What Do Mums Really Want?
Every year, Mother's Day brings out the good, the bad and the ugly when it comes to marketing and promotional ideas. Rather than trotting out the usual suspects, we take a look at brands with insightful products and communications that understand what the mothers they are targeting really want.
Brands that succeed with ‘mothers’ are those that have understood and developed their strategy and total proposition around that audience, usually over the long term.
We put ‘mothers’ in inverted commas because while it is true there certainly are shared needs and problems that mothers face, women don’t stop being themselves or having their own needs when they have children – or at least most don’t want to. The genericism of ‘mothers’ gifts and communication around Mother’s Day and other times of year often relies on and perpetuates unhelpful stereotypes.
Mother’s Day ranges and comms seem so rarely based on any actual insight or lazy insight at best. They are so often about ‘treating’ her to a day off, some beauty treatments or an afternoon tea. Aside from the fact that basic self-care shouldn’t be positioned as a ‘treat’ or ‘annual one-off reward’ for women, is that really what your mum wants?
Picking on John Lewis, its top 10 gifts under £10 for Mother's Day were a case in point. Make-up, candles and face masks. Why are the Mother's Day gifts not based on interest or personality like gift guides at other times of the year? Pretty disappointing given their big Christmas push around the ‘thoughtful gift’.
But rather than name and shame let’s look at three brands doing a good job of understanding their ‘mother’ segment all year round, as well as on Mother’s Day.
1. Don’t Buy Her Flowers - https://www.dontbuyherflowers.com
The name says it all. A brand built on the annoyance that women always get the gift of flowers as a bit of a catch all. They put together thoughtful customisable gift boxes tying into women’s particular interests or needs. Within the Mother’s Day gifts there are ‘treat’ packs but they are positioned more insightfully as ‘five minutes of peace’ packs. There are also gift boxes that encourage mothers to do more of what they love and pursue their own interests as well as ‘baby-loss’ packages, being sensitive that Mother’s Day isn’t a happy day for everyone. The products and communication have been carefully thought out to treat mothers as the individuals they are.
2. Nike maternity - https://www.nike.com/gb/maternity
Nike maternity have not tried to be everything to everyone that has a child. They have focused on women who would be their target market anyway. They have then focused on how they support them through this specific lifestage, talking to them in the same way they always have, rather than like they have become different people because they have or are about to have children.
The products have been developed thoughtfully with pregnant women (sounds like a no brainer but so many products for women are not designed by/with women). They have understand and overcome specific challenges around exercising when pregnant and have created different fits and variations to suit different needs . They have also curated podcasts, information and support around continuing to exercise and be active while pregnant and the concerns their audience would have around this.
Last year they did a Mothers’ Day advert (see below) that perfectly captured this approach. Their entire proposition is built around clear insight of their audiences need and attitudes to exercise while pregnant. Let’s hope their maternity pay policies for staff and athletes catch up with the quality of this work soon.
3. Peanut - https://www.peanut-app.io/
A kind of Tinder for mums. They recognised how isolating motherhood can be and set out to help people make meaningful connections. They help mothers connect with other mothers based on what they have in common outside of just having a baby. This helps women create deeper and lasting friendships and support groups.
They have also branched out into supporting women going through baby-loss, fertility issues and menopause to connect like-minded women, going through a similar thing. For Mother’s Day they have focused on those that need help most at this time of year and advertised how they can help. Again, they do this type of activity throughout the year and the whole product and the way it communicates is based on deep insight around what women in all these situations need.
In summary – as with all brand marketing, at all times of year, on Mother’s Day, brands that win will have developed their product ranges and communications around a true insight of what their consumers need rather than what they think they want or need based on stereotypes.
Happy Mothers’ Day!
