How do you become a favourite brand with mums?

In the Big Mum Opinion, our indepth study of over 3000 mums in the UK, we discovered the key fundamentals of service, quality, price and customer service are as important as ever. It’s vital to mums that a product or service really works and brings them so benefit – and as a brand you have to ensure that this message doesn’t get lost in smart communications or clever positioning.

Here are our top 4 tips to becoming a favourite brand for mums:

1. Be honest about who you are and what you offer, deliver on your message right from product through to communications.

2. Mums relate brands to their own personal experiences, for example ‘my son loves...’ You can strengthen your market position by finding ways to tap into the family experience and what mums want.

3. Listen to the mum grapevine. Mums like to be included and want to see that their views are used to improve products and services for their families.

4. Mums don’t want brands to be ‘their best friend’ or be in their personal space. However, ‘being there’ as a resource or providing impartial, helpful or expert advice is welcome.

If you’d like the full report fill in yourdetails here and we’ll send it across.

Lunchbox battles - does mum always win?

Last week Lynne presented at the Market Research Society Kids & Youth conference on food propositions for the children’s market.  We wanted to talk about what kids want in their lunchboxes versus what parents want to see them eating and what influences parents’ decision making. 

We asked our MumPanel for their views by survey and also using our facebook group for further qualitative discussion. And because we always wanted rounded views we also asked mums at the school gate. The overwhelming message we heard from mums is that they are in control of what goes in their child’s lunchbox, 99% of our parents say they have the ultimate decision. Their child might pester and ask for certain things (and reject things they don’t like) but the parent still sources products. 

 

We wanted to know what influenced parents when they were buying. It was no surprise to us that mums have lots of factors to consider when purchasing snacks – from their child’s preferences to including healthy foods, allergies, what school wants and budget.  It’s important when you are developing products for snacks that you take all of these points into consideration. A character on a packet may appeal to a child but if mum feels it is an unhealthy choice (and she knows school will agree) then it’s unlikely to make it into her trolley.  It’s a good idea to have a clear idea of what makes your snack a good choice and clearly communicate this to busy parents. 

When it comes to marketing snacks the question companies ask us the most is “do we market to parents or children”? Our survey results showed that parents think information and marketing of snacks should primarily appeal to both parents and children (56%) or parents (42%), with just 2% thinking it should be aimed at children.  How then do you begin to develop for a dual audience? 

• Start by looking at what parents give as snacks (so cheese, yogurt, fruit) and use this for inspiration.

• Don’t forget other external forces such as school healthy eating guidelines.

• Kids are savvy, they understand healthy messages too (41% of mums said that healthy messages appeal to their children).

• Appeal to both parent & child by messages that they can easily relate to. Sense check as you go with research and focus groups.

You can see Lynne’s full presentation here.

Food labelling and checkout sweeties – our mums have their say

The Government has announced it is going to introduce a voluntary traffic light labelling system for foods in supermarkets to help people make healthier food choices.  An Asda representative was interviewed on Radio 4 about the scheme and was taken to task over their 'guilty' checkouts (filled with sweet and treats).

We wanted to know from our MumPanel how much notice they take of food labelling and whether a traffic light system would help them make healthier food choices for their family? And we wanted to know their views on sweets and treats at the checkout…

Food labelling…

Insight snippets

•  Mums like the idea because it might save them time instead of having to scan the back of packets.

• Food labelling doesn’t stop them purchasing if they have already planned to buy a particular product.

• Mums would like to see more nutritional information for babies and children on packaging, parents often refer to back of packs when buying for children.

• A standardised system would be best – mums don’t have time to stop and figure things out in a supermarket.

"I like the traffic light system on foods as they help me make a healthier choice. I think they're especially helpful on ready meals which I ate a lot of when OH went back to work from paternity leave as they were easier when baby would be crying, which always seemed to be when I started to make food. I try to eat healthy more for my baby breastfeeding than for myself."

"A standardised traffic light system is a great idea. Quite a few foods do have them already however like a lot of people have been saying it can be confusing as different brands and different supermarkets present their sytems in different ways. Sometimes per portion, half portion, pack, 100g. Who really has time in the supermarket shop to try and work out each individual items nutritional value? I know i don't with my two kids! Standardising it will make everyone’s life easier and clearer, especially for people lacking in time and those who struggle with English too. I believe it'll also be a great incentive to get kids more involved with healthy choices, seeing if they can pick out the 'green' items etc"

Sweets at checkouts…

Insight snippets

• Most mums would prefer not to see sweets at checkouts – too tempting for adults and children.

• Most parents see that it’s their responsibility to say no but it can be hard, especially if your child gets upset (and no one wants to deal with that in the supermarket!) – this is just one reason mums are turning to online shopping.

"I hate sweets at checkouts, I'm happy for my children to have a balanced diet including sweets but having them at the checkout makes them too prominent and tempting for children and puts you in a position where it is hard to say no!"

"It doesn't bother me if there are sweets next to the checkout. I just say no to my daughter, sometimes she has a paddy about it but I would rather she did that than end up overweight and with rotten teeth."

If you'd like to pose a question to the 6,000 mums on our MumPanel then drop us a line for more information. 

                                                      

Forget Christmas, let’s book a holiday!

It’s only two months until Christmas and in every shop the shelves are packed with Christmas goodies. We asked our MumPanel what they’ll be spending their money on this Christmas and there were some surprising results. 

