October 2009) conducted a nationwide study of over 900 mothers with children aged 18 or under. Given the state of the economy, one topic the study examined was changes in their shopping behavior across seven key product categories: children’s clothes, their own clothes, household cleaning products, food and drinks for the children, soaps and shampoos, detergents and paper products such as napkins and paper towels.
While it wasn’t much of a surprise to learn that 88% of the mothers surveyed had switched to less expensive brands in at least one of the seven product categories to save money, the broader extent to which mothers have been switching brands to save money may come as a surprise to some. The data showed that nearly two-thirds (66%) had switched to less expensive brands in all seven product categories.
What was even more interesting is that, on average, 59% of mothers who’d switched brands to save money in a given product category indicated they’d be likely to stay with their newly adopted, less expensive brands. Mothers were most likely to return to their former brands where food and drinks for the children were concerned (45% likelihood) while only 38% were likely to do so when purchasing clothes for themselves or paper products.
Given these findings, brands need to be on the alert. The times are ripe with both challenges and opportunities. The fact that 59% of mothers, on average, expressed intent to stay with their newly adopted brands represents a recent increase in opportunity for relatively lower-tiered, lower-priced brands. However, these challenger brands will need to develop a strategy for “staying in the game” down the road and keeping these newer customers in the event they later become open to increasing their spend. On the other hand, incumbent brands had best develop a strategy for maintaining market share and minimizing customer attrition. Now, more than ever, brands need to be strategically planning for their future.
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I know, summer’s winding down, so how could you start such a lengthy reading list now! Hopefully, you’ll be able to cross off the ones you’ve already read. And you can claim that no marketing book published before Fall of 2008 is still relevant. That’ll shorten the list. But at the very least, I hope you can find one or two of these that sound worthwhile. Better yet, you can post your suggestions in the comments area.
Mom’s financial burdens are impacting her brand relationships, but not all of them.
As we have reported in the past, short-term economic influences are affecting moms’ behavior and their attitudes toward brands. A recent study of 1,638 moms on the opinions@trone panel was designed to confirm our prior learning and to gain incremental understanding of how these changes are being manifested.
The study confirmed that short-term economic issues are mom’s single greatest source of stress, surpassing even the anxieties associated with their hectic schedules and the pressure to get everything done. This is both a reasonable and understandable phenomena as 53% have experienced a decline in income of an immediate family member, resulting from either a layoff or a reduction in hours and/or wages.
Taking steps to cope.
The most common thing mothers are doing to deal with this financial pressure is making sure they aren’t “leaving money on the table.” Sixty-six percent report being much more cognizant of in-store offers and 58% are using more coupons. Beyond this they are displaying a surprising willingness to change brands.
Fifty-seven percent are frequently or very frequently shopping at less expensive stores while 54% are frequently or very frequently switching to less expensive brands in some categories.
The impact is being felt across the board.
Virtually every member of the family is experiencing this change to some degree. The same holds true for nearly all the product categories moms buy. The biggest change is occurring in packaged goods where more than two-thirds of moms have modified their behavior. In canned goods, for example, 14% report shopping at different stores for the same brands, 34% are buying less expensive brands at the same stores and 15% have changed both the stores they shop and the brands they buy.
Beyond consumables, moms are most likely to change the brands/outlets they shop for their children first, next themselves and finally dad and the family pet. Lest we think that moms have been driven to an as yet unseen degree of selfishness based on the economy, we need to bear in mind two things about purchases for children. First, their goods are short-lived and second, their needs are not easily deferred. Mom can delay purchasing that new outfit for herself, but if the children have outgrown their clothes, purchases must be made. And, where mom’s outfit might last years, the kids’ items might make it through a season.
Moms’ traditional unselfishness was demonstrated in another line of questioning. When asked about their willingness to change to less expensive sources for a gift for their child or clothing they’d wear to a special event, moms were 68% more likely to deny themselves.
Willingness to change has its limits.
