Maternal Journal: Marketing to Moms

Warm Blanket Award #6: Stouffer's

2010-02-23T10:57:00.000-08:00

Elevating your product from features and benefits to a larger emotional takeaway is always smart, especially if you do it as thoughtfully as Stouffer's has with their Let's Fix Dinner campaign. After all, why sell noodles when you can sell nostalgia.

The "Let's Fix Dinner" microsite introduces the concept with compelling (and believable) copy:

Whatever happened to family dinner?

Though it's never been more difficult, it's also never been more important to make this time to connect. The benefits of family dinner are just so powerful.

At Stouffer's, we believe there's no better place for our families than the dining room table...and we want to help you get there.

The campaign consists of:

Print Ads, including one with my favorite headline: Are your kids more likely to talk if their mouths are full? Following copy reads: Studies show 72% of teens who ate often with their families said they would go to their parents if they had a problem. Ads also connect the act of eating en famille with lower rates of eating disorders in girls, lower rates of teen drinking and drug use, and increased marital happiness.

An Online Dinner Survey: 6 simple questions about your family's habits and how you compare to other families surveyed.

A Let's Fix Dinner Challenge: An invitation to challenge your own family to eat together more often. A sticky little app that lets you keep a daily meal log, download coupons, and enter a sweepstakes.

Blogger Roundtable: Stouffer's invited 15 influential bloggers and topical experts to start an ongoing conversation about dinner in America via their own blogs, all linkable from the Stouffer's Let's Fix Dinner site.

Family Webisodes: Reality-TV style vignettes of five families all aiming to increase their togetherness time.

Facebook Integration: The campaign not only lives on its Facebook Fan page, but wall postings are sprinkled throughout the microsite.

Twitter: Under the handle Letsfixdinner, Stouffer's is introducing their campaign to hundreds of hungry Tweeples.

Short of skywriting, Stouffer's has utilized every tool available to get the word out about this initiative -- smartly using both paid and unpaid media. It's perfectly timed for tough economic times when consumers are eating out less often. And as a Creative Director, I salute agency JWT New York for producing ads that have just the right homespun tone and visual appeal.

For nothing overlooked and everything prepared perfectly, this month's Warm Blanket Award can be found in your grocer's freezer: well done, Stouffer's.

Homework assignment for my readers

2010-02-03T13:33:00.000-08:00

I'm embarking on a week-long study of choice. Not the political kind. The kind that marketers offer you (or not). It could be different flavors, shipping schedules, payment options, or email frequency.

It could be a choice of charity for a cash back donation, mild/medium/hot sauce, indoor or outdoor seating, smoking or non-smoking, morning or afternoon appointment, red or white, FastPass or cash. I have a theory about how choice affects customer satisfaction, especially in the mom market.

This is where you come in. The more perspectives I get, the more informed blog post I'll write about choice in the end. So...please keep your eyes open this week for what choices you are offered in the course of your daily life. Write 'em down and put them in the comments section of this post. Or email them to me. See, you've got one choice already!

Trend Alert: Social Selling.

2010-02-01T09:54:00.000-08:00

Remember that old Wells Fargo ad, when online banking was just taking off, that proclaimed "We've seen the future of banking and it looks a lot like your kitchen"? Well, I've seen the future of retail and it looks a lot like your living room.

Call it what you will. Social selling. Direct sales. Selling groups. Even home-party businesses. What was once the purview of Tupperware and Avon has exploded into categories ranging from candles to wine, vitamins to jewelry, toys to well...sex toys. There's even a site called HostaPartyonline.com that lists 52 different selling opportunities.

The latest statistics from Direct Selling Association reveal that this is a $29.6 billion industry in the U.S. Of their impressive breakdown of stats, two figures jumped out at me:

- 86.4% of direct sellers are female
- 91.1% of direct sellers work part-time

For those of you who haven't had your coffee yet, allow me to connect the dots: MOMS! It's no wonder that direct selling is so appealing to moms. It allows women to return to work on their own terms and schedules, make some dough, get to see friends (and make new ones), and high-tail it out of the house without kids in tow.

Over the year, I have been invited (typically via evite) to countless such parties, my favorites being for the very design-savvy Stella and Dot jewelry company, Silpada (a good runner-up in the jewelry business), and CAbi, a great line of women's clothing.

If your product lends itself to social selling, the path begins by extending your e-commerce site to this new distribution channel. Then the task of recruiting your sales force begins. Maria Bailey, in her book Mom 3.0, offers sage advice: target moms at a changing point in their lives. The real sweet spot, she shares, is moms with kids in kindergarten or first grade, suddenly in possession of a 6-8 hour window of freedom.

And just as this Mom wave is cresting, someone has figured out how even more dollar signs can be made: through Dads. Last week, the San Francisco chronicle published a story about an even newer trend: Man Cave parties. A new Minnesota company is betting that the same atmosphere that works its sales seduction on women will make guys show up to test out new barbecue gear. I say it's a winning idea. Kind of a men's book club without the book.

What do you think of this trend? Have you been to or hosted a home-based selling party? Could your brand possibly get a shot in the arm from enlisting a direct sales force?

Hyperlocal: What it Means for Moms

2010-01-25T12:24:00.000-08:00

Many moons ago, I wrote an ad campaign for one of the first online sites to deliver local news. I still remember the headline:

75% of car accidents happen within a few miles from home.
Come to think of it, 75% of everything does.

This truth about life is a perfect explanation for the exploding growth of hyperlocal mobile technology. If you’re new to this idea, it boils down to this: smart phones can pinpoint where you are, thereby enabling you to find news, deals, friends – you name it – within proximity to you.

The number of companies jumping on the bandwagon are too extensive to list here. Once gun-shy VCs are investing like crazy in start-ups like Outside.in and bigger fish like FourSquare, CitySquares, Gowalla and Loopt. MSNBC purchased EveryBlock, AOL bought Patch Media Group and Going Inc, and Google's unsuccessful bid for Yelp (somehow $550 million wasn't enough) showcases its desire to incorporate user reviews into its mobile homepage, already souped up with Near Me Now functionality.

