By Priya Ramesh (@newpr)
Sat, May 13th is Mother’s Day and several consumer brands are busy finalizing their campaigns this week to win the attention of moms who now control $2.1 trillion in household spending (Source: Mom 3.0: Marketing with Today’s Mothers by Leveraging New Media and Technology). Oh and new moms on an average spend more than $10,000 in the first year of their child’s life. That’s a lot of money in the hands of moms making purchasing decisions on household items, consumer electronics and automotive and social media adds an additional layer of influence on how moms shop online.
Moms are no doubt a powerful influence on what products make it from the shelf to their homes. A little bit of understanding on how moms interact online, what do they look for in terms of product promotions and what are their sought after social channels might help us fine tune our marketing efforts. The best thing about marketing to moms is that if you do it right, you could possibly have a loyal customer base. According to Maria Bailey, author of Mom 3.0: Marketing with Today’s Mothers by Leveraging New Media and Technology, “Mothers can be exceptionally loyal customers. 90% of moms will stay with the same brand if the product meets their expectations and 92% will purchase the same products and brands for both home and office.”
A new study by Nielsen and NM Incite, “Women of Tomorrow” highlights the growing influence of women on purchasing decisions and their behavior on social media. This study includes insights on “social moms” (defined as females with at least one child who actively participate in social networking) and provides additional intelligence on how social moms shop online. I have tried to summarize some of the key learning from the study, I hope you find them useful:
50% of Social Moms Access Information via Mobile
The social mom is highly active in accessing social networks via mobile devices. Fifty percent of all moms actively participating in social media access platforms via mobile devices, in comparison to 39 percent of females overall, and 37 percent of the overall population in general.
Social Moms are Cost-Conscious and Like Couponing
56 percent of social moms are more likely to download coupons and tend to be cost-conscious. CPG products are the #1 reason to shop online with 86 percent more likely to shop online for cosmetics than the general public, as well as skincare products (85%), hair care goods (74%) and fragrances (68%).
Social Moms Frequently Offer Opinions on Brands:
Moms who actively participate in social media are 81 percent more likely to become a fan of or follow a brand online, 86 percent more likely to post a status update, and 84 percent more likely to comment or post content than the general population. The Nielsen study also shows that social moms definitely aren’t shy in sharing their advice and reviews of products with others. This segment is 85 percent more likely than the general population to share frequent advice about beauty and cosmetic products, 28 percent more likely to provide frequent advice about online shopping/e-commerce and 6% more likely to post a product review online.
Download the Nielsen report on “Women of Tomorrow” here.
CRT/tanaka has several food and consumer clients (BISSELL, Florida Sweet Corn, Canada Maple Syrup, Avocados from Mexico, the Blueberry Council) that specifically market to moms. We typically partner with online communities like Mom Central, BabyCenter and BlogHer that have a deeper understanding of the challenges and opportunities to get our message across to moms. We have seen some great results in generating awareness through product reviews, increasing online mentions for our clients via Twitter and Facebook live chats and targeted email campaigns by partnering with them.
So if you are in the business of marketing to moms, a good understanding of how they engage online and what’s their preferred mode of online communication can help us define our content strategy. Looking at the stats below, I am thinking MOBILE might be a critical component of the digital strategy to reach moms:
- Moms spend twice the amount of time online: 66 hours per month vs. 33% for the general population
- 80% use social media regularly vs. 55%
- 65% own smartphones, vs. 47%
- 23% shop via smartphone, vs. 15%
- 8% stream video to their phones, vs. 4%
Source: 2012 American Media Mom survey released by BabyCenter.
Share any additional insights you might have on how to engage with moms online, we would love to hear from you! Happy Mother’s Day!
Failure to Communicate: Learnings from the Ongoing Cooper Union Battle:
The BuzzLine – Week 4 – Blanched, Broiled or Fried?: