Mom Marketing Trends

Renewing My Commitment to renu: What happens to Consumer Trust Post-Recall?

 
Ever since one day playing tennis during law school and I realized that the ball was completely blurry on the other side of the court, contacts (right alongside contract law) became a part of my daily routine. Along with them came renu saline solution, and all was well. That is, until the spring of 2006, when Bausch had a major voluntary recall of renu with MoistureLoc due to possible linkage to fungal eye infections. My optometrist recommended another brand. I switched. The other brand worked fine. It was safe. Four years passed, and renu faded from my brand retinue.

All this came rushing back when a couple of weeks ago I received a PR outreach about renu and found myself wondering how those fifteen years of brand loyalty had so quickly evaporated. So I reached out and had the opportunity to speak with Mike McDougall, Vice President for Corporate Communications and Public Affairs for Bausch + Lomb, both about the brand’s evolution over the past four years as well as the new renu design. I found myself pondering what happens to consumer trust after a major recall, especially as other examples currently bound in the market, from Tylenol to Toyota.

Enter Mike McDougall who explained that they knew it was going to take time to earn back consumer’s trust, and for the past four years they have gone back to their labs and science rather than fight what might be a losing battle to restore consumer trust with folks like me. Moreover, they, like Toyota, believe that actions speak louder than ads, and they’re asking for trust. They have quite the history to stand behind them, with Bausch + Lomb founded 157 years ago in 1853.

So what have they been up to in the intervening years I asked of Mike? First, he told me how they focused on the optometrists and ophthalmologists, as they serve as powerful recommenders as well as dispensers of free samples at eye exams. The bottles we see stacked in their offices send a strong message about brand preference. Next, Mike explained that contrary to my perception that all saline formulas are the same (silly me, I thought it was just purified water and salt). In actuality, differences in formulation and disinfecting agents determine how the solution interacts with your eyes. For instance, renu fresh works with tear chemistry to create a cushion of moisture between your eye and the lens, enabling a fresher feeling. Renu Sensitive uses fewer ingredients so sensitive eyes experience less burning, stinging, and irritation.

With the docs on board, renu has decided it’s time to proactively go back to consumers like me with a cool packaging innovation to recapture our attention, and a 4-year track record of no problem to regain our trust. So welcome to the newly designed bottle of renu, see-through instead of the thick white plastic standard to all else in this product group. The benefit: instead of swishing around the bottle trying to guess how much remains, you simply look inside. The transparency thus answers both practical and symbolic needs.

And it worked, as they got my attention and got me to consider renewing my commitment to the new renu. 

Enough, Enough of the "So-Called Mommy Bloggers!"

That’s it. I’m finally ready to throw pieces of blog shard at the next person who refers to the “so-called mommy bloggers.” 

I got quoted in a piece this morning from the AP entitled, “Procter & Gamble hosts bloggers in stepped-up counteroffensive on Pampers Dry Max diapers.”   In the article’s opening foray appears this one line, “It hopes the effort — including flying in the four so-called "mommy bloggers" from around the country because they can influence parents seeking product reviews, moneysaving tips and other advice — will deflect undeserved criticism.”

My blog friend Anne-Marie Nichols wrote to me with succinctness: “Putting so-called and the quotation marks around mommy bloggers is so demeaning.” And it is.

I’m trying to come up with parallel analogies, such as the “so-called daddy investment bankers” but nothing springs to mind. The diminutive, you see, stems from both the “so-called” as well as the “mommy.” But to really delve into this, I’ve got to back up a second and introduce you to Mrs. Remy.

Meet the So-Called Mrs. Remy

I admit, I have much practice with this “so-called” stuff. When I married my husband, I kept my last name and over the past 23 years I’ve come to be fond of the so-called “Mrs Remy.” She’s been invited to and attended some terrific weddings, holiday work parties, bar mitzvahs, christenings, cocktail parties, and reunion events. Her name looks fantastic in calligraphy on the invitation envelopes. She’s been a fun conversationalist with kids, and nods with muted enthusiasm to comments such as “Thanks for having me over, Mrs. Remy” and “Mrs. Remy, my mom asked if she could carpool with you to the soccer tournament.” She’s appreciative when she picks up her golf clubs or makes a tennis reservation. She has been a great friend to junk mailers and a favorite among telemarketers. She’s fictional.