For moms, who are always on the go, hyperlocal presents new opportunities for retailers to not just hit a moving target -- but to motivate that target to come in and buy. Countless companies are offering mobile coupons, crowdsourcing to give shoppers outside opinions before purchasing, and other shopping incentives which are all good, good, good.

Yet I'm surprised by how many marketers seem to write about localized couponing and comparison tools as the holy grail of mobile apps. Where my mind really gets jazzed is in thinking of ways this technology can make life better and easier for moms.

Here’s where I imagine (and hope) hyperlocal is headed:

- Find out which friends are at which parks for spontaneous playdates

- Locate restaurants/dry cleaners/pharmacies that will do sidewalk delivery, letting you stay in the car with a sleeping (or grumpy) child

- Track outbreaks of viruses in your area

- Locate the closest food bank to drop off extra food after a birthday party, school potluck or other event

- Track the whereabouts of the ice cream truck on sweltering summer days

- Find restaurants that have nut-free, gluten-free, vegetarian or kid-friendly foods

- Pinpoint the ski mountain (and runs) with the shortest lift lines so kids can ski more, wait less

- Flag down the Goodwill truck when it’s in your neighborhood, unloading that Exersaucer, crib, bike, or other large item your child has outgrown

- Check out who’s at the dog park and head over when Fido’s favorite pal shows up

- Issue Amber alerts immediately within a precise radius that grows larger as the day progresses

- Locate the safest spots to congregate after an earthquake or other emergency

- Meet up with families with same-aged kids when traveling

- Enable Amazing Race style birthday parties for older kids who check in at certain locations using FourSquare to collect points and get their next clues

- Connect mom bloggers to an entire new source of readers: others in her zip code

These are just some of the possible applications for hyperlocal. How might they enable you to reach your target consumer or create a positive dialogue with her? What other directions do you hope mobile is headed?

Wet Blanket Award #6: Preschool Prep Series

2010-01-12T16:05:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite sayings of late is "If you don't like change, you'll like irrelevance even less."

Perfect words of caution to this month's Wet Blanket Award winner: Preschool Prep Series. The name itself is incriminating. It evokes images of chubby toddlers donning starchy private school uniforms, cramming for that all-important preschool admittance exam.

Did this company not get the memo that "slow parenting" and "unschooling" kids until first grade are growing trends, so much so that they were discussed in the very issue of Parents magazine that this ad appeared? Did they not know that Walt Disney (current owners of Baby Einstein) is offering refunds to parents who bought the DVDs, due to the threat of a class-action lawsuit charging the videos had been fraudulently marketed as educational?

What really mystifies me about this ad campaign (aside from its kitchen-sink art direction and exclamation-point-happy copy) is that the company missed its chance at reinvention. Along the footer is a quiet mention of a line of Board Books and Coloring Books. Now is the time to promote these offerings to top billing.

Parents and pediatricians are both aware of the frightening statistic that by the time a U.S. child gets to kindergarten, they've watched 5,000 hours of TV. Anyone in child literacy knows that reading aloud to kids during the first few years of life is the single greatest indicator of that child's success in school. Yet Preschool Prep Series still brazenly pronounces that kids can "master upper and lowercase letters in two weeks!" simply by watching their videos. Might be true, but irrelevant. Literacy isn't a race; it's a marathon. And it would have been far better had Preschool Prep Series run with this idea and embraced change early instead of late.

How to make small things feel big.

2010-01-05T12:47:00.000-08:00

Remember the phrase "Don't take any wooden nickels?" If someone can take something so seemingly worthless as a wooden nickel and create value around it, then there's a lesson there.

Teaching the lesson is none other than my local hardware store, Ace Hardware. If you bring your own bag, or bypass taking one when checking out, they hand you a wooden nickel. You then turn around and go over to a table set up in the store where 3 barrels appear. They are labeled:

Palo Alto Elementary Schools
Palo Alto Middle Schools
Palo Alto High Schools

You drop your nickel into the barrel of your choice, where it makes a satisfying thud. Five cents goes to the schools of your choice.

There are countless retailers offering discounts for bring-your-own-bag green behavior. But I have yet to see one that rewards the customer is such a memorable way. The fact that the barrels are set up away from the checkout and that the customer "owns" the experience of dropping it in is so very smart.

Walking out of the store this morning, I thought to myself "What is Maternal Instinct's wooden nickel?" What is yours? How could you encourage behavior from your clients or customers with a simple act like this?

2009 Wrap-Up

2009-12-29T08:01:00.000-08:00

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All I can say is thank you to Sarah Haskins of current tv for watching "hundreds of hours of ads" this year so I didn't have to. This fun video about her observations reveals that we've still got a long way to go, baby. Sarah thought that maybe we can't be perfect wives, mothers, career women, and super-hot sex babes all at once. But then she turned on the TV and remembered that an abundance of stuff makes anything possible. When you're a woman, happiness is just one purchase away.

This video is a perfect testament to why 90% of women feel misunderstood by advertisers. And once again, I will connect that statistic to another: only 3% of creative directors are women. Let's hope 2010 is the year of bringing that first figure down and the second one way, way up.

Warm Blanket Award #5: Hallmark

2009-12-21T09:23:00.000-08:00

Companies that have been around forever face the risk of looking their age. The key to longevity is to stick to what you're known for, but evolve to meet new consumer demand. Few companies do it well. The winners that come to mind are Coach, Disney, HP, Avon and...Hallmark. Founded in 1910, Hallmark precedes these other long-timers by more than a decade, making their relevance to today's customer all the more notable.

Remember "when you care enough to send the very best"? A great tagline for earlier times. Hallmark has wisely evolved to "A card. It's the biggest little thing you can do." Their line of 99 cent cards supports this notion that a tiny bit of effort -- and outlay of cash -- can make a difference in someone's life. Such a smart shift in understanding your customer. Moms want to do it all, but fall short due to the demands of life. Hallmark's print and TV spots show a keen understanding of this dilemma, offering beautifully presented examples of how a well-timed card can deliver boosts like Appreciation, Confidence, and Guts in the chaos of everyday life.

