Parent Power – Are you listening to what we are saying?

Last week Lynne spoke as part of the Parent Power Panel at the Children’s Media Conference in Sheffield. The Children's Media Conference brings together people who develop, produce and distribute content to kids – across all platforms. 

What we wanted to talk about was using parents at the right stage of the development process when creating new content. We’ve been lucky enough to work on projects for the BBC, including the CBeebies Grown Up website, where our research started at the very earliest stage of the project and influenced design and content. 

There are plenty of examples of where parents have reacted adversely to new TV programmes, games or websites.  We know it’s impossible to please all of the people all of the time but early involvement in the creative process means you know what parents are thinking. This also means you can objectively manage any negative responses because you know you have developed a programme or other content based on what parents and their children say they want. 

As many broadcasters now develop for digital platforms one of the questions raised at the conference was whether social media is a good place to gather feedback and connect with parents. 

We think the answer is yes. It’s a great place to listen to what people are saying about your content. But there is a but.  Not all parents are on social media, there are fewer mums and dads over 35 on facebook and just a small percentage of the UK parent population are on twitter. We need to listen to and connect with parents from across the board, not just those online with vocal opinions. Remember where your audience are – the school gate, the supermarket. 

Some organisations don’t think they need to bother managing social media and that’s fine if you are Apple and have millions of brand advocates waiting on your next move. Ignoring the voices of parents on social media (and beyond it) is unwise simply because it can quickly go viral and create negative sentiment that stays on the internet forever. We’re also increasingly seeing traditional press sourcing stories and features that start on social media, often appearing long after you think any negative furore has died down. 

And what did our MumPanel and social media mums have to say? 

“It’s interesting actually - I don’t use social media to try to influence programmes, but I think modern technology gives me much more control over what my kids watch - we never watch live TV, it’s stuff I’ve prerecorded or stuff off iplayer."

 Ruth Arnold (Geek Mummy) 

“If I felt that parents were being asked opinions which would actually contribute to the programmes and subjects covered on that childrens channel - if I knew my opinions were being listened to and that I could in a small way help to shape my child's viewing via this channel."

 Finally, what to remember when you are developing content for children (and their parents)…

•  Involve parents in the development process – by dong this you are harnessing and embracing parent power rather than being at the wrong end of it.
• Utilise the directness of social media so you are aware of conversations and trends that can then be tested in more detail.

If you’d like to know more about parenting testing and content development then drop us a line.

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

What can MumPanel do for your business?

Who does most of the shopping in your house? Who makes most of the buying decisions? Along with most households in the UK it's probably mum.

What that means is that organisations that want to sell to mums would benefit from the insight those mums could offer them - whether that's offering their opinion on a new product they are going to launch or telling a company what they think of a service aimed at mums.

Our recent projects have included accompanied shops for a large supermarket chain, product reviews and spreading the word campaigns for a leading baby retailer and interactive research for a television channel.

On each of these occasions the insight our mums provided information that allowed each organisation to move forward with a strategy that would be better aimed at their target audience.

You can find more information about what we do on our website.