January 18, 2012
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Affordably Build Your Brand
FedEx Global Brand Management Director Monica Skipper shares a cost-effective way to build a bigger brand for your small business.
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Marketing to mom is the way to tap most family spending. Some argue that home life is changing and that dad is more often the one at home. But while dads figure out these new responsibilities, mom is still in charge. I’d recommend putting your marketing dollars toward her.
Here are three ways to reach her.
Go mobile
What does that really mean? Is it as simple as building an iPhone app? No. You have to study the patterns of a mother’s day. You can learn a lot about how moms use mobile apps and what they want from them in an article by Oren Todoros, who gets information directly from his “tech-savvy momma task force.”
“I look for apps that add functional value to my life (apps from my bank, doctor’s office and note-taking), as well as connectivity," says one of the techie moms. "I also use apps to educate or entertain my children—I look for ones that provide some educational value (memory games or spelling) or creativity (drawing).”
That’s a lot to think about and deliver on, so do your own research with moms to see what they want.
Talk to moms
Market research doesn’t have to be super-expensive today. If you spend time in community forums or build a relationship with mommy bloggers, you can put your finger on the mom pulse. Look at some of the affordable survey tools, such as SurveyMonkey and Zoomerang. They both have free plans.
"Ninety percent of moms tell us they feel tugged in different directions when deciding what to purchase," according to the Trone, an agency that focuses on marketing to moms. “In mom’s brain, there is a constant battle, a running discussion, a pressure cooker of perfection.
"Understanding the tensions at play between various decision criteria in a particular product or category can help marketers make smarter, more powerful connections with moms.”
Trone, which has a 45,000-strong panel of moms, developed the Six Tugs framework that explains how moms decide what to purchase. You can learn a lot about its research results in the useful blog.
Think savings
This economy has nearly everyone thinking about how to save money. If your service or product can leverage the daily-deal phenomenon, you may be able to increase sales. You don’t have to use a daily-deal site like Groupon or Living Social—you can build your own daily offer.
Lots of small business owners are creating simple quick response (QR) codes and putting them on signs, marketing materials, websites and decals for the front door of their establishment. Try QRstuff if you want to build your own comprehensive quick-response code that most mobile devices can read.
You can pack a QR code with your own daily-deal details and change it as often as you like. You can use the codes in print or digital to help manage campaign-results tracking.
Although the idea of special offers and savings could fit in the "go mobile" section here, this area is not entirely mobile. Moms share news of special deals and savings with other moms by e-mail, Facebook and Twitter. That’s part of the whole social media fabric. Just make your offers as share-friendly as possible.
If you’re marketing to moms and families, you'll find lots of direct advice culled from Wise Bread interviews in "31 Exceptional Strategies for Marketing to Today’s Woman." Want to understand more about how family life is changing? Study the evolving role of moms and dads.
Marketing to today’s busy mom is not easy. Many moms hold down a regular job, or run a small company, too. They manage a wide range of kid’s activities and educational efforts, along with household tasks.
Respect the speed and intensity at which moms operate, and you will have insight into her perspective. That respect will help you win her business loyalty.
Image credit: ubrayj02
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Drewry News Network 4 months ago
http://www.DrewryNewsNetwork.comthe way to a parent's heart is through good conversation about the future of a child through good education, while effectively marketing products and services to them :-)