If Mama Aint Happy…

So where do I go to find this info? One stop shop the Web of course which led me to some interesting data. According to M2Moms.com (The Marketing-to-Moms Conference, which will be held in Chicago October 22 & 23, 2009); although marketers say they are marketing to mothers first, in reality, they are not. According to their poll regarding Moms and advertising:

•Only 20% of moms say that advertisers are doing a good job connecting with moms. Another 70% say that marketers are not focused on moms in their advertising and 40% say they see ads that offend them. 73% of moms feel that advertisers don’t really understand what it’s like to be a mom.

•On average, even the busiest moms say they read 4.1 magazines per month, with at least two of these titles delivered to their mailboxes.

•When asked if they would rather get information from a celebrity mom or an experienced mom like themselves; 67% of moms said they would more likely turn to a peer mom.

And how are moms, like me, consuming this info?

80% of moms say they go online to do their consumer research. Moms are not only surfing the Web and spending money, they are also spending more time on the Internet than they are watching television. Research shows that 88% of moms said they rely on the Web for parental guidance, advice and ideas for raising their children.
•86% said they made an online purchase, while 85% said they clicked on an online ad, and 95% said they are online at least once a day.
•89% of household moms use the Internet at least twice a day
•86% rely on search engines to find Web information
•70% use search engines to research an online purchase
•57% use Google, Yahoo and other search engines to study up on offline buys
•72% use search engines to compare CPG prices at different outlets
•71% reported using an online search to turn up product information
•71% searched to find retail locations
Source: Searcher Moms: A search Behavior and User Study, DoubleClick 2007

So what do we as marketers need to do to make sure we are reaching this important audience?

•Conduct mom focus groups to better understand how they feel and what they think of your company or organization
•Immerse yourself in “all things mom” online especially, by searching the “momosphere” to determine what moms are blogging and chatting about your products
•Prepare an audit of all marketing messages to assess what messages are being sent directly to moms
•Prepare a mom “engagement” audit – customer service, website, blogs, social media sites, etc. to assess how your company is communicating and engaging moms in one-to-one conversations
•Consider communications outreach through multiple channels when marketing to moms. This includes online and mass media; and additional outreach in particular to organizations including schools, childcare centers, grocery stores, religious places of worship

So I think it’s pretty evident that we all need to be doing more to engage moms in all of our marketing messaging and communications. For additional reference, resources on this topic include books written by Maria Bailey – Mom 3.0, Trillion Dollar Moms, and Marketing to Moms. Now it’s back online for me – gotta find the perfect potty training video. Help!