Meet the So-Called Mommy Blogger
But wait, another contending identity has appeared: make way for the so-called “Mommy Blogger.” So-Called Mommy Blogger has kids who still shriek, “MOMMY” from upstairs demanding her attention while she empties the dishwasher, whips up eggs, and sets out breakfast plates. Mommy Blogger muses and writes persuasively on her computer about issues, products, dilemmas, and stories that capture her interest or her consternation. Mommy Blogger shops at the supermarket trying to recall what brands most want her to try, buy, or upgrade to. She debates between ad networks for her blog that pay her only enough money to be up there in the same camp as coupon clipping. She tries to figure out how to monetize all this writing she’s doing for free. Mommy Blogger picks up the kids from school, and checks in on Twitter from the athletic field sidelines. Mommy Blogger gets emails from brands, agencies, and entrepreneurs seeking her attention and affection. Mommy Blogger is quite the favorite and sought after by the top companies in the country. She’s also fictional. 

Who’s Doing the So-Calling?
Why the brands, agencies and old media are doing the so-called calling- more like cat-calling, as in “Hey good lookin’ Mommy Blogger! Wanna write a blog about me?! Introduce me to some of your lady friends?” The brands need us, but struggle at taking us seriously. The agencies want to work with us but resent how much attention we get and how prickly a group we are to corral into what sometimes verges on the line of “stupid brand tricks”- as in go to the supermarket, videotape yourself looking for toothpaste on the aisle, turn this into a vlog posting with a special focus on the remarkable new whitening technology of X brand, tweet about it, enter our sweepstakes contest, like us on Facebook, but wait there’s more…  And the old media simmers at resentment as lay offs pile up and readership morphs to the so-called “new media.”

In endless brand meetings, conferences, power points, proposals, campaigns and outreaches, the So-Called Mommy Blogger gets summoned forth. Like the fictional Mrs. Remy, she’s uni-dimensional and fairly subservient. She can be lured. She can be persuaded. And yet she has the audacity to bristle when referred to as “Mommy” as in “There, there, little Mommy.” She’s decided long ago that there’s only one group of people in the universe who truly get to call her “Mommy” and it’s her kids. And though “so-called” she’s very, very real. And the Mommy Blogger moniker makes her skin crawl.

In the meantime while we get this all sorted out, could you please all refer to the so-called Mommy Blogger with her new title, “Esteemed Madame Mom Blogger, sir!”

iPhone App Searching: There's an App for that! Just where?

How do you find if “there’s an app for that”? Besides the list of the Top 50 free and paid applications in the App Store, and maybe a “Hey you HAVE TO try this” recommendation from a friend, finding helpful and entertainment apps can be a mystery. There's hundreds of thousands of them after all, with thousands more emerging weekly as brands and developers get into the game. The suggested apps or “application of the day” generally prove to be much too broad or uninteresting.

A trend I envision over the next year will be marketing of iPhone applications. Social media campaigns entirely based around the launch of new apps and PR promotions for them as well. Moms will be a top target for these campaigns as the need for organization apps and children’s gaming on the iPhone increase. I see an Amazon-like system developing where applications can be searchable by category, and the top sellers for each category being identified. The mom marketing space will be affected as third-party developers and PR companies will need agency expertise in spreading a viral, word-of-mouth message for certain apps.

Having a more streamlined system for searching, as well as the emergence of application marketing will be a powerful trend to watch for in 2010.

Responsible Blogging and FTC Guidelines (MediaPost Article)

By: Stacy DeBroff

Like everyone else in the social media space, we've been closely following the Federal Trade Commission's recent changes to blogging policies and disclosures, as it revamps 20-year old guidelines. The FTC now requires all bloggers to disclose any products or services given in exchange for a blog post. We agree with a need for transparency and authenticity but express concern over many unanswered questions.

Bloggers have become a significant marketing phenomenon for products and services, based on what we call their "sphere of influence" -- the extent to which and how big an audience feels connected to them, follows their posts and trusts their perspective. Bloggers also have gained prominence thanks to how search engine algorithms highly rank and favor blogs.

Because blogs offer the potential of powerful first-person brand ambassadorship, they have emerged as a key way to ignite consumers. More and more brands want to expose bloggers to their products and services in the hope they will post favorable reviews.

With blogger's increased rise in audience and sway comes increased FTC scrutiny. While we laud the FTC for promoting transparency and any potential bias, their first change-up of the guidelines fall short. Here's why:

1. Value What about items that may fall into a grey area?

a. A Mom blogger gets offered an interview with a celebrity endorsing a product, but not the product. Was the interview itself incentive for positive coverage?

b. Or perhaps she gets a free sample of a new beverage at a local town fair -- along with 500 other people attending. Or a coupon to try that beverage free from a marketing direct mail firm. Disclosure?