Hallmark's forward-thinking marketing doesn't end with creative. They consistently push the envelope (pardon the pun) with format and innovation. They introduced musical cards, and now offer DVD holiday greetings, mobile greetings, an address-book builder to facilitate holiday mailings, a line of mom-to-mom cards which encourage "proudly imperfect moms," same-sex marriage cards, and recordable storybooks, a grandparent's dream product so desirable that it sold out before Christmas. So many innovations from a company that could easily have rested on their laurels and become Harvard Business School's ultimate case study in fuddy-duddiness. I surprised even myself when visiting a Hallmark Gold Crown store; I found there gorgeous embossed stationery (I'm a major paper snob and letterpress fan), a line of RED cards supporting the Global Fund for AIDS, even martini glasses.

On that note, I raise a glass to Hallmark, recipient of this month's Warm Blanket Award for marketing to moms masterfully.

"Feisty Mango." Amazon launches PayPhrase.

2009-12-14T08:05:00.000-08:00

Slacker moms, rejoice! Amazon.com has created a brilliant shortcut for checkout on the Web. By creating a two or three-word PayPhrase unique to you, you can access your shipping and payment information in your Amazon.com account across the Web.

Here's why this is a big win for Moms and mom-retailers:

1). A Mom's head is already full of information. Numeric passwords simply don't have the brain stickiness of a personally relevant phrase like "Delicious Caramel" or "Fiction Vixen." She will love knowing this is one thing she won't forget.

2). Letting moms shop at new online retailers without setting up an account is a double whammy win. The PayPhrase is a subtle Amazon.com nod that makes her more likely to trust a new e-tailer and the quick checkout makes her more likely to pull the trigger and buy from them.

3). You can set up a separate PayPhrase with a limited budget for tweens, teens and college students. You can even choose to approve each order individually via an e-mail or text alert when an order is placed. This is a fabulous way to teach kids about budgeting money and give them just enough leash to figure it out in a safe way.

The list of participating retailers is small right now, likely because the program is new. I have no idea of the back-end accounting and what piece of the transaction Amazon payments will take. But provided it's not usurious, I would recommend any e-tailer looking to corner moms hop on this bandwagon.

Why Didn't I Think of That?

2009-12-03T09:54:00.000-08:00

After the lengthy blog posting I wrote back in August, I really thought I had examined all the compelling attributes of gift cards. Here's an excerpt from that blog post:

If you do any kind of couponing to moms, consider changing your formatting to be more gift-card like. Retailers report that when they switch from paper gift certificates to gift cards, they sell between 50-100% more. Direct mail companies also report upticks for gift-card "coupons." I've encouraged several of Maternal Instinct's clients to print savings coupons on heavy card stock with rounded corners and to snot-glue them on mailers. There's just something about this format that telegraphs value and practically screams: "pull me out and put me in your wallet."

Talbots took this advice one step further with a strikingly simple idea. On the second page of their holiday catalog is a gift card, snot-glued to the page, with the copy:

The Instant Gift

Forget someone? Not sure what to get her? Out of time to buy that last gift? No problem. Just peel off this gift card, call 1-800-825-2687 or visit a store to activate it in the denomination of your choice, and voila! Instant -- and very appreciated -- gift.

Brilliant. You remove it and tuck it away for a possible last-minute gift need. It doesn't reek of a last-minute gift by being an e-giftcard sent via email. It's a real bonafide piece of plastic that looks like you made an in-store visit to obtain. Then when the gift crisis hits, you tuck it into a card, and voila. Aren't you thoughtful?

The only downside to this campaign is in the execution. They haven't enabled web activation. You still need to call in or visit a store to activate it. Bummer. Their 1-800 number is open until 2 a.m. EST, but still. So close to a perfect execution, might as well go all the way and create a web landing page for card activation. Plus I think they could have been more presumptive and glued 2-3 cards on the page, since I'm rarely scrambling for only 1 last minute gift.

Here's my prediction for Christmas 2010: gift card retailers will join forces and run co-op ads where they snot-glue several different cards on one magazine ad. You tear the page out and it becomes your Emergency Gift 911 for almost anyone on your list, from kids to gadget guys to pet owners.

The Art of the Apology.

2009-11-23T14:00:00.000-08:00

If ever you find yourself in the position of having to apologize to one customer -- or legions of them -- here's a word of advice. Figure out what you're apologizing for. If the one thing you say or do is not healing for the offense, it's almost worse than not apologizing at all.

Just a few years ago, customers weren't mobilized to share their brand love -- and brand hate -- with the masses. But now they are. So you need to monitor the blogosphere for disgruntled customers and make it right with them.

This post is motivated by an incredibly bad -- scratch that, and substitute legendarily bad -- customer experience I had in Chicago while attending the Marketing to Moms conference. Here was the "service" I got from my hotel:

1). Didn't have a room for me when I arrived in Chicago, despite my reservation.

2). Put me up at a neighboring hotel for the night but insisted I return for the remaining nights due to the terms of my reservation (gee, thanks, Hotels.com).

3). Did not, as promised, fetch my luggage the next day from the "spillover" hotel while I was attending all-day conference.

4). Stuff that didn't work: card key, hallway lights, Internet, TV remote control, hotel-provided umbrella (very, very necessary the last 2 days of my trip).

5). Unrefrigerated minibar (warm drinks and spoiled chocolate).

My experience was so bad that I wondered if a new reality TV show were being launched in Chicago where folks from unrelated industries got to pretend they worked in the hospitality industry for 72 hours.

How did the hotel "make up" their no-reservation gaffe? By giving me a penthouse suite and free passes for a full breakfast. Sounds generous. But clearly no one considered what mattered to me.

Does a scaredy cat like myself value sleeping alone in a large suite with full dining room (complete with mahogany dining room table) and two bathrooms? No! Just give me a tiny room. But, please, make sure my Internet works so I don't have to return emails from the lobby of the hotel at 11 p.m.

Does a conference attendee value free breakfast? No, we're up and at 'em at the crack of dawn, eating breakfast at the conference.

So you see, they tried to say they were sorry. But they overlooked me, the customer. And all they needed to do was ask: "how can we make this right?" Remember these six words. They are perhaps your most powerful defense against an unhappy customer.

Wet Blanket Award #5: McDonald's

2009-11-17T19:22:00.000-08:00

There's an admonishment in advertising: "Careful -- your marketing brief is showing." This tongue-in-cheek reminder popped into my mind when viewing the new Mommyisms campaign from McDonald's.

