The Battle of the Moms — Actionable Applications for the New World

Since the end-of-the-world began, Marketers and non-marketers alike have been inundated with reports and opinions on “the new normal” — fundamental psychographic and behavioral changes to society in response to COVID. I mean, we get it — what else would we talk about?

While there’s no doubt it’s fascinating to discover swearing spiked on Mumsnet, a British parenting forum, every time there was an announcement about school closures. Where these analyses fall short, though, are how brands can modify their marketing strategies. Which, as fate would have it, is precisely what we set out to do. We focused on someone close to our heart: Our Moms.

So, why Moms?

When we say “Moms,” who do we mean? Too often we’ve worked with brands who fall into the trap of believing their target audience is “Moms.”

“All moms?” we ask.

“Yes, we are a brand for moms,” they respond.

“I see,” we answer back.

It’s a common fallacy that “Moms” are a monolithic audience united by a single demographic trait, akin to pigeonholing 25- to 40-year-olds as “Millennials,” when that group encompasses a young, urban