2. Online versus Offline Regulation Though the FTC is tasked with balancing regulation and transparency, it has been reticent to extend, and enforce, the disclosure regulations to other media:

a. Product placements in movies: Will the FTC require disclosure each time brands feature prominently in a blockbuster movie?

b. Tweets by celebrities: are Ashton and Kim Kardashian disclosing?

c. Magazines and newspapers: Will the FTC require disclosure of press lunches, dinners, or trips? Thus, each "Travel Section" article would begin by alerting readers that the journalist was flown free to the Bahamas or other destination prior to writing an article?

3. Mom Bloggers as Journalists

The rise in power of Mom bloggers encourages debate about how they should be categorized. Are they personal journalists, brand enthusiasts, diarists or columnists? Many buckets emerge for multi-dimensional bloggers. Each rises on the strength of what they have to say, how they say it, and how they bring that passion alive with their growing audiences.

4. Legal Ramifications by Industry

Prior to becoming a Mom blogger and CEO of Mom Central, I was an attorney and spent more than 10 years at Harvard Law School. This background has proved helpful when navigating the FTC guidelines and when working with legal departments across client brands. In our experience, most legal teams hesitate to leverage social media because of a perceived lack of control about what consumers will say to them or about them, particularly in the context of a regulated industry such as pharmaceutical, where all adverse-use mentions involve a full report to the FDA.

Of note, we provide all our bloggers with mandatory disclosure language. We proactively audit all blog posts to ensure that bloggers have complied with this requirement, contact any bloggers who have not disclosed, reminding them to do so, and dismiss bloggers from subsequent tours for non-compliance.
In our next post, we'll present "Part Two: FTC Guidelines from the Mom Blogger Perspective": Our survey of Mom Bloggers' thoughts on the FTC guidelines, how they changed their blogging habits and how brands can best work with them to connect with Moms.

Mom Central Looking to Hire a Senior Manager!

Would love your help- looking to hire two senior managers: one to open a New York City based office, as well as hire a senior manager at our Boston headquarters. I could use any recommendations you have, and would appreciate you sharing this opportunity with anyone in your network who may be interested.
 
 We're looking to hire senior managers for Mom Central Consulting- a national social media marketing to moms agency. Despite last year's recession, we have experienced dramatic growth, including the launch of a Toronto-based team joining our 20 Boston-based staff.

 Last year, we worked with over 150 national brand and agency clients, experienced 25% revenue growth, and expect exponential client growth this year.
 
Here's a brief job description:
 
 Mom Central Consulting seeks to hire an experienced, dynamic Account Supervisor to join our fast-growing national team and lead social media and marketing campaigns with Fortune 500 brands. Ideal candidate will have 6 to 20 years of public relations, agency or marketing experience, preferably in consumer marketing. This person will help us run multiple high-profile national campaigns, lead the strategic direction of individual programs, and coordinate client pitches. Our staff is highly collaborative, energized, and passionate about our work. Salary commensurate with experience.
 
 These full-time positions are based one in the Boston area, and one to open our New York City office. We are also open to part-time consulting from remote locations.
 
 Responsibilities
 
 * Overall management of national marketing and social media campaigns with Fortune 500 brands, working closely with clients.
 
 * Strong interpersonal and communication skills to identify client needs and brainstorm program solutions.
 
 * Develops comprehensive strategic project plans for assigned projects including resource assignments and commitment dates.
 
 * Identifies business development and "add-on" opportunities as they relate to a specific project.
 
 * Manages overall program budgets, as well as manages and mentors junior staff.
 
 Please contact jobs@momcentral.com if interested.
 
 Thanks so much!

Stay-at-home-moms Dominate Social Media

Mothers that stay home with children have an extremely difficult job. Cooking, cleaning, teaching, playing chauffeur and occasionally peacemaker can be all in a day’s work. That means a little leisure time can go a long way; hence the staggering number of stay-at-home Moms joining social media sites.

A Retail Advertising and Marketing Association study showed that more than 60 percent of stay-at-home moms are more likely to use Facebook, more than 42 percent are more likely to use MySpace and nearly 17 percent are more likely to use Twitter. That's compared to average adults – 50 percent of which use Facebook, 34 percent that use MySpace and 15 percent that use Twitter.