In fact, the heavy-handedness of the ad so clouded my experience, I found myself mentally ticking off the likely goals of the account management team:

- Make McDonald's sound in touch with moms and tap into the peer-to-peer sharing of this market

- Showcase healthier meal options to offset bad nutrional rap

- Broaden appeal to younger, hip moms

Thus, the art buyer began a talent search for a stylish 20-something, hopefully with arm tattoo: check! The copywriter penned the campaign title "mommyisms: insights from mom to mom." Check! The art director searched for a feminine font and -- eureka! -- came up with one not only hand-written but with every "i" dotted with a heart!

I could write an entire blog on the title of this campaign alone: mommyisms. First off -- and I have commented on countless other blogs about this -- no one wants to be called mommy, except by her very own, very young child. Ask the "mommy bloggers." They have repeatedly gone on record to say "I prefer 'mom blogger' or just 'blogger.'" Somehow advertisers have latched onto this moniker and use it to establish an instant bond with moms, not realizing how off-putting it is to have a corporation assume an intimacy reserved for family.

The "insights from mom to mom" adjunct adds injury to insult. These aren't insights from moms. These are corporate-drafted statements that sound fake. "Right now she loves what I love. Lucky for her, I love McDonald's." The ick factor here just oozes. Oooh, just look at that lucky little ringlet-curled preschooler, striking warrior pose just before her cool mom whisks her off to the gourmet golden arches, where she'll enjoy "an excellent source of happiness" via her Happy Meal. No matter that more than half the calories from her Chicken McNuggets come from fat, there's an apple and milk in the picture so that's okay!

And after all this critique is said and done, perhaps the most offensive thing is that McDonald's thinks moms will fall for this. They are McDonald's. When you are McDonald's you do not try to be the post-yoga lunch of choice. You do not suggest that moms secretly love the food there and the kids simply follow suit. And lastly, in an age where real moms -- and their honest opinions of your food -- are so plentiful and easy to tap into, you do not invent fake quotes to support your marketing brief. Which, by the way, is on full display for everyone to see.

DFMS. Don't Forget Mobile, Stupid.

2009-11-09T16:32:00.000-08:00

For any of you who caught my last post about the M2Moms Conference, you'll recall that mobile was cited as critical for reaching moms. According to Scarborough Research, working moms spend 21% more than average mobile users on wireless bills and are 42% more likely to download mobile content. Moms are prime targets for mobile, and more and more companies are figuring out how to get their brands in her hands.

I've been reading up on mobile for a few months now, to make sure I can advise Maternal Instinct's clients well. I had the good fortune of reading an article by Ben Gaddis, Director of Mobile and Emerging Media Strategy at T3, a Top 100 agency with offices in Austin, NY and San Francisco. Rather than try to summarize what I took away from Ben's article, I asked if he'd grant an interview to Maternal Instinct. He graciously agreed.

So for once I'm not doing the writing -- but the asking -- and Ben is doing the answering.

“What kind of skills should Maternal Instinct -- or any agency -- have to meet the needs of this new medium?”

Good creative is good creative whether it’s on a gigantic billboard or a 2 1/4” x 3” screen. People focus too much on the technology and less on why the consumer will care. Technology shouldn’t get in the way of delivering valuable information to moms on their mobile devices. Find the right technology provider – someone who has figured out how to do it well – and let the technology become secondary. Once creatives know whatever parameters they’re working within, they can still fill it with the biggest idea possible. Rather than focusing on the mobile phone itself, think in terms of the audience – mobile moms – and their goals.

“What uses of mobile advertising hold the most promise for companies targeting moms?”

There are many channels within mobile. You can buy banner ads on sites that target moms. Or you can include mobile in a larger print or broadcast campaign. Think about what sites the moms who might buy your product use on their phones. That might be gaming, recipe sites, shopping sites. Kraft created iFood which is now a top-selling application for moms. You can create your own application or buy a tag at the end of news alerts.

“In a time when ad budgets are dwindling, how can companies justify adding mobile to the mix?”

I would caution you not to look at it as a “have to add” to the mix in addition to, or in place of, something else. Instead think about where dollars make the most sense. If you’re targeting moms age 24-35, 99% of the time, they have their phone with them. You simply can’t get this kind of proximity to moms with TV or Internet or radio. Yet you’re devoting 85% of your budget to broadcast? Why? Mobile is cheaper, more effective, and trackable in terms of performance. That’s why mobile ad budgets are increasing – and predicted to continue to do so – at a time when other budgets are being slashed. Knowing all this, I’d turn the question around to any naysayers in your agency and say “how can we justify NOT adding mobile.”

“How should we optimize our websites – and our clients’ sites -- for mobile use?”

Experience is the #1 goal. Make sure your site loads fast, that the images fit no matter the size of the handset, and that content is relevant to a mom on the go. Things like store locator and phone number are obvious musts. It’s unlikely she's looking for a job opportunity or your company blog from her phone.

“What resources do you recommend to people who want to learn more?”

MobileMarketer.com. Dig into the case studies, which are extensive. TechCrunch has a blog called MobileCrunch. And dotmobi has a couple of blogs that are worth reading, both for developers and creatives.

Thanks, Ben. We appreciate your time and insight.

M2Moms: Conference Cliff-Notes

2009-11-03T16:17:00.000-08:00

Last week I attended the fifth annual Marketing-to-Moms Conference in Chicago. Bandied about were the ever-popular stats about mom purchasing power, online habits, and social media consumption. But I consider those the price of admission for any mom marketer worth his or her salt, so I’ll skip ahead to the AP-level learnings:

Trends

Grandparents: families are living with multiple generations, with nana and grandpa very involved, both physically and financially, in their grandchildren’s lives. Dedicated sites like Grandparents.com prove the popularity of the “never empty nest.”

Return to community values: babysitting co-ops, “cook and freeze” parties, slow parenting (rest from the rat race), good manners and ethics, “unschooling” kids until 1st grade, hand-me-downing via online mothers' clubs and sites like Craigslist, Kijiji, and Zwaggle.

