A Different Kind Of Shopping Experience: Marketing To The Moms Of College-Bound Children

While most mothers are focused on the holiday shopping season, there is one segment of moms who are actively doing another type of shopping — college shopping. Yes, it’s that time of year when mothers with high school seniors are eagerly awaiting SAT or ACT results, sifting through direct mail pieces from colleges and universities and loading up the car for campus tours. As the mother of four, I have personally experienced the anxiety of college searches while consulting with numerous university admissions offices on a professional basis. Marketing to…

Moms Dish Up Thoughts On Black Friday And Cyber Monday

As we approach Thanksgiving week, I’m gearing up for my annual Black Friday shopping excursion. Yes, I admit it. I am one of those Black Friday shoppers, out the door before sunrise with holiday gift list in hand to shop for my family, friends and team. I knock out the rest of the list on Cyber Monday. I’m calling myself a hybrid shopper, and you’ll read why below. With the enormous growth of Cyber Monday, expected to be the largest online shopping day in history at $91.6 billion this year,…

What’s New For Holiday 2016

It’s that time again when brands are looking for the silver bullet that will drive holiday sales and help them meet their goals for 2016. Unfortunately, many marketing teams set their plans in place back in the spring. I say unfortunately because in a time when social media is constantly changing, it’s nearly impossible to predict what social platform will be popular six months in advance. Ask anyone last February if they would be talking about Facebook Live for live-streaming videos and I will bet they would have told you…

How To Win The Mom Vote

With only a few weeks left until Election Day in a highly contentious presidential contest, Hillary and Donald would do well to heed the timeless advice of listening to their mothers, all 40 million of them. This powerful group of voters will head to the polls in November hoping, as all voters do, to shape the future of the country, and more importantly their children’s futures, through the ballot box. In a recent survey, more than 89% of moms — Millennials, Gen Xers and Boomers — plan to vote in…

Marketing to Moms and Their Digital Families

Let’s Celebrate National College Move-In Week! #AtHomeStores

It’s the halfway point in the Great College Move-In Road Trip for At Home stores to mark National College Move-In Week! From Chicago on Sunday through Charlotte and on through Orange Park and Orlando this weekend, we’re celebrating National College Move-In Week as over 130 colleges and universities welcome students back to campus this week. Follow my road trip journey (on Facebook and Twitter) as I meet moms in different cities who will showcase the 50,000 items in At Home stores that make college shopping so easy on your time…

The Story Behind The Numbers On Moms And Millennials

Recently, The New York Times turned its attention to women without children and marketing to this group. If you missed the article on July 10, you can read it here. I was fortunate enough to be a part of Alina Tugend’s article that referenced the lucrative mom market. Tugend worked on this piece for over a month and gathered extensive data on women, both childless and with children. It reminded me of how often we read statistics, census data and research and react to the numbers without knowing the story…

5 Reasons To Engage With Moms In Online Community Research Groups

A 2015 market research industry paper reports a 52% increase in online communities, a tool that smart marketers will leverage when engaging with moms. Traditional research tools that my team uses every day, such as focus groups and surveys, have value and will continue to play a role in keeping a finger on the pulse of opinions and trends. However, the increase in online communities resonates with the hottest consumer segment today — millennial moms. Millennial moms spend an average of four hours on their phones each day (rarely using…

The Un-Mother’s Day

In 2015, over $20 billion was spent on cards, flowers, jewelry and other gifts according to the National Retail Federation. But what do moms really want and how can marketers reach them for a new holiday I’m calling the “un-Mother’s Day”? Here’s the back story. At a mom blogger conference a few years ago, a conversation among attendees turned to Mother’s Day plans. Every mom in the discussion said they certainly loved the idea of Mother’s Day: a day to relax, be pampered and feel special. As we talked more,…

Spending Is Hopping This Easter

Here comes Peter Cottontail, hopping down the bunny trail with billions of dollars in his basket. In a survey report released this week by the National Retail Federation (NRF), an Easter 2016 spending estimate of $17.3 billion will be the highest in the survey’s 13-year history. Who is leading the charge to store cash registers and online checkout buttons? Of course, it’s moms, who are giving marketers a clear direction on the importance of all holidays to earn their business. Focusing on the November/December shopping season is certainly a top…