It’s generally accepted that moms in the U.S. control the family purse strings—80 percent of all household spending or $1.6 trillion, by one reckoning. (Dad gets to pick out the power tools and TV, on a good day.) Too bad marketers haven’t learned to fully tap into that potential, say the authors of Trillion-Dollar Moms. Sure, we make products for and market to moms, but we’ve lost track of how the market has changed.
What’s changed? Authors Maria Bailey and Bonnie Ulman, both marketing consultants and mothers, say that today's moms no longer exhibit the generational characteristics of their predecessors. “We’ve found that boomer moms are less likely to act their age, instead taking on the behavior of the cohort that most resembles the moms of their children,” the book reports. In other words, marketers should be targeting moms not by their age but the age of their kids. The new moms also are more tech savvy and expect “multisensory communication behavior” in marketing directed at them. Finally, there is no single “mom” demographic. “Marketers today are faced with the challenge of marketing to distinct groups of women, each of whom carry their own ideas on parenting, peer influence, work and family balance, and consumer brands.”
The authors also look at motherhood from a multigenerational view. They identify four segments: Silver Birds (born between 1935-1945); Baby Boomers (1946-1964); Gen X (1965-1976); and Gen Y (1977-1994). Gen Y parents, they say, are “the first generation not to believe in spanking” and feel somewhat superior to other generations. Their kids are somewhat coddled. Why is this important? Older moms, they say, are taking cues from the younger moms—and grandmothers are buying more for their grandchildren.
Of equal importance, perhaps, are the networks that moms create with one another. Moms love to talk about what they are buying, the authors claim, meaning that if you get your marketing right, word of mouth can carry your message far and wide.
So marketers have their work cut out for them, but also a much richer target to attract. In addition to the traditional budgets that moms control (children's clothing, home care products, groceries), they also wield tremendous power over less obvious spending such as financial services, real estate, travel, care for aging parents, and home improvement items.
The book provides case studies on companies such as American Girl, LeapFrog, and Netflix, and illustrative charts and graphics such as “Generation X Likes and Dislikes in the Workplace.”
The authors lend a me-too credibility to the book’s extensive interviews, case studies, and original research. Maria Bailey is CEO of BSM Media and a syndicated talk-show host. Bonnie Ulman is an author and principal of The Haystack Group, a consumer research and communications consultancy.
- Manda Salls