Nostalgic Brands: Moms love brands they knew as a kid. Companies are rejuvenating dormant brands and capitalizing on the appeal of yesteryear with retrobrands like Puma, VW Beetle, Crayola, and RadioFlyer. (The brand manager from Necco – home since 1847 to Sweethearts, Mary Janes, and Necco wafers -- was smiling ear-to-ear in the audience when this tidbit was presented.)

Mom Bloggers: Brands longing to reap the halo effect by creating relationships with blogebrities or spokesbloggers were given this advice:

● Attend conferences like BlogHer to rub elbows with the who’s who in the blogosphere

● Find a voice that aligns with your brand

● Observe how a mom blogger conducts herself online to weed out any snarky types

● Look on the blogrolls of bloggers you like to find other like-minded moms

● Make it easy for mom bloggers to attend your events by arranging carpools and providing babysitting

(Side note: In case any of you reading are the entrepreneurial type, the subtext I heard in these conversations is that brands are longing for some kind of “at-a-glance” metrics resource on top bloggers. If I had any software skills, I’d build the app myself. But, alas, I can barely figure out my voicemail.)

Cause Marketing: 63% of moms are more likely to support a brand that tells her about its charitable involvement. Susanne Norwitz of Kellogg presented about the outpouring of consumer response to Kellogg’s donation of $10 million of cereal to Feeding America. (I pulled Susanne aside at the break and suggested Kellogg challenge the Milk Advisory Board to match their donation with milk.)

Food: BFY (better-for-you) products are on the rise. So are QR codes on packaging, which allow shoppers to snap a photo with their cell phone and link to product information at the website. And any food that's both fun to eat and healthy is sure to be a winner, since moms value nutrition almost equally with “kid delight.”

Saturation, Fragmentation: Pick your favorite word, but – like all consumers – Moms are drowning in ad messages. 2.7 brand messages every minute of every day. “You don’t get 30 seconds anymore; you get 6.5 seconds.” Better make it good. Consider creating a microsite to target a particular consumer at a particular time.

Top Brands: Top 5 brands with kids are Wii, M&M, Nintendo, Oreo and McDonald’s. Top kid-brands with moms: Crayola, Disney, M&M, Wii, and Reeses.

Topics/Takeaways

Social Media: This one thread ran through every presenter’s remarks. Everyone seems in agreement that top-down messaging is shifting to grassroots messaging and two-way dialogue. “Digital is horizontal” and should be part of every department in your company. We heard case studies ranging from Ashton Kutcher’s viral video supporting Kellogg’s Feeding America campaign (nothing like having 3 million Twitter followers) to Symantec’s partnership with School Family Media to connect with moms via schools on the issue of Internet safety.

ROI vs SOI: Instead of trying to calculate an exact $ return on marketing investments, Stacy Debroff of Mom Central explained her notion of Sphere of Influence: what do consumers say about you? Where do they say it? Who’s listening to these conversations?

Advertising: Talk on the messaging side of things (my sweet spot) was slim. Gigi Carroll of DraftFCB gave a great presentation highlighting that 80% of advertisers miss the mark with mom consumers. (Later, while researching this figure online, I found it quoted as high as 90% and connected to the fact that only 3% of advertising creative directors are women. This inspired me to write a mini-rant at Examiner.com.)

Quotables: Some great one-liners

On partnerships: “Don’t look like a NASCAR race car.” – Zanny Oldman, Destination Maternity

On hopping on the social media bandwagon: “Not all brands should be in social media.” Liz Gumbinner, Cool Mom Picks

On the importance of digital: "Digital is horizontal." "If your digital shelf is empty, shame on you." Wendy Clark, Coca-Cola

On the importance of mobile: "DFMS." (Don't Forget Mobile, Stupid.) Wendy Clark, Coca-Cola

On the spending slowdown: “I love coupons. They’re my new crack.” Mom research survey participant

On advertising: "Advertising is so 2008. 2009 is all about communication and connections." Wendy Clark, Coca-Cola

On childhood obesity: “Kids spend twice as much time indoors as they used to. They’ve gone from ‘weee” to ‘Wii.’” Jaime Berman Matyas, National Wildlife Federation

By far the highlight of the conference was the speech by Wendy Clark, SVP at Coca-Cola. Wendy really drove home that "shift happens": we live in a world with more brands but less differentiation, more channels but less attention. Clark advises brands to co-create with users, integrate consumer ideas into your brand, and consider Google as your home page because most folks start at search to find you.

Perhaps the most inspiring thing about Wendy’s speech was her embracing of risk. Two of the criteria she evaluates her employees on are risk-taking and innovation, no matter the outcome. Sitting in the wake of Wendy’s incredible energy and smarts, I have to admit I was bummed she works for a company that makes sugar water. Imagine how a leader like this could shake up a deserving non-profit.

In closing, let me offer you one last takeaway. If you ever find yourself in the fair city of Chicago, do not, under any circumstances, stay at The Whitehall Hotel. Yet do be certain to meet an old friend for dinner at Bistro 110.

Trend Alert: Pets

2009-10-13T12:30:00.000-07:00

Creating a trend alert about pets is a bit akin to saying "hey, this Internet thingie is really catching on" but the stats surprised even me. Fido's popularity is NOT a passing fad.

Quick, some stats from the 2009/2010 National Pet Owners Survey:

● 62% of U.S. households own a pet (71.4 millions homes)
● 56% of U.S. households owned pets in 1988
● Cats are most popular (93.6 million)
● Dogs a close second (77.5 million)
● $45.4 billion a year is spent on pet ownership

Pet owners are showing a willingness to pay extra for top-notch items like dog shampoo from Paul Mitchell, gourmet steak treats from Omaha Steaks, and spiked collars and T-shirts from Harley Davidson. Perhaps the best evidence of this growing trend of pet indulgence is the new ad campaign from Alpo, with the tagline Real Dogs Eat Meat™. A tough looking dog with closed eyes appears next to the headline: "Dogs in strollers? Designer dog foods? Wake me when it's over." I'm curious to see if this campaign is a bellwether of an impending shift away from pampered pets. The book One Nation Under Dog theorizes the opposite, explaining how consumerism is only one aspect at work here, but a major shift in modern society explains our burgeoning pet devotion.