While it’s not true for all, most moms have limits. There are some brands they just don’t want to give up—under any circumstances. So, as a part of the survey, we asked them on an unaided basis to name three brands that fell in that category. Considering the tens of thousands of brands that moms interact with, from Carter’s® to Coach®, Tampax® to Tiffany®, it is surprising that there is any consensus at all. But, there is. Of the 88% (12% are brand ambivalent) of the respondents who indicated one or more brands they would never want to give up, 20 brands were mentioned by greater that 1.5% of the sample. As the following brand preference cloud demonstrates, some were mentioned far more frequently than that. In fact, the leader (Kraft®) was mentioned by a remarkable 12.8% of respondents.
There are two stories to this data.
This grouping tells two important stories for marketers. It identifies, on the one hand, how strong a brand relationship can be and on the other just how fragile. Given the billions of dollars spent by the tens of thousands of brands with which moms interact, why did these 20 rise to the fore? Clearly, recency is an issue, but that does not explain the presence of Sony®, Levi’s® or Fisher-Price®. These brands share no common attribute or application. Some are mom’s brands, some are for the kids and some have application across the entire family. Some are consumables and some are durables. The only thing these brands have in common is the one thing that all marketers strive for: They have built a sustainable relationship with their customer.
This past year, Trone has made a point of getting to know moms – who the different types of moms are, what influences them and how to connect with them. In a recent blog, we discussed the fact that moms don’t think advertisers understand them and offered initial suggestions on remedying this situation. Please see “Calling all Moms: Do Advertisers Understand You?“
In Wave One of a longitudinal study, Trone learned that, broadly speaking, today’s moms come in three varieties, each having their own unique challenges and issues. Representing about a third of the market apiece, they are “me first” moms, “kids first” moms and “info first” moms.
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| Me First | Kids First | Info First |
Given the current state of the economy, moms responded to a battery of economic and product questions in Wave Two of the study which was fielded at the end of April, 2009. One of the questions asked was, “How important is it that the products you buy are made in the United States?” In response to this question, 52% of all moms indicated that it was very or extremely important that the products they buy be American-made. Interestingly, this finding was consistent across all three types of moms with just over half of the moms in each segment expressing strong loyalty to American-made products.
When asked how important it was that various types of products be made in the U.S.A., moms thought it was most important for children’s toys to be American-made by a wide margin. Cars were next on the list of importance, a sentiment likely influenced by the economic hardship currently engulfing the U.S. auto industry.
Another key finding was that over 75% of all moms indicated they’d be willing to pay a premium for American-made products. When asked if they’d be willing to put their money where their sentiments were, moms who expressed strong loyalty to products made in the U.S.A. were more willing than moms on the whole (36% vs. 29% respectively) to pay premiums of over ten percent.
Perhaps the most interesting finding focused on what best predicted a mom’s loyalty to American-made products. Age was a relatively strong predictor. Older moms were, on average, more loyal to American-made products. However, the strongest predictor (nearly twice as strong as age) was how worried a mom was about the current state of the economy – the more worried, the more important it was to buy American-made products.
Given these findings and given the strong influence moms have on purchases of all kinds, companies offering products made in the U.S.A. may be well-advised to call consumer attention to their products’ domestic origins. It may also be advisable for these companies to encourage moms to buy their domestic products via a “pat on the back” in product messaging – reinforce them and make them feel good for doing so. After all, over half of all moms have strong feelings about buying American and over three-quarters claim they’d pay at least some premium for American-made products.
Even if these attitudinal measures turned out to be a bit overstated when translated to actual purchase behavior, there’d still be a considerable percentage of moms looking to support domestic products. Stated another way, it wouldn’t hurt companies to emphasize the domestic origins of their products to moms who don’t find buying American-made products to be all that important – yet there is something to be gained from moms who do think it’s important.
The time to do so is ripe – the time is now.
Last Saturday, May 30th, I celebrated my son’s 1st birthday and my 1st anniversary of being a mom. Looking back on the year, I can’t believe how my life has changed and how much I didn’t know about being a mom before I became a mom.
So as a mom with a current focus on marketing to moms, I’m challenged with how social media fits into my client’s marketing-to-mom mix; when personally, I still haven’t identified how it actually fits into my own life. In Trone’s last survey about “moms and online behavior,” we identified that moms are 21% more likely than the rest of the adult population to be a member of an online social network. Moms, including myself, most frequently “use online social networks to upload pictures and connect with friends.” I’m convinced that these networks have replaced photo programs such as Snapfish and Kodak Gallery. But are these online activities viewed as entertainment only? And if so, does mom want to be marketed to when she’s surfing through her precious photo memories?
