The 2013 State of the American Mom report is out – and interestingly, they actually looked at opinions of both Moms and Dads.
Here are some of the results important for marketing to moms – and dads:
Men shop around too. An equal amount of Moms and Dads, 78% and 76% respectively, shop at more than one grocery store weekly. Most make the extra trip for the best sale prices.
Smartphones are the tool of choice. Almost 60% of moms have a smartphone, compared to 44% in 2011. It is certainly the primary organizer of life. The report shows Moms are playing games (64%), looking up stores/locations (58%) and finding nearby restaurants (50%).
Baby wants a smartphone and a laptop too! Of course, you know children won’t even know how to turn pages in a magazine or a book. 43% of Moms report their children start using a laptop or desktop at 3 – 6 years, and 25% of Moms say that’s when they start using a phone or tablet.
What are the trends behind these facts?
Multichannel Shopping. Consumers are challenging retailers and brands to keep up with their multichannel shopping behaviors. Two-thirds of all shoppers regularly use more than one channel to make purchases. While the Mom report is talking about physical grocery stores, many are shopping online, warehouse stores, farmers markets, specialty stores and grocery stores to fill their pantries. Some 70% still use bricks and mortar stores, but 47% are online. And all research begins online before those “reality” shopping trips.
Life on a Smartphone. We just feel smarter with a smartphone. Nielsen says in their 2013 Mobile Consumer Report that 61% of all adults have a smartphone and 94% have some type of mobile phone. Of course, we don’t actually talk on our phones. We send and receive an average of 764 text messages versus 164 calls sent/received on our phones. We use our phones for a variety of activities – email, music, shopping, location services and internet browsing.
Digital Children. Hilary DeCesare, a cyberbullying expert and CEO of kids’ social networking site Everloop, thinks in an increasingly digital world, it’s important to expose children to different technologies early so that they are prepared to adapt and thrive in more advanced professional settings. The digital expert thinks kids as young as 2 can benefit from tablet use, as long as the parent “is monitoring what [the] child is watching.”