Now on to the really important question I ask in the face of any trend: how does it impact the mom market? A pet in the home is one more responsibility that falls on the shoulders of already time-pressed moms. Any product or service that makes pet ownership easier is mom's best friend. Here are a few for whom I predict success:

The Super Collar: the first-ever collar with a built-in retractable leash. Brilliant invention for quickly getting dogs "on leash" when at the park or beach, plus easy one-hand release is great for moms with her hands full and seniors with arthritis.

DogFriendly.com: one site that will tell you everywhere Fido is welcome: from hotels to campgrounds, parks to beaches.

POPBANDS: Super reflective arm and leg bands, collars and leashes for 360-degree visibility in low-light conditions, making night-time dog walking safe for pet and owner.

Dogster and Catster: Why should social networking bragging be limited to the kids? Birds of a feather flock together here to post blogs and photos, plus for vet advice, breed information, and even pet adoption resources.

PetPhone and ipet Alert: two iPhone apps every pet owner should have. One tracks vet visits, medications, and weight to keep Fido healthy. The other activates an electronic neighborhood watch the minute your pet goes missing. It's like an APB for cats and dogs.

Those are my picks. What are yours?

Isn't anyone a SAHM anymore?

2009-09-30T14:48:00.000-07:00

Here's a quiz that might surprise even the most seasoned mom marketer.

How much likelier is it that a woman without a child works than a woman with a child over age 1?

20% likelier?

30% likelier?

50% likelier?

How about not at all likelier! I myself was shocked to learn from the US Census Bureau statistics that 72% of women with a child over the age of 1 work: the very same rate as women without children in the home.

Now I confess that the reason I was searching out these statistics was a nagging feeling that working moms were becoming more commonplace. I just hadn't realized how much things were changing. In 1976, only 39% of women with children over the age of 1 held a job outside the home.

What lead to my hunch that SAHM were becoming less common? A lot of different things, ranging from:

1). Websites sprouting up like HireMyMom.com and momcorps.com.

2). A flood of books garnering headlines, ranging from the provocative Get to Work: A Manifesto for Women of the World, to the hopeful Getting to 50/50, to the thought-provoking Mama PhD, to the insightful Mothers on the Fast Track.

3). A recent Talk of the Nation segment about the explosion of online education, perhaps the most family-friendly on-ramp for women seeking to brush up their skills and return to the workforce.

So women are juggling motherhood and career more than ever. Which means that the What's Your Blanket? philosophy of Maternal Instinct is more relevant than ever.

What are you doing to care for the caretaker? How might you alter your message or your product to make it even more appealing to a mom in the workforce? If you were to look at your company's depiction of moms -- in both photography and copy -- might it reflect an outdated notion? Really get granular in your assessment. Are you timing your email or twitter blasts to coincide with a working mom's rhythms? Are you putting mobile marketing to work?

If not, then by all means: get to work.

Wet Blanket Award #4: AYSO

2009-09-23T10:23:00.000-07:00

AYSO (American Youth Soccer Organization) is jokingly referred to by parents as "All Your Saturdays Occupied." You can't go anywhere around Palo Alto (my hometown) without seeing countless kids in neon jerseys and matching socks, either en route to a game or headed home.

The time demand on families is considerable. There's the official stuff like practices and games and volunteer refereeing and coaching. And the less official tasks of snack assignments, banner set-up, ball transport, locating two matching cleats on game day, etc., etc. But it's your kids. And it's soccer. So you cheer from the sidelines and you might even alter your family laundry day to work with the schedule.

Yet AYSO receives this month's uncoveted Wet Blanket Award for the dreaded Picture Day. Every year, one poor parent (last year it was yours truly) accepts the unhappy task of trying to schedule their team's slot for team pictures. Ideally you want it to be about an hour before a game when kids are already suited up in their uniforms, but not yet sweaty. Your likelihood for getting this time slot is about equal to finding those Publisher's Clearinghouse folks on your doorstep.

So you email your team, telling them of the highly inconvenient time slot you've been assigned, and every family groans and moans.

Then 12 players waste time getting into their uniform and 12 parents waste time (and gas!) driving to the Photo Day location. According to the AYSO website, there are 6,000,000 (yes, that's SIX MILLION) registered players. Imagine the mind-boggling time- and energy-suck every single one of them suffers, thanks to Picture Day.

Here's the clincher: all these families have phones with cameras and likely have digital cameras at home. A google search for "online photo sharing" yields 46 million results. We live in an age where getting a good shot of a team is monkey simple and can be done right before the game, right at the field, with everyone's photos available to them THAT VERY DAY.

Won't someone please blow the whistle on this insanity?

Attention Mom Bloggers: The FTC Would Like a Word With You

2009-09-15T13:00:00.000-07:00

Big news in the blogosphere. The Federal Trade Commission is considering adapting its guidelines to require bloggers to identify their sponsors. There's a worthwhile article arguing both sides of the issue in last week's U.S. News Weekly.

Essentially the folks in support of FTC watchdogs argue three things:

1). Social media creates new forms of public communication that didn't exist a decade ago and that, unlike other forms of advertising, let marketers advertise covertly.

2). Word-of-mouth advertising is only effective if it's authentic and that consumers deserve to know the motivation behind an endorsement.

3). Self-regulation and policing are not viable solutions.

On the other side of the fence, folks against FTC regulations argue:

1). The industry-standard guidelines provided since 2005 by the Word of Mouth Marketing Association for ethical online disclosure and transparency are adequate.

2). Bloggers who deceive online readers are already subject to the worst punishment of all: online vilification of their brands that spreads like wildfire.

3). Voluntary relationship disclosure will make legal restrictions unnecessary in the future.

Who is right?

Personally, I lean in favor of the new regulations. This is an unpopular position for someone in the ad business, I realize. Yet the personal nature of blogs insinuate an authenticity that doesn't always exist.

To put it another way, ads look like ads, by virtue of their placement in mainstream media, slick production, recognizable spokespeople, stated call-to-action, etc. Blogs are a different animal entirely, already dipping below the radar of consumers by their first-person voice and anecdotal style. Bloggers and copywriters both use words to describe products or services. Both get paid to do so (at least the bloggers relevant to this issue). Why should the blogger be able to pocket money for an endorsement without disclosing the arrangement?

Let me be clear about one final point.

I don't think these disclosures will kill the phenomenal WOM enjoyed by many brands via their relationships with bloggers.

