4 minute read
New research reveals brands are failing Australian mums
How do you feel about the fact that the people who make up 63 per cent of your target market don’t think you understand them?
Even worse, they are responsible for more than 80 per cent of consumer spending decisions. Who are they? Mums! Women who are making buying decisions for themselves and their families, and influencing each other’s buying choices. At the upcoming World Infant Aquatics Conference (WIAC) on the Gold Coast (which is part of SPLASH! Week), I will be speaking about the key mistakes marketers are making, and what Australian mums want from brands.
Millions of mums
Mums are the powerhouse of the Australian economy yet they remain the most misunderstood, misrepresented and undervalued consumer segment in the country.
With more than 6.2 million mums in Australia – responsible for spending $132 billion every year – marketers who ignore them do so at their peril.
Latest research from Marketing to Mums reveals that brands are failing to connect with mums – that figure of 63 per cent represents the percentage of Australian mums who believe that advertisers don’t understand them. There is growing dissatisfaction from mothers around the country who are fed up with the lame, irrelevant marketing efforts being directed at them.
This growing disconnect between advertising and mums’ reality is, in part, explained by AdNation research released last year which revealed the people working in advertising agencies are young, tech savvy and less likely to have children than the average Australian.
How can these people manage to relate to the day-to-day life of a mum, create campaigns that appeal to her, communicate with her and maintain a good brand relationship with her?
Getting social
It is of vital importance for the success of brands that they invest now in gaining a better understanding of the social media habits and communication style and preferences of Australian mothers.
I’ve been studying mums for two decades. I have eighteen years’ sales and marketing experience working across diverse industries including grocery, hardware and online – always targeting mums as the purchaser. I also have a Bachelor of Business (Marketing) and an MBA (International Business).
However, my real learning happened when I became a mother myself. I left my corporate role to enjoy a five-year career break to raise my three children. As a stayat-home mum I spent hours in the park listening to the frustrations and challenges facing mothers.
Six years ago, I launched an online shopping platform for mums called bubbler. com.au. I grew this to a community of 150,000 mums before selling eighteen months ago. During this time, my insight into Australian mums really accelerated and I gained a deeper understanding of mums’ lives. I learned how to engage mums to build a community, communicate effectively with them through social media and convert them into a sale"
Working closely with brands, I saw the struggles they had in managing to genuinely connect and sell to mums. I kept seeing the same problem over and over again, prospective clients needed customers fast but didn’t have the expertise to sell to mums. Their poor ROIs proved that they didn’t have a clear understanding of the type of mum they were targeting.
A new way
I passionately believe there is a new way to communicate and sell to mums, delivering massive opportunities for businesses that get this right. In an Australian first, I surveyed more than 1800 mums, asking them how they wanted to be marketed to. The respondents were from different ages, stages, work status and household income brackets – and all were eager to share their views.
I wanted to hear directly from Australian mums to better understand their social media habits, but more importantly, as no-one had asked them before, to understand how they wanted to be communicated with.
The research is so valuable as it hasn’t been done before in Australia, and features ground-breaking learnings for businesses wanting to target mums.
We found that mums were eager to give advice to the marketing community. They identified nine mistakes that brands make with advertising and communications.
The three factors that topped the list were stereotyping (overwhelmingly), not being real and treating mums as stupid. They want to be treated as women first and mothers second. As important as motherhood was, it was clearly not the only thing that defined them.
The report also identified that 91 per cent of Australian mums access their social media accounts daily with a staggering 30 per cent of mums checking their social media accounts more than 10 times each day. Facebook is their favourite platform, representing an incredible opportunity for brands to connect with mums via Facebook advertising, building brand communities and developing a Facebook Live strategy.
Mums in Australia are fed up with the way they are being communicated with by brands and increasingly taking action thanks to social media. Ignoring this growing dissatisfaction is commercially disastrous for brands.
Astute marketers who take the time to gather deep insights about mums and work to earn their attention can deliver a significant commercial advantage in an increasingly crowded marketplace.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Katrina McCarter is the founder and CEO of Marketing to Mums, a research and marketing consultancy. She is a marketing strategist, best-selling author, speaker and consultant who specialises in understanding mothers as a powerful market sector, through experience and research. Katrina is highly regarded for her creative growth strategies and her ability to negotiate strategic partnerships, and works with both small and big businesses to increase sales and profits selling to mums. An award-winning businesswoman and mother to three, Katrina is an accomplished international speaker and regular contributor to business media and has featured on ABC Radio, Channel 7, The Age, Sydney Morning Herald and SmartCompany.
Katrina McCarter
She will be delivering an inspirational talk at the upcoming World Infant Aquatics Conference (July 30 to August 4) which is held as part of SPLASH! on the Gold Coast.World Infant Aquatics Conference: australianswimschools.org.auSPLASH! Pool & Spa Trade Show: www.splashexpo.com.au
