The recent furore surrounding Heinz and the allegations by Australia’s consumer watchdog that it promoted a sugary snack marketed for toddlers as healthy is a massive wake up call for any brands marketing to mums, the key purchasers of this product category.
While Heinz is certainly not the first brand to adjust the wording on products to promote the product features in a more favourable light, this recent example of a brand (allegedly) behaving badly, raises massive concern over what measures all brands in this industry are taking to sell products – and at what expense, particularly if things don’t work out as planned.
Heinz is a market leading brand, that has been around for generations that is reliable and trusted by mums. Not many brands, particularly new ones, have that privileged and market edge. The fact that Heinz has been accused of falsely marketing products as healthy options for young children when they are not, is the perfect excuse for mums to have a better look at the labelling, ask more questions, chat to friends for other recommendations and at the end of the day, seek out alternative products.
While not good for Heinz, this is an awesome opportunity for other brands that want a look in with this powerful demographic who tightly controls the household grocery budget. In an industry where mums have an abundance of options and brand loyalty is low, now is the time for brands to finesse how they market to mums, properly engage, and basically make sure they are delivering a stand out product that is better than competitors.
To be on the right track, brands need to nail these 5 marketing to mum tips:
#1. Market Research
To know for sure if your product is right for your target market – ask them. You might really want them to like your product, and all observations point that there is a place in the market for your product, but until you actually present the product for your demographic to criticise and assess, you just don’t know. Rich, real conversations provide insight.
There are plenty of ways to go about this to suit every budget. Invite some mums to the office, take the product to a local playgroup, set up a pre-launch trial team, share surveys on social media, test response to brand images. Many times, brands don’t want to hear the truth, fearing it will create more work, but in reality, by asking your demographic what they don’t like about your product or what can be improved, you are going to be able to fix your product to either attract more customers, or make sure you better target who is the right type of customer for your product.
#2. Be honest and keep it real
Not all products can be all things to all people – and that is very often a good thing. It means there is a place in the market for products that excel at certain things. Be open with your communication and focus on your actual strengths. Mums can handle the truth and it helps them assess its suitability. What you might think is a deterrent to a sale for one customer, i.e. it’s expensive, will make it an incentive for another, i.e. it’s premium/exclusive. If there is too much sugar content for one customer, it is the ultimate ‘treat’ product for another.
#3. Connect and relate
Every mum who posts, likes, shares, tweets, pins, recommends, converses with your brand to get to know you better is a sales person representing your brand for free. So value and nurture these connections. If you have advocates, reward them, if you have questions, answer them, if you have feedback, show how you are going to address them in the future, if you have people listening, say something interesting.
And while you’re doing this, drop the sales pitch and corporate barriers to best engage or show how you ‘get her’. Find a brand voice that connects, resonates, engages, inspires. This might be in style of posts, or lifestyle shots, or storytelling.
#4. Believe in your product
Honestly believe that your product is the number 1 product of its kind, or go back to the drawing board until you do. Brand marketers need to be sold on the product’s position in the market place to be able to demonstrate how mums will benefit with the product. If you do not believe – then no one else will.
#5. Delight and be extraordinary
To generate extraordinary results, extraordinary relationships, extraordinary product, extra work is required. Like what Warren Buffet has previously said, brands should ‘delight’ the customer, not just ‘satisfy’ them. Most brands satisfy customers – be the few who delight. Go above and beyond with your processes, service and relationship building and in the process, respect, value, impress the consumer with credible product from a brand that genuinely cares and ultimately inspires.
Christie Nicholas is the MD of Kids Business Communications – Australia’s leading pr and marketing agency entirely focussed on connecting brands with mums via industry expertise, connections, passion & purpose.
