You've got to cut through all this to make a message heard.
Marketers may think they’re “covering” the mommy market if their marketing message is targeted to women. Major marketers like Procter & Gamble, Revlon and others spend millions marketing to women, but if they’re not segmenting their media message directly to moms for products targeting them, they’re making a major misstep.
Yes, all moms are women, but all women are not moms. The consumer habits and preferences of the pre-kid woman are 360º different from those of moms. More than getting married, divorced, changing careers or losing a loved one, having kids changes a woman in fundamental ways and becoming a mom is especially influential on how a woman shops, what she buys and how much she spends on household and personal purchases.
Once a power-shopper, I now consider leisurely days of cruising the mall a luxury beyond the realm of possibility. When going to Target, I turn right to the household items or go straight to the infant section, instead of checking out the latest clothes and accessories. Major household purchases are weighed against the cost of child care and/or college savings programs. If I buy anything for myself, which is rare these days, it’s online, on sale and easily returnable.
I know that this phase won’t last forever. My friends with older kids are once again sporting the latest fashions, buying new iPhones and getting pedis. But when you have small children, you simply don’t have the time or energy to suss out the latest, trendiest, coolest items nor, frankly, do you care that much. You need to make decisions quickly and easily and you want instant gratification. Marketers must be aware that women, while making 80 percent of the purchases for their families, care about fundamentally different things once they have children. Thus, to be effective, marketing messages must cut through the chaos and address the major concerns of the mother: Convenience, whether an item is age appropriate, durability, value, time saving properties and cost. If it’s cute, colorful and impervious to spilled apple juice even better, but that is less important than you might think.
The most important message moms want to hear from marketers is that THIS product will make their lives easier, their children smarter, healthier or happier and their husbands more helpful. If you can find a way to make moms think your product or service will sit them down, pour them a glass of wine and rub their feet for an hour, you’re golden.
(Also read “The Mommy Market: Part One — Never ask a woman’s age”)