We wanted to know if mums are feeling the financial pinch this year – 30% said they would be spending less, 58% about the same, 12% more.  And even though today we’ve heard we’re finally out of recession mums are always canny shoppers – whether that’s because money is tighter because of redundancy or maternity leave or they just want to have enough left to pay for a holiday next year.  A strong message from the survey was that mums value family time most, spending almost takes a back seat with many prepared to spend a little less or a little more wisely at Christmas. 

So we know mums like to plan ahead (they are already thinking about next year’s summer holiday and cutting back on Xmas spending so they can afford a family break) and 10% of our mums had already bought food and drink by September. For many mums present shopping starts in January, allowing them to stagger the cost over the year. Our mums also showed us they are resourceful – hunting down deals, and using charity shops and ebay so they can still afford the gifts their children want. And lots of mums find out about these deals from other mums – money saving word of mouth. That’s worth remembering when you are planning how to communicate with mums in 2013. 

We asked mums what they would be buying for their children this year and we expected the list to be full of gadgets and technology. But that isn’t the case – we found kids really want a mix of heritage and traditional toys (bikes, Lego, jigsaws) that wouldn’t be out of place on a Christmas wish list from the 1970s.  We are seeing more tech led presents creeping in (especially for older children – the mums who are spending more this year tend to have older kids who want more expensive, gadget type gifts) but it does show that children still love playing and getting out and about. 

MumPanel Christmas Shopping survey 2012, over 350 respondents, mums with children 0-16 years

Is in house research enough?

We approach companies to talk to them about research, innovation and product development. One regular reply we hear is ‘we do all our research and development work in house’. It’s a reasonable response, after all who knows your products, processes and customers better than your company? You probably think in house R&D is easier to control, cheaper and gives you the insight you need. 

Of course we’re going to disagree with that because we’d like to work with the companies we’re approaching. But there is a very important discussion that should take place around whether in house research is giving you what you need to push your company forward. 

We see lots of brands setting up their own research panels and groups to work with mums and we think that’s a flawed way of doing research. Why? 

If you’ve asked mums to sign up to test your products (especially if that’s done using social media where they might already follow or like you) then you are testing people who already like your product. To gain real insight and get a more balanced viewpoint you need to ask consumers who might not even know or yet have an opinion on your product.  We also know that certain brands might attract a certain demographic and provide you with skewed results that will only appeal to a narrow audience. MumPanel consists of all kinds of mums, from all kinds of backgrounds (and was grown organically) which means our research takes into account the views of lots of different kinds of mums. We’re also impartial, no one wants to please us but we know mums might want to ‘please’ a brand because they like them (or hope they might get something out of it). 

One of the great things about internal research is that you are totally immersed in your product and probably know a fair bit about your competitors.  You can add to this by using an external agency that is completely immersed in the world you want to speak to (for example mums) because they can reference not only your industry but also other things that affect consumer decision-making and buying decisions.  We have been working with mums for over three years and as professional researchers and mums we know how to connect and ask the right questions to get the most rich and rewarding replies. 

Often it’s the little nuggets on information gathered during insight that can be the most significant and make the most difference. Sometime in-house research is so focussed on a specific answer that they miss the ‘background chatter' or key decision making points. In our experience innovation often comes as a result of an offhand comment by one mum. Because we have an overview of the mum world and an objective perspective we can spot these comments and then go and sense check them with other mums. 

And our final piece of advice if you are going to do in house research is to make sure you understand the ins and outs of research. It’s vital you know what influences respondents, how to ask the right questions to get the information you want and to know which answers have meaning. 

If you’d like to know more about mum focussed market research will MumPanel then email lynne@mumpanel.co.uk

Who do mums listen to? Mum insight

It’s Mothers Day this weekend and I’ll be spending mine with my mum and extended family. My mum is my first port of call when I have a child rearing question (after all she managed to raise 5 children quite successfully). We also share information on products and bargains we’ve spotted in shops but as we are at quite different life stages I tend to go elsewhere to source my information on products and services related to my children and lifestyle.

Along with 8 out 10 mums in this survey I regularly turn to the internet for parenting advice and to get daily jobs done such as grocery shopping. We’ve already seen a shift in the ways mum shop over the last few years and a recent study has shown that online reviews and experiences are becoming just as, if not more, important than personal recommendation. One of the insights to come out of a brand building in a digital world event held last week at P&G’s HQ in Cincinnati was that 70% of Pampers are now sold online. What this clearly means is that retailers are going to have think carefully about how they appeal to an increasingly digital mum market.

And on the note of appealing to mums, as I strolled around the shops this week I was a bit mystified to see an abundance of pink goods. Valentines is long gone. And I wasn’t in a shop for children. The items on the shelves were in fact presents designed to appeal to grown women for Mother’s Day. Retailers need to remember that women are about more than pink and flowers, you’d only need to look at the results of our surveys to realise how diverse our mums are and that they have very different wants and needs. Last week was International Women’s Day (not a hint of pink anywhere). This was a day to celebrate women’s achievements and inspire young women to be brilliant in what ever they choose to do in their life. It’s also a great opportunity for brands to connect with women (Google did so this year).

And on a final note this week is Yummy Mummy Week, a fundraising week for CLIC Sargent . We’ve worked with bloggers on a spreading the word campaign to raise awareness of the week and the great work this organisation does. So far 80 bloggers have contributed 152 posts – you can read more here. We're were thrilled to see CLIC Sargent and our spreading the word campaigns mentioned as excellent examples of blogger relations in econsultancy today.

Who do you think mums listen to? Their parents? The internet?

By Nicola