April 2012
Unity is pondering...
Keeping Mum
Today we’re pondering mums.
Unity knows mums. Not least because some of us are mums, and some of us are married to mums, and of course we all have mums but because we’ve worked with Netmums, the UK’s largest parenting site with 1.2 million members, for more than five years as well as with a number of other brands who speak to mums. Think Ribena, Ben & Jerry’s, Oxfam and Pizza Express.
Mums are not just the ones who raised us (hi Mum!) but are also a force to be reckoned with in their own right. The sheer power that mums hold over the country’s best-loved brands is undeniable. Mums make more than 80% of all household buying decisions and 78% check reviews and ratings of products online before buying them. And with the huge increase in online conversations on social media platforms, blogs and elsewhere brands need to forge a new way to engage with mums and ensure that they are meeting their needs.
So we teamed up with trends analysts the Trajectory Partnership to share a wealth of original research into the power of mums today. Doubled up with some compelling insights into digital mums from our good friends at Netmums and compounded with our own insights and trends into what’s happening in the mum-sphere, we have unearthed some pretty powerful stuff.
To share the love, we held a breakfast seminar at Soho House and invited some brands that target mothers. We had a full house, with contacts from Boden, MoneySupermarket, Comfort, Liberty and M&S turning up, keen to hear what we had to say.
If you’re interested in finding out more do get in touch and we can arrange a meeting, but here’s a quick run down of what was discussed.
Against a backdrop of the changing shape of families e.g. later motherhood, the rise in non-traditional households and increasingly economically active matriarchs, we identified six key trends in motherhood and then gave original insights as to how brands should be reacting to these trends.
These trends are:
1) Take your tablets – the reliance on technology within this demographic and what brands should consider doing to keep up with the growing use of tablets.
2) Hive mind – the rise in sharing is a great opportunity for brands but there’s a sting in the tail. We’ve all seen the devastation that online outcries can cause for brands if they don’t get it right.
3) Cheap thrills – as humans it’s in our DNA to take risks, but a woman’s propensity to take risks lessens when she becomes a mum, especially when it comes to finances. They are however embracing one type of risk taking, and that’s in the shopping basket. They’re risking their tastes by trying new products, presenting both an opportunity and a threat for brands everywhere.
4) The couponomy – the rise in the coupon has been unavoidable in the last five years. Did you know that Brits now save an average of £1,200 a year using discount vouchers and money off codes? But what does this mean for you and your brand? And how can you use them effectively and make them exciting and compelling?
5) Community spirit – once a woman becomes a mum, local issues become far more important. As a brand, how can you tap into that and ‘be’ where they are, whether that’s in a physical or digital sense?
6) More than a mum – back in December we conducted some research with Netmums that revealed mums are tired of being ‘just mum’ and that brands, society and even their own partners have forgotten the other aspects of their identity. Mums aren’t just a big homogenous audience segment, they have interests that range far beyond being a parent. What can brands do to connect with this aspect of mothers’ psyches?
If you’re a brand that wants to engage today’s mums and you want to learn more, we’d love to hear from you.