Becoming a mother can affect a woman emotionally, physically, and practically...but it rarely brings fundamental change to what we value and what we don’t.
As a new mother – and a brand strategist – I find myself caught between two worlds. One day I'm wandering the baby aisle wondering who on earth makes the decisions about how these brands are positioned. And the next I'm in a boardroom staring at a brand’s ‘gatekeeper mum’ segmentation analysis, wondering who on earth these pen portraits are in the real world. They don’t describe the mothers I know. We don't morph into a new consumer typology when we have a baby, adopt a shared ‘mum’ worldview. Quite the opposite. We become more complex consumers. Not less. Our role in life is broader now, not narrower. Becoming a mother involves both change, but also unchange.
The change? Well, our spending patterns and triggers evolve. We buy things we didn’t before, possibly in differently ways – shopping more often, more online, or in altogether different stores. Money can be tighter than usual as parenthood brings altered working patterns, and more pressures on the family budget. This means concepts of value might shift, or loyalty may look different.
There’s no doubt our media habits change – just look at every new mother's Google search history and chat-app usage. Sudden, deep needs for information on sleep-schedules, swaddling, baby carriers, evolving into searches like ‘wtf is tummy time?’ and ‘are baby swimming lessons a massive waste of money?’. I think I’d rather share a no-make-up-selfie than my search history.
And it’s fair to say our influences change. Or at least, the dynamics of influence around us. It's inevitable – you try some of those searches and see what happens to your social feeds and ad-pop-ups. Algorithms drive us ever-deeper into the filter bubble. Marketers are well aware of the power of the Insta-mum – some being mini media empires with half-million communities, product lines and international publishing contracts – but the continual co-opting of these women's reach and tone via sponsored content plays often feels clumsy and opportunistic. As Millennials, the nascent blogger-turned-celebrity generation, we can smell this stuff a mile away.