If penetrating mom’s personal time online proves to be difficult, how should social media fit into the marketing mix? Even before social media became the buzzword in marketing, building brand advocates has always been an objective in marketing to moms. Why? Because moms love to talk. They love to talk to other moms about what products they love, what products they hate and the things they just couldn’t live without. There is great joy in knowing that your experience or opinion might have just given another mom a solution to a problem.
The challenge for marketers is identifying these mom advocates and this same challenge continues within the online social space. If you can find the right group, wouldn’t that be considered hitting the jackpot? These moms tell other moms online about a new product, but more importantly they will spread the word offline, thus driving purchase. The question, are the most successful brand strategies for social media driven by the marketer or driven by the mom? Is it the discovery of something great that builds a mom advocate or is it the strategically placed blog posting that draws mom’s attention?
I’d like to think it’s a combination of both. The discovery of something great is about the discovery, it’s not about who placed the information. Working with Trone’s Interactive Director and Blogging PR Specialist, I’m on the way to uncovering the perfect social media fit for my client’s marketing mix. I’m still not sure if that’ll solve how social media fits into my life I think I need a few more hours in my day to find the time to fit it in. In the meantime, I’ll get my advice from those moms who have found the time to uncover all this social networking has to offer.
It’s hard to believe that there was a time that I didn’t want to be a mom. I was sure I was more Mary Tyler Moore than Shirley Partridge. And besides the word mini-van sent shivers down my spine. Well, I never got over the mini-van thing but the idea of a hug at the end of the day from someone who smelled of Johnson & Johnson Baby shampoo and Play-Doh well, that got me.
So I find myself quite unexpected in the most courted category of beings on the planet. Moms. During this economic recession, research shows we have been most affected. And marketers are working desperately to keep me and my cohorts engaged in their brands.
Certainly every article mentions how a mother’s choices for her family have been altered. We are shopping at different stores, trying different brands, and cooking more at home. And I have never looked at a grocery circular until the last year.
But there are brands we hold onto. A friend of mine whose husband was out of work sent him to the grocery store armed with a very specific list while she went to her teaching job. She looked at me and said, “Can you believe he had the nerve to walk in the house with generic Pop Tarts? He certainly won’t do that again.”
I find it to be true of myself. Some of the 3 for $10 pizza offers in the frozen foods have me feeling the same way. Could this really be as good as DiGiorno?
Our Research and Strategy group conducted a recent survey on brand relationships in these strained times. Just like with any other relationship, there is a strong loyalty to those who got you where you are. The white paper will be posted next week. If you are a marketers’ dream, see how you stack up with other moms. If you are a marketer be astounded. The more things change the more they stay the same.
In a recent national study conducted by Trone, Inc., moms were asked to give their opinions on how well today’s advertisers understand them. While it may come as no surprise that moms think advertisers could do a better job appealing to them, the extent to which moms feel disconnected to today’s advertising may well shock industry insiders.
Only 14% of moms agreed that advertisers understand what it’s like to be a mom or that advertisers understand the problems they face as a mom. Furthermore, only 26% indicated that advertising was useful to moms. The results are in, so what’s an advertiser to do?
While many of today’s attempts to reach out to moms rely on various means of expressing appreciation for the “supermom” or depicting the mom whose life is “picture perfect,” Trone’s research suggests that a more resonant approach would be to simply understand moms more realistically. That is, to appreciate moms – warts and all - in a way that more fully realizes that moms don’t come in a “one size fits all” variety.
Broadly speaking, today’s moms come in three varieties each representing about a third of the market - the “me first” mom, “kids first” moms and “info first” moms. While all moms share things in common such as having stress over not being able to get everything done, each type of mom has her own unique challenges and issues.
Advertisers and the brands they work for would be well-advised to work at understanding these moms in the contexts they find themselves and to speak to them accordingly. For example, while “me first” moms are likely interested in staying on top of current trends and styles, “kids first” moms would likely find messaging with traditional values appealing.
What may appeal to some of a brand’s moms may hinder others or even impair brand equity. A brand’s ability to identify the different types of moms who comprise its customer base and optimally connect with each of them will be integral to continued growth.
