BSM Media - Marketing to Moms - Connecting companies with the Mom Market

Understanding the Mom Market

Mom's Money

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (the agency that tracks family expenditures), an average-income family will spend $165,630 on a child by the time the child reaches eighteen years of age. (U.S. Department of Agriculture, Expenditures on Children by Families, Washington, D.C.: GPO, June 2001.)
Parents with incomes of $38,000 to $64,000 spent $18,510 on miscellaneous items for the average child from birth through the age of eighteen. This includes spending on entertainment, reading material, VCRs, summer camps, and lessons. (U.S. Department of Agriculture, June 2001.)
Females outnumber males in the United States by over six million (roughly 6 percent) and a significant percent have at least one child. There are 141,606,000 women with children in the United States. ( Bureau of the Census, Population Projections of the Untied States by Age, Sex, Race and Hispanic Origin: 1995 to 2050, Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1996 Business Research, Women-Owned Business in the United States, 2002: A Fact Sheet.
Woman-owned businesses generate $1.15 trillion in sales. (Center for Women’s Business Research, 2002.)
Women-owned businesses employ 9.2 million people. (Center for Women’s Business Research, 2002.)
U.S. women spend more than $3.7 trillion annually on consumer goods and services, plus another $1.5 trillion as purchasing agents for businesses. As a group U.S. women constitute the number three market in the world, with their collective buying power exceeding the economy of Japan. (Connie Glaser, “The Women’s Market Rules,” Competitive Edge, 2001
Eighty percent of all checks written in the United States are signed by women. (Faith Popcorn, EVEolution: Understand Women: Eight Essential Truths That Work in Your Business and Life, ( Dimensions, 2001.)

Working Mothers

A 2001 Catalyst study of women born between 1964 and 1975 revealed that 68 percent said commitment to personal and family responsibilities is a barrier to women’s advancement in their careers. [Catalyst 2001]
By 2005, the percentage of women in the labor force is projected to rise to 61.7 percent, while the number of men in the workforce will decline from 74.9 to 72.9 percent. [9to5 2000]
Nearly 70 percent of those who hold two or more part-time jobs are women. [9to5 2000]
Regardless of their employment status, almost nine in ten women (88 percent) agree that they are responsible for taking care of the people in their families, and 94 percent say that they feel very or somewhat valued by family and friends for fulfilling responsibilities at home. [Whirlpool 1995]
Women who work full-time are more likely to feel more valued at home than those who work part-time or are at home full-time caring for their families (63 percent versus 56 and 57 percent, respectively). [Whirlpool 1995]
Even if money were not a consideration, 48 percent would choose to work part-time or full-time. Thirty-one percent would choose to work at home caring for the family, and 20 percent would select volunteer work. [Whirlpool 1995]