By Jenny Martel
Last week I talked about how moms DON’T want to be marketed to. This week I’ll be positive (I promise) and tell you that I prefer two tactics, education and humor when firms market to moms. I want varied portraits of different child-focused families and I want to know how to get there. I want to see a child-prioritized domestic universe featuring an intelligent mother making good, information-based decisions. Use a unique format to educate me about your product and how it will assist me as a mother.
I’ve seen very few educational commercials that capture my interest. Perhaps this is because we are “multi-minders” as Stephanie Holland mentions in a post at she-conomy.com Holland says that we “multi-minders” are unlikely to be ever pay full attention to just one thing. In fact, we’re quite likely to be concurrently engaged in several other things. According to Holland, the best place to reach a mother’s full attention in online with interactive, informative marketing on websites.
I love what Joy Geduza says in her post on PPC Performance in the Wax blog. Basically, Geduza thinks intelligent and educational marketing starts with an intelligent marketer. I think this is really important when you market to moms. We’re smart, not frazzled! (Okay, we’re smart AND frazzled.) She suggests starting by placing your product in the right place with the right keywords. Then continue building with the right sort of evidence at the right moments, especially with trust-building information like convincing data and testimonials.
What’s a good example of a great commercial, in my humble opinion? Clorox Disinfecting Wipes has a first-rate, funny commercial. A mother walks through her back door to a home filled with the sounds of off-key recorders, an oddly familiar sound to many of us. A bathrobe-clad older woman has strung two raw chickens marionette-style from sticks and strings. They dance jubilantly along the coffee table to the tune of her sons’ recorder duet. It’s fun to identify with the silliness of this scene, and I’m certainly seeing the clear value of a disinfecting wipe as well. Nothing quite says salmonella like raw chickens on the coffee table. This ad sticks with me, and it’s short—only 20 seconds; it grabs my attention and makes it’s point quickly. Humor interjects the absurd into our over-serious, often overworked (both of which children add to greatly) lives and we remember what our priorities are.
Good family humor makes me think they’ve got it. The creator of this ad is a parent or someone who knows what this messy child-universe is like.”