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Marketing To Families With Kids Part 1:
New Strategies in Targeting Mothers
Improving your messaging to communicate with an
increasingly sophisticated and differentiated consumer
group
Disclaimer
Copyright © 2014 Datamonitor
This report is published by Datamonitor (the Publisher). This report contains information from
reputable sources and although reasonable efforts have been made to publish accurate
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acknowledge that the Publisher makes no warranties (either express or implied) as to, nor
accepts liability for, the accuracy or fitness for a particular purpose of the information or advice
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necessarily reflect the views/opinions of the Publisher.
Reference Code: CM00234-036
Publication Date: 16 May 2014
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The information in this document has been extracted from published Datamonitor research by a registered user of Datamonitor’s
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its extraction.

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Introduction
The report is part of a three-part series on marketing FMCG products to families with kids and
tweens. It considers the key factors determining how mothers currently shop for groceries,
important trends and changes in attitudes driving purchasing behaviors.
 The report looks at the life experiences that mothers focus on when shopping for kids, in
their role as the people responsible for kids' nutrition and safety, in their role as the
gatekeepers between kids and branding messages, and in terms of their own specific
personal requirements and pressures.
 The report identifies the most important factors that mothers consider when considering
products to purchase on behalf of their kids and in their own right. It makes clear ways in
which brands can provide mothers with support and help to act as a resource.
Changing demographics
Changing demographic and socioeconomic trends are giving women greater economic and social
power as time progresses. Improved contraception and fertility treatment, combined with greater
access to education and jobs, provide both an incentive to delay childbirth and the ability to do so
reliably and with less fear of losing out later in life. As a result, across almost all societies,
mothers at first birth are getting older and the number of children per woman is falling.
 The average age at first childbirth has risen and continues to rise. Mexico's age at first
childbirth is just 21.4 years, but the gap between the US's 25.1 years and Germany's 30.8
years is even greater. In the UK, Spain and Italy, the average new mother is now aged
over 30.
 The employment rate for mothers is lower than for women in general, with 71% of women
employed in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
nations, compared to 66% of mothers.
 70% of women who responded to our survey, including 69% of mothers, believe that men
have an equal responsibility to women when it comes to participating in household chores
 Women with children at home are more likely to believe that the sexes are treated equally
(39%) than not (35%), whereas women without children at home are far more likely to
believe that they continue to be treated unequally (41% not equal versus 30% equal).
Mothers' attitudes and beliefs about consumer products
It is commonly believed that mothers are increasingly skeptical of and jaded about the claims
made by market players. However, this view is easy to overstate: although mothers are
increasingly sophisticated consumers and do have an ever-wider range of resources available to
them, there is still a significant belief that the messages put forward by companies are useful and
relevant.
 35% of women with children actively seek out sustainability logos on packaging most or
all of the time, compared to 29% of women without. 39% of women without children never
seek them out at all, compared to just 33% of women with children.

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 Across all food and drink topics, mothers pay more attention than non-mothers to health
issues, with reference to food for themselves as well as food for their children. Food
health and benefits claims are particularly important to mothers.
 73% of mothers feel that it is important that cleaning products save time, compared to
68% of women without children. This reflects an ongoing lack of cleaning time available:
62% of women with children at home say that they do not have enough time to clean their
house, whereas this only applies to 53% of women without children.
 78% of UK mothers with children at home in 2013 owned a smartphone, compared to
39% of the overall population, while in the US the figure was 65%. This is reflected in the
significant amounts of time that mothers spend networking and shopping online.
How marketers can best target mothers
Brands' efforts to communicate with mothers often run the risk of turning into patronizing
generalization, pitching to a homogenous stereotype of the perfect mother in a nuclear family. Yet
targeting mothers remains an opportunity with enormous potential. The key is in understanding
values, statuses and attitudes and communicating this understanding in a way that engages with
a specific, relevant subgroup of mothers and directly addresses their particular practical or
emotional needs.
 Terms that are often used in the media and the marketing industry to segment mothers,
such as 'soccer moms', 'tiger moms', 'helicopter moms' and 'wired moms', generally do
not reflect women's own identities, and can lead to misdirected efforts.
 Two of the most popular adverts among mothers in the US in recent years – Google's
Dear Sophie and Volkswagen's The Force – have been ones that feature (perhaps
idealized) interaction between young children and fathers.
 Product ranges such as the Chosen By Kids range at Asda (Walmart's UK retailer) benefit
from collaborating directly with mothers and children to create products that directly
appeal to gatekeepers and end-consumers alike.

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INTRODUCTION
Introduction
Although family spending dynamics are gradually changing, mothers remain by far the key
gatekeepers with regard to consumer goods consumed by families. Even in Western societies
where most people say that they embrace shared responsibility, mothers are still far more likely to
be responsible for grocery shopping, along with other chores. The gap is even greater in more
traditional societies, including many high growth developing countries. At the same time, the
dynamics within family types are changing, as women get older at the time of their first child, have
fewer children, and are increasingly likely to be single parents. This report considers how FMCG
companies can better target mothers in both traditional and emerging family types, in terms of
their children's consumption and their own personal regimes.
What this report is about
The report is part of a three-part series on marketing FMCG products to families with kids and
tweens. It considers the key factors determining how mothers currently shop for groceries, and
important trends and changes in attitudes driving purchasing behaviors.
It looks at the life experiences that mothers focus on when shopping for kids, in their role as the
people responsible for kids' nutrition and safety, in their role as the gatekeepers between kids and
branding messages, and in terms of their own specific personal requirements and pressures. It
evaluates the conditions required and best strategies that can be adopted for success in each
area.
Definition and scope
The report examines how families are constituted and how the demographics of family groups are
changing. It considers how household make-up varies by country, and how parental age and
family size are changing over time.
The report identifies the most important factors that mothers take into account when considering
products to purchase on behalf of their kids and for themselves. It makes clear ways in which
brands can provide mothers with support and act as a resource.
It considers both well-known and less well-known examples of marketing strategies targeted at
mothers and evaluates the reasons for their performance based on the factors identified. It
identifies the most important factors, both overall and within specific categories, associated with
the success and failure of campaigns targeted at mothers.
In this report, the term 'mother' without qualification is used to mean a woman who has parental
responsibility for and is living in a household with one or more children aged under 18. This is
used interchangeably with the phrase 'women with children at home', and encompasses female
step-parents, adoptive parents, and both parents in a female same-sex relationship. Women
whose children are all aged over 18, or who do not have parental responsibility for their children
at the time of survey, are not classed as 'mothers' for the purposes of this report unless
specifically noted.
'Mom' and 'mum' are both commonly used as abbreviations for 'mother', primarily in US English
and international English, respectively, but with variances both within and between countries. To
avoid confusion, this report uses the term 'mother' in all contexts other than quotes and product
names.
More detailed definitional information is available in the appendix.