Captivating Connections.

when will marketers recognize we need to market to PARENTS, not just mom or dad?

Listen, I get it: Moms rock. They're awesome. But so are dads. For reals!

In a world where the average family structure is changing and the roles people play vascilate, it's important to recognize that PARENTS run the family household, not just a mom or a dad. Sometimes if you only speak to moms, you make dad feel left out. And if you only speak to dads, moms feel like you're ignoring them.

So what's wrong with talking to parents as...wait for it...PARENTS!

According to work done Edelman and The Parenting Group, dads are social media monsters, too. In fact, "fathers—particularly first-time fathers—are engaging in the same types of social media activities that new moms enjoy...42% of new US dads who use social networks write family-related status updates on a daily basis. It further found that 56% of new dads post family photos at least a few times a week, while 21% post family-related videos."

Some dads are even 'beating' moms: "There was even one area in which dads were actually ahead of their female counterparts: Millennial dads have more online friends than millennial moms. These dads reported an average of 96 online friends, while moms averaged only 70."

So how do you appraoch this dads? I like how Mark Wildman, vice president and group publisher of magazine and digital media company The Parenting Group, sums it up. He points out that, as a dad himself, “I don’t just view myself as a provider. The nurturing, the cooking, the food buying—I am doing it in partnership with my wife.”

What do my parent readers think about this?

dads are more likely than moms to buy electronics (shocking I know).

Granted I may be an anomoly when I become a mom, but, according to Ipsos OTX MediaCT's LMX Family Study, "dads with kids aged 6-14 are significantly more likely than moms with kids the same age to be planning to purchase a host of consumer electronics including smartphones, TVs, Tablets, Blu-ray players, 3-D TVs and desktop computers."

 

do kids ruin everything (and by everything i mean shopping)?

According to BabyCenter data, having a baby takes the fun out of shopping.

"Before they have kids, women described shopping as 'relaxed,' 'impulsive,' and 'social.' Being out with their friends is fun. That all changes when their shopping companion no longer pushes a cart, but rides in one. Moms find shopping 'rushed' (258 index compared to general population), 'stressful' (188 index), and 'overwhelming' (167 index), according new data from the American Mom Report from BabyCenter and ComScore, released exclusively to AdAgeStat."

What do you think, Moms (and Dads!)? Agree? Not so much?

smartphones as a family tool.

According to research conducted by The Parenting Group publishing company and BlogHer, consumer electronics are seeping into the core of the family structure, impacting the everyday life of families.

The proof?

"71% of moms do not go more than one day without using the Internet, with 40% saying they can go only a few hours without using a mobile phone and the Internet. (Comparatively, only 18% say the same about television.) In fact, 79% said that cell phones are a necessity, compared with 42% saying the same about a typical landline."

This isn't just about Moms, though. "According to the survey, parents are allowing their children to use electronic devices at ever-earlier ages. While parents in a similar survey last year said 13 was the average age to let children have their own mobile phone, respondents this year said they began allowing kids as young as toddlers to use the phone (25% said they allow their 2-year-olds to use the phone). Of course, they're not using them to communicate. According to the survey, the moms are giving the phones to their toddlers as a toy or diversion (23%) or as a game device (15%)."

moms, smartphones, & shopping: what you need to know.

eMarketer is estimating that, by the end of 2011, 31% of US mobile users will have a smartphone. Many of those users, are not only going to be older than you think, they're going to be moms.

eMarketer research "on moms who use smartphones found that in Q3 2009, just 8% of the group were ages 55 or older. By Q1 2011, 26% were in that age group, while the proportion of the smartphone mom population under age 45 had dropped correspondingly.

Younger moms and older moms had similar levels of participation across several smartphone shopping activities, according to the survey. Moms under age 45 were about equally as likely as moms ages 45 and older to use their phones to locate nearby stores, compare prices and make shopping lists.

But younger moms were ahead when it came to more advanced mobile shopping activities, like researching new products, downloading digital coupons, tracking sales and making purchases on their phones. Respondents under 45 years old were also less likely to say they didn’t do any mobile shopping activities."

moms are more mobile than you think.

"In a recent study about Mobile Moms, BabyCenter found that becoming a mom is a trigger for embracing the mobile devices, which can be ironic as our mobility is mostly limited to moving between the kitchen and the all-purpose living room/nursery/home office/dining room. The study cites Morgan Stanley data that estimates 2011 will be the year where more smartphones and tablets will ship than notebooks and desktops. More than half of moms they surveyed said they purchased a smartphone as a direct result of becoming a mom. The camera became the most important usage for the phone, and apps to help keep herself organized and her kids entertained went from not needed to essential."

So, why should you care?

"Sixty-two percent of moms said they change brands when they have kids. While 68% use their smartphones while shopping, putting them well over index. And 46% agree that the time they want to get information about products is when they are in the moment of shopping for it. And since they're hugely social, they're using their phones to both get and share information about brands, products and the cute little familial additions who use them."

25% of social media Moms have based kids' purchases on online recommendations.

According to the NPD group, "Twenty-five percent of mothers who are active in social media report they've made decisions to purchase kids' products based on online recommendations they've received through social networking sites or blogs. That is a powerful statistic when you consider that nearly eighty percent of moms are active in social media.

Active social media moms who purchased a children's product based on a social media recommendation said, on average, they did so five times in the past year. More than half (55 percent) of these mothers said they made their purchase because of a recommendation from a personal review blog and 40 percent from a Facebook recommendation."

That's impressive power for a tool many dismiss as "for the kids."

are moms the new gamers?

According to Manny Anekal, Zynga’s Director of Brand Advertising, not only do "1 in 5 Americans play lots of Zynga’s games," which include Farmville and Cityville, but "the 40 year old mom spents the most amount of time playing these games, and also spends the biggest amount of money."

As Anekal pointed out, "55% of all social gamers in the U.S. are women, and 53% of Zynga players are women between 25 and 44."

Go Moms!

moms becoming the new 'geeks'. who knew?

According to the Consumer Electronics Association, Moms are becoming the new tech geeks...

"The firm says in a new study that U.S. moms spend an average of $822 on gadgetry each year and account for more than half of their household's total consumer-electronics spending. The study found that moms who post information online about electronics tend to be affluent and interested in technology. Half are early adopters, and one in three has a household income of $75,000 or more.

Among the 64% of moms who told CEA that they read information posted about consumer electronics products and retailers on social networks, nearly two in three said they also purchased an electronic device as a result, and half recommended that friends or family make a purchase. By comparison, 43% of all online adults have done so.

The brief, 'Moms and Social Media: Influencing CE Purchases,' also said about half of moms surveyed said they decided not to buy a device because of something they read online, and nearly as many said they have exhorted others to do likewise.

Ben Arnold, senior research analyst at CEA, said moms favor social media sites including blogs, message boards and product fan pages to research products and get firsthand product reviews and recommendations."

WOM & moms.

According to Keller Fay, Moms "are more responsive to word-of-mouth than other adults and more likely to help pass on brand messages.

Nearly two-thirds of mothers studied in September 2010 said they typically thought word-of-mouth was credible, 2 percentage points ahead of females in general and 10 percentage points ahead of men. They were also more apt to take action, including passing the information on to others, making a purchase or doing more research on a brand. Across all metrics, while females were more receptive than males, moms were even better disposed to listening to brand conversations.

These characteristics, along with the wider social circles of mothers compared with other adults, help moms overindex as drivers of brand or product conversations."