Rather, I think the really talented bloggers -- those who earn the trust of their readers through well-crafted postings and a demonstration of care for one's followers -- will continue to help build brands they endorse.

That's my opinion. What's yours?

Kellogg's Nutrigrain Campaign: Love It. Now Extend It.

2009-09-08T15:40:00.000-07:00

Proof positive that a product doesn’t need to be sexy and a concept doesn’t need to be wildly creative to be successful.

Hats off to the folks at Kellogg’s who appear to be responsible for their own new TV campaign for Nutrigrain Bars.

Things to love about this campaign:

1). It’s simple

2). It’s contextual

3). We don’t see the person so we become the person

4). It has a simple, believable takeaway

5). It has legs. If I had the Marketing Director's ear, here's what I'd tell her:

"Create another spot aimed at moms with the 'snack-cam' following a kid from the donuts at soccer practice to the video game on the couch to the chauffeured roundtrip to school. The 'after' segment will feature a bike commute to school, fruit and Nutrigrain bars after practice, a game of good old-fashioned basketball with Dad in the driveway, maybe even, dare I say it, flossing..."

Warm Blanket Award #4: Massage Envy

2009-08-27T14:02:00.000-07:00

Perhaps the ultimate irony of being a mom is that after a long day of several small people pawing at you, the ultimate indulgence would be to surrender yourself to the expert hands of one large person.

Yet why don't moms -- most in need of massage -- get massage?

Two reasons:

No Time. Most massage therapists schedule weeks in advance and many do not offer evening appointments.

No Money. Who can justify $100+ an hour for something "unnecessary," especially if you may have sacrificed your salary for the unpaid career of mothering.

To the rescue comes the recipient of this month's coveted Warm Blanket Award: Massage Envy.

This nationwide "chain" of 810 massage clinics offers massage for just $49 an hour. They are open seven days a week and stay open until 10 p.m. every weekday. They have so many massage therapists that you really can get an "on-call" massage as easily as a booked-in-advance one.

This business model is ingenious. Too bad the marketing folks aren't smart enough to shout this positioning right from the home page. Buried in the "About Us" section of the website is this copy which would make any mother swoon:

We have learned the primary reasons that people do not receive massages on a regular basis are time and price. Massage Envy has partnered with massage therapists whose prime objective is to be available more hours and charge less so that more people can take advantage of their services. We have utilized a membership based approach that brings massage therapy out of the elite and expensive circle and makes it available to everyone. We are committed to delivering a highly professional, very convenient and affordable experience every time.

As if we couldn't love this company any more, they are offering $35 massages on September 15 as a Breast Cancer fundraiser. From all of us tired moms, we say to Massage Envy: "Thanks. We are putty in your hands."

Wet Blanket Award #3: California Academy of Sciences

2009-08-25T11:33:00.000-07:00

Yes, yes, you read that right.

The 10-years-in-the-making, greenest museum on earth is the recipient of this month's uncoveted wet blanket award.

Here's why.

There are 895 reviews on Yelp for the Academy. Of the 20 most recent posts, 18 come from mothers. Of just these 20, 17 make reference to crowds, lines, difficulty parking, and cost.

Some excerpts:

"And the crowds are thick...really thick."

"We did not get to see that exhibit as there were no passes available. That was a big bummer. Even if we had gotten passes, the people in line waited a long, long time to get into the exhibit."

"Parking is very frustrating. We were at this place for less than 3 hours, parking was $10 AND there was only one, yes one, parking ticket paying machine on the entire and huge parking level. The line was ridiculously long. The machine location is
downright stupid...right in the path of cars driving in the ramp."

"Just far too spendy to consider revisiting; $24.99 per person."

"Overall, it was a great experience minus the crowds and minus the price."

"Arrive before the doors open if you want to be assured a spot inside. There was a HUGE line ALL DAY."

These quotes are nothing compared to those on TripAdvisor, likely because those visitors traveled from other states or countries to see the museum. Their postings have titles like "Totally underwhelming" and "Overhyped and overpriced."

What these reviews reveal is a critical truth every marketer must know. Your customer's entire experience is your brand. No matter how glorious your museum's architecture appears, nor how pithy your tagline, the single most critical thing is the takeaway for the customer. Your "living rooftop" gets lost in a customer's mind when all she can remember is the gridlocked parking lot she endured with her cranky kids.

My biggest beef with the museum is that they don't seem to be minimizing these well-publicized problems. Case in point. When you finally join the huge line out front, ticket in hand, you aren't able to just file in at once.

No.

That.
Would.
Be.
Too.
Swift.

Instead, they pull each group aside to pose in front of a blank backdrop and have their picture taken. This delay is entirely in the interest of the museum and another profit source that seems usurious given the steep cost of admission, parking and food here. Whoever at the Academy greenlighted this offering either doesn't know how frustrated museum-goers are or, worse still, doesn't care.

Pick a Card, Any Card.

2009-08-14T11:30:00.000-07:00

Hard to believe that as recently as the mid-1990's, gift cards didn't exist. Now they're so commonplace that I actually carry a separate mini-wallet just to hold them all.

Moms love gift cards for the following reasons:

1). Time-Saver: no packaging or wrapping involved

2). Good for the earth (see #1)

3). Flexible: The recipient can pick his or her gift -- a real bonus when buying for kids whose interests change daily, sometimes hourly

4). Convenience: You can purchase gift cards from dozens of retailers right in line at the grocery store, saving a trip (see #1 and #2)

5). Ease: Retailers like Starbucks are making tiny giftcard fobs that fit right on your keychain. When you've got a baby on your hip and a hot latte in your hand, this kind of simplicity is a beautiful thing.

Retailers love gift cards for different reasons:

1). 33% of gift card value is never used: a handy profit due to consumer forgetfulness

2). Those who do use their gift cards typically spend 20% more than the card's initial value

3). Cards are reloadable so that once a consumer has gone to the trouble of registering a card online, they're more inclined to keep using it

What's really new and exciting in this emerging space are the sites cropping up that let consumers buy, sell, swap, auction or donate their cards. The biggest players so far seem to be Dog Paw Giftcards , Plastic Jungle and Card Avenue.

