How Do You Reach Moms?

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Permalink Reply by Holly Pavlika on October 8, 2010 at 1:44pm

Here's 15 things right from interviews with Moms:
1. Don’t talk down to women.
2. Do use emotion in your messages. One of the reasons Mom-to-Mom conversations work is because we aren’t afraid to use show emotion.
3. Be human. Put the corporate hat aside and think, act, react as if human, not an entity.
4. Be personable. Moms like brands that have a personality.
5. Provide detail. Moms like information and to be educated about the products they are bringing into their homes.
6. Work hard to gain a Mom’s trust. She doesn’t have time in her busy life so the first place she is going to turn to is her friends. The trust is already there. A brand has to work twice as hard.
7. Be honest. Transparent. Moms and the rising Dad contingency will see right through your marketing messages if you aren’t honest.
8. Remember Moms are well equipped to adapt to the changing social media landscape.
9. Don’t pigeonhole women. “Women are a huge demographic. Multi-culture aspects are barely being addressed in most markets.
10. Allow for two-way dialogue. We like a brand that allows us to have a voice and in return, have one itself.
11. Be useful. Provide information, be entertaining, give us tools we can actually use.
12. Moms often buy from companies that they feel a connection with and who treat them the best.
13. Don’t understand estimate intelligence of women.
14. Don’t make it a sell job.
15. Don’t be afraid to admit a mistake as a brand. Moms will love you for it.

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Permalink Reply by Bob Knorpp on October 8, 2010 at 2:20pm

The most fascinating point for me is not so much what moms want as an aggregate, but the fact that you can't put a finger on what a mom is anymore. The needs of divorced moms are different from never-married moms are different from GLBT moms are different from immigrant moms. Lumping moms together as a buying group seems ludicrous anymore. Wouldn't it be better to tackle individual targeted sub-segments than just going after the blanket mom demo?

And I need to clarify that I am not a mom expert. I'm genuinely wondering how off target we've become in the marketing/advertising world.

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Permalink Reply by Holly Pavlika on October 8, 2010 at 2:45pm

There is no such thing as a "Mom demographic". We are all individuals.

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Permalink Reply by Bob Knorpp on October 8, 2010 at 2:54pm

Exactly! There's so much talk about the Mom Demo or mommy bloggers, that we forget that the commonality is not in motherhood, but in the common interests within a group that happens to be made up of mothers. We choose to follow a certain blogger because we are interested in her and her opinions. So that doesn't make us a "mom group." It makes us that blogger's community.

I always dice things semantically, so apologies. But words mean something to strategists and creatives. Words guide our efforts. And the mom grouping ignores the complexity that the market really represents.

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Permalink Reply by Stacey Mathis on October 11, 2010 at 11:39pm

Hey Holly:

How are you? I hope all is well. What's the basis for number 9, particularly "Multi-culture aspects are barely being addressed in most markets." It's a finding that may greatly impact a few projects I am working on at the moment, so I really need to read this data. Thank you so much.

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Permalink Reply by Holly Pavlika on October 12, 2010 at 8:26am

It came from a conversation with @askpatty and I was recently in a meeting with a Hispanic agency that shared impressive stats about the opportunity. I wasn't able to get a copy of their presentation though. Send me an email an I will get you her contact information. I believe you have my info.

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Permalink Reply by Stacey Mathis on October 12, 2010 at 8:39am

Bless you!! Thank you very very much. This will help me immensely. I really appreciate this.

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