Mayborn Matters

Nursery Today had the pleasure to catch up with Mayborn Group’s (the home of Tommee Tippee) Lauren Coates – Senior Channel Development Manager, UK.

What have been the key attributes to make the brand a household name?

We’re driven by our mission to be the world’s most-loved baby company and committed to our original goal to make the lives of mums and dads easier. It’s this passion and dedication that ensures that we continually provide the best experience for our consumers.

The brand has certainly grown and developed over the years and now offers products within an array of categories. Is there a current ‘hero’ in the product range that consumers just can’t get enough of?

Lots of parents still recognise us for our First Cup. It remains one of the bestselling products in our line-up and offers great functionality and value for money.

More recently, our Perfect Prep machines have stood out as real game-changers in the feeding category. They make bottle feeding quicker and simpler than ever before.

Perfect Prep is the main product that draws parents to our stand at Baby Shows, and we’re often told that their friends and family members have said that they need this product.

Has the business (Mayborn) entered a restructure phase that you would like to make Nursery Today readers aware of? If so, what are the key benefits to consumers and retailers of this restructure?

Yes. The market has seen unparalleled shifts in consumer behaviour driven by various global events. To navigate this, we take a consumer-first approach that’s agile and supports consumer trends. We’ve structured our approach across our category, marketing, and commercial functions so that we can best support our consumers.

What about new products – can we expect to see more innovations added to your current product categories?

Yes! There’re already a couple of new additions to our product family, including a Wearable Breast Pump that’s available as a single or pair, and a new smart baby monitor called Dreamsense that takes the stress out of monitoring by evaluating baby’s environment and only notifying you about the things that matter.

There’re tons of other exciting developments on the way, so watch this space!

How important is R&D to the business?

Innovation is at the heart of what we do at Mayborn and Tommee Tippee. We’re constantly striving to find meaningful solutions to make the lives of parents a little easier.

To create our Dreammaker sleep aid, we worked with scientists at Northumbria University’s world-leading sleep laboratory. This collaboration helped us understand how to create the perfect environment to relax babies and encourage deep, prolonged sleep. Do you utilise social media and if so, how does this assist in driving brand awareness?

Social media is an integral part of our marketing strategy, and we use it to bring together a supportive community of parents.

Currently, our #TheTruthIs campaign is leading and facilitating positive conversations and providing reassurance that everyone’s everyday is different, and that’s ok! We’re all about real life, real parents, and real experiences.

As a business, do you work alongside any health professionals, celebrities, bloggers, or influencers? And do you have any accolades that strengthen the identity of the Tommee Tippee brand?

Yes, influencers play a key role in our 360-marketing activations.

We have a strong line from a range of backgrounds and followings. We believe in providing a platform to the parent community to facilitate the conversation. We launched our campaign – #TheTruthIs – to empower parents to share their stories. What type of support do you give your retail partners?

As the leading brand in the baby and toddler category, we take a collaborative approach with our retail partners. Our category, buying and digital teams share category and consumerled insights to optimise the experience for our consumers. Looking ahead to the next 12 months, with the cost-of-living crisis affecting everyone, will you be offering any specific retailer promotions that you would like to make Nursery Today readers aware of?

We’ve been proactively working with our retail partners to deliver market-leading value and will continue to support consumers throughout 2023.

Our Essentials range offers everyday low prices across our core baby products, and our various starter kits and bundles are a great value option for parents who’re looking to purchase all their newborn essentials at once.

Finally, are there any exciting plans on the horizon that you would like to share?

Look out for the next phase of our #TheTruthIs marketing campaign, as well as some key upcoming innovations to help make the lives of parents easier.

In the coming months, we will be attending Baby Shows at London’s ExCel in March, Manchester in April and at the NEC in Birmingham in May, so head to our stand and meet the team. We look forward to seeing you there and talking you through our innovative approach to the category!

*Source: IRI & Edge 52 w/e 14th Jan 2023