That gift card you got from your mother-in-law from her personal favorite retailer where they sell the sequined Christmas sweaters? Swap it. That card with the small balance not even worth the drive to redeem? Donate it. That card you wish was cash instead? Sell it.

Even better, many of the sites let you buy gift cards at a great discount from other sellers. On Plastic Jungle, I found a Talbots gift card with a value of $337 offered for $204.99, a savings of 39%. In this economy, savings like this add another reason to the list of things mom love about gift cards.

What's in it for you, the mom marketer?

Here's a tip: if you do any kind of couponing to moms, consider changing your formatting to be more gift-card like. Retailers report that when they switch from paper gift certificates to gift cards, they sell between 50-100% more. Direct mail companies also report upticks for gift-card "coupons." I've encouraged several of Maternal Instinct's clients to print savings coupons on heavy card stock with rounded corners and to snot-glue them on mailers. There's just something about this format that telegraphs value and practically screams: "pull me out and put me in your wallet."

Twitter: All or Nothing

2009-08-05T08:13:00.000-07:00

Slate posted an interesting article recently called Orphaned Tweets: When people sign up for Twitter, post once, then never return. According to a study at Harvard Business School, 10% of the service's users account for 90% of the tweets.

This tells us two things.

1). Twitter matters or Harvard Business School wouldn't be studying it.

2). Early adopters are monopolizing the Tweetsphere.

This study doesn't surprise me. I am astonished daily to see dozens of tweets from a single person I'm following, often posted within seconds of one another, so that their thumbnail mug appears like a repeating pattern down the left-hand column of my web page.

Here's what I don't get: when do these people work?

I believe in social media. I believe Twitter is a valuable method for reaching customers and quickly disseminating information.

I also happen to believe that technologies like these can be so disruptive that true thinking -- that which requires longer increments than a few minutes -- is bypassed to compete in the Internet's seductive popularity contest of amassing followers at any cost.

This subject resurfaced for me today because of a blog posting I saw about a real-world experiment. The author is purposefully limiting his Internet usage to two hours a day simply because it's the only way he can get his work done. In a truly ironic twist, it took an Internet outage for this guy to grasp a real lightbulb moment. In the absense of Twitter/Facebook/Craigslist (insert your own Internet time-suck here) distractions, real genius flowers.

Customer Service That Stands Apart

2009-07-29T17:14:00.000-07:00

Let's face it. We live in an age when customer service is typically so dismal that when someone does something even remotely helpful, we're caught off guard. When someone does something truly helpful, we're speechless.

Such was my experience today when I received this email confirmation from an online merchant, about an hour after I placed an order for a birthday gift for my friend's daughter.

We just wanted you to know how grateful we are for your order and to let you know that since it was a birthday gift, we wrapped it at no charge and made sure it got into the mail today! Hope Ann-Marie enjoys it and that you will give us a chance to do business with you again!

Is your jaw on the floor, as mine was? This merchant took the time to notice three things:

1). I was a first-time customer

2). I was putting my faith in this company to delight someone on a special occasion

3). I hadn't paid the extra charge for gift wrap

They wisely decided it was worth their minimal time and effort to wrap the gift for me. Why? Because I am SURE to do business with them again. And I am sure to tell others (you, dear reader) about it.

Who is the company behind this awesome service, you ask?

A website called Plaid and Stripe that I discovered through a simple Google search. I emailed them back telling them how much I was awed by their service and again got a speedy reply, sent from the owner's iPhone no less:

Thank you VERY much. I am doing everything I can to get my online business up and running and I can use any help possible. I have great relationships with the customers in my shop in Providence and I am determined to exceed that online. Thanks so much.

Small business owners have the advantage (and burden) of doing so much themselves that they can offer this level of high-touch service. But large companies can, too.

How? By hiring can-do people. Creating a corporate atmosphere centered around helpfulness. And building relationships that are personal and customized (notice the merchant referenced my gift recipient by name?). Any size company can do this.

I still smile at the extra-mile service I got from Restoration Hardware a couple of years ago when a single clerk in Portland, Oregon made my son believe in magic by writing "From the North Pole" on every side of the UPS box that arrived from Santa.

Who are the companies that have wowed you with stand-apart service? Comment about them here. It's the very best way to thank them.

Trend Alert: Gardening.

2009-07-20T11:05:00.000-07:00

Tech companies might snicker at a mere 19% annual growth rate when it comes to measuring consumer behavior. But it sure is a noteworthy uptick when it relates to an age-old pastime that's suddenly growing like... well, like green beans.

I'm talking about home gardening. Nearly 43 million U.S. households are planning to grow their own produce this year, according to the National Gardening Association. Even Michelle Obama is into it; she is the first First Lady to maintain a vegetable garden at the White House since Eleanor Roosevelt.

To understand what's driving this trend, I turned to Pattie Baker, an Atlanta mom, community activist, and businesswoman who pens a blog titled FoodShed Planet, about nurturing sustainability close to home and around the world.

Here's her take on the movement:

"Why are more and more moms gardening? It helps put the very highest quality food at the most affordable price on your family’s table. It gives you a classroom right outside your kitchen door where I’ve yet to find a school lesson that can’t be applied. It helps you build a bridge between generations, from heirloom crops from the days of Victory Gardens (and before!) to eco-literacy skills for our children’s future. It connects you with local and global communities. And it gives you and your children the power of positive stewardship over a small patch of earth, which is a leadership lesson these children will never forget.

Personally speaking, gardening has changed me. And this surge of growth in gardening is causing other moms like me to change as well. It is giving us a personal power to make a measurable difference by voting with our dollars three times a day with the food we choose to eat, and dropping us down a bigger rabbit hole to a broader understanding of sustainability. Savvy marketers would be wise to realize that these eco-conscious moms are connected, well-informed, and willing to support the companies that prove their trustworthiness and provide the products and services that meet increasingly discriminating demands about triple-bottom-line sustainability."

Food for thought that I, for one, am intrigued by. Not only am I actually considering transforming a small patch of my own suburban lawn into a garden -- despite my proven "black thumb" and our neighborhood's veggie-loving squirrel population -- but I'm curious to see what companies will recognize, celebrate, and support this movement. Maternal Instinct's client Easy Bloom is one, for sure. But who else?