So what factors stand as the underlying reasons behind these trends? Staying in touch with friends and family has become easier with social media, and the concept spans generations. Instead of moms hanging laundry in the back yard and gabbing or burning up the phone lines all day, they can accomplish the same on Facebook or MySpace. Moms use social media for advice. Instead of living through “old wives tales” or taking a wild chance, Moms can seek out legitimate opinions from peers and experts on any subject. Nearly 94 percent of the Moms surveyed said they seek advice before buying products or services, and more than 97 percent said they give advice on products or services purchased.

Social media has a 24-hour per day availability. It proves very difficult to check or update various profiles during the day when kids need full attention, so Moms usually update whenever they find a free moment or late at night.

Social media trends will come and go as the sites develop and become even more integrated in our everyday lives. What started out as the meeting place for hip, young, Internet savvy young adults has become the new marketplace for the 35+ crowd. No wonder that marketers searching for stay-at-home Moms have turned their intense focus on social media sites.

Marketing to African American Moms

Known to marketers as The Big 3: Asians, Latinos, and African American dollars mean big business. Marketers have strategically targeted these growing demographics with great success rates for a number of years. As the conversation between consumers and brands moved online, ethnocentric tactics took a back seat. Companies just dipping their toes into Facebook, blogs, and Twitter probably won’t be thinking too much about reaching their exact or even secondary targets. If campaigns for minority groups prove few and far between, what chance do African American women (a minority group of a minority group) stand in the online marketing space?

Well Pepsi knows exactly how to properly leverage their online presence, and recently began their push towards an important target for them, African American women. In 2010 Pepsi will engage African American women through a number of vehicles, especially social media sites and community building. PepsiWeInspire.com features six themes: Love, Laughter, Hope, Joy, Beauty, and Wisdom. Each tenant has an African American celebrity as the featured blogger; so far actresses Raven-Symone, Queen Latifah, Taraji P. Henson, and singer Keyshia Cole offer their personal thoughts and have been featured in the campaign’s print advertisements. The “We Inspire” campaign proves to be a natural offshoot of Pepsi’s overarching and eternally optimistic “Refresh Everything” initiative.           

General Mills, J&J, and P&G all serve as pioneers in the wooing of mommy bloggers using social media, but Pepsi is the first company to specifically target African American mothers. A campaign centered around six positive themes, and asking a group of women to highlight encouraging stories from their lives makes for a strong increase in brand equity for this target market. If Pepsi succeeds with this campaign I expect a lot of other brands to jump at the chance to plan strategic social media tactics directed at a very niche audience. In the end, the real winners will be the consumers who become closer to each other, and ultimately the brands they love.

A Terrble Marketing Outreach from "Down Under:" Men's Briefs

I have started calling my email inbox "Pompei" as I daily get inundated and buried under about 12 feet of emails from marketing folks seeking me to blog about their products. Some intrigue me- and I'm quick to respond. Some instantly lose my attention and get trashed.

And then, once in while along comes a pitch from a PR team that surely must have started on Saturday Night Live. As I read this one, I looked around for Candid Camera- but I know the PR person pitching it and the agency she works at. So, it's the real deal. And it starts with Men in Briefs:

Topic: what to get the guy in your life for the holidays

Solution: Men's underwear of course!

The email pitch sent to me:

This Holiday Wrap ‘The Package’ Properly

Deck the halls with balls…
Nuts roasting on an open fire…

Do tight, uncomfortable underwear have you changing or omitting lyrics to your favorite holiday melodies?  If so, bring the cheer back to where it counts most – your underwear.

Have I completely lost it… stick with me..

EQUMEN, the brand behind the core precision undershirts (aka “Wondershirt) that slim and trim up to three inches instantly, introduces a new line of precision underwear that promise a load of health benefits including:

• Improving posture and gait
• Contouring, smoothing and lifting in all the right places
• Supporting muscles
• Controlling body temperature (keeps the boys at the optimal temperature)
• Managing moisture (no more jock itch)

I will follow up with you in a couple of days regarding how Equmen Precision Underwear (www.equmen.com) can fit into upcoming coverage. In the interim, please contact me for hi-res images and/or samples.

Thank you!

So where does this leave us? Certainly not with a successful marketing to moms campaign. And a guaranteed set back in your relationship:

"Hey honey- HAPPY HOLIDAYS! I love you so much I've bought you underwear, new blades for your razor, and a brand new pair of toe nail clippers!