I had a baby and joined a tribe

When I was pregnant with Mia I didn't worry a lot. I knew I had good friends. I knew I had great family support. Everyone I spoke to told me I’d easily combine a career working from home with childcare. I pictured long leisurely lunches with friends, I imagined gently rocking her to sleep, one foot on bouncer while I chatted away to a client. I read all the books. I knew what I was doing. I had this.

Then she was 11 days late. I was induced. I was in established labour for 24 hours. It ended in a forceps birth. She was horribly jaundiced and rushed back into hospital. I got a bad infection and ended up in hospital. I struggled to establish breastfeeding and then it turned out she was allergic to formula. We ended up in hospital again. Oh and I’d committed to delivering a project starting when she was 4 weeks old. I didn't have this. I didn't have a clue. The books didn't cover this. I had no friends with kids. My family, as awesome as they were, had their babies many years ago.

I was stuffed.

Then my antenatal ladies came to the rescue. They were my lifeline in those first few months. They were the people I shared my lows and highs with. The people I asked for recommendations from everything from bum cream to nurseries (and just about everything else in between).

So why did I go to them? Why did they replace my usual trusted network of friends (some of whom had been friends for over 20 years)?

Because they knew. They knew what it was like to wake up with a tiny screaming person 3 times a night. They knew you’d do anything to stop their tiny little stomach cramping if it meant you could eat a hot meal in the evening. They knew that having a small person utterly changes your life and perspective. And they were right with me in the moment, parenting at the same time and facing the same challenges I was facing. In some respects parenting never changes- your job is to raise a relatively normal kid that turns into a respectable-ish adult.

But then everything changes. In between having my two how you made a bottle up changed, the advice on using dummies changed. Between me and my mum having kids the landscape of raising children has changed beyond all recognition. In 1976 my mum didn't have to worry about the impact of technology on her child’s developing brain. Playing out in the street was totally normal and expected. We knew little about cot death. Brands were hardly on our radar. Antibacterial hand gel and aspartame in drinks didn't exist.

So the mums I met at that stage of my life became my tribe. The people I trusted most, whose opinions I listened to and whose advice I would take. I wanted to know what toys they’d bought, what foods they were feeding their kids and what product you could buy to wash away those mysterious orange food stains.

And even when I didn't want the advice I was always taking in what they said. I spent a lot of time with these people. And over the years although that group of mums has changed – as I moved towns and my kids moved from nursery to school  - the tribe remains integral to my decision-making.

My tribe is at the school gate, at my slimming world group, on facebook and on nights out. Each time the conversation might be different, so at holiday club pick up over summer we covered where everyone was buying school uniform, holiday destinations, kids’ hair chalk and shoes (each one coming with recommendations of where to buy). And on a night out at the pub we talk about where we’re going with our partners for nights away, new cars and beauty treatments. These are people I’d trust with my kids, so I’m likely to listen to their opinions pretty carefully.

It’s important for brands to understand that these are the people I turn to when I have to make every day purchasing decisions. I’m not thinking about what washing machine Kim Kardashian uses when my finally packs up. Think about the people your customers trust and how you can tap into that network.

We’d love to know whose opinion you trust most…

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. 

                                                      

You only know what you know

If you want to target mums, you need to understand what they want. To understand what they want you need to ask questions. Sounds obvious doesn’t it? But getting to the RIGHT questions can be a trickier process.  If you don’t ask the right questions then you never get the answers you need to truly connect with mums.

When we’re developing questions and doing insight work at MumPanel we use the mantra ‘you only know what you know’. We know questions are just as important as responses and the best insights come from the questions you might not have asked or didn’t think you should ask.  As mums we have a bit of a shortcut – there are things we understand because we have experienced them. Recently Asda trialled a new shopping trolley. Their existing trolleys (along with most supermarkets) were difficult to see over and control once you put a car seat on the top. This might seem an insignificant issue but the small changes they have made can boost brand loyalty (I’ll choose that supermarket because they accommodate my needs) and increase sales (I can see what I want and I’m less stressed so I’ll spend longer in the supermarket). What is important is that someone in their research team asked the right question – they thought to ask about trolleys and then to dig deeper and understand what the real issue was.

One of our big bugbears as mums is cordial fruit juice. Most of the products on the market are sugar free. We know at some point brands must have asked mums what they wanted and of course, they don’t want drinks full of sugar that rot their children’s teeth. So that market has become all about ‘NO ADDED SUGAR’ drinks. But what we’re hearing from mums is that they’d rather have natural sugar fruit juices or other alternatives over aspartame-filled drinks.  There’s been a missed opportunity to take the research full circle instead of using a linear approach that stopped at the first response.

Last week we were chatting with Julie from Child Seat Safety, they train retailers to fit car seats correctly, accrediting them to a scheme endorsed by Which? What came out of our conversation was that stores often focus on the quality of the product and forget to ask questions that really matter – is that car seat right for their car, their needs, and their child. This is partly because retailers haven’t been trained to ask the right kind of questions. Because safety is such a hot topic, it’s vital we identify the questions that NEED to be asked so that brands and retailers get it right.

Questions are ignored, we all so busy rushing to the response and it’s about time we put the brakes on. If you want to really start to understand mums then it’s time to start digging deeper, get involved in their day to day journey and have your ears open for when they drop those little nuggets of insight that can revolutise your brand. 

If you’d like more information on asking mums the right questions then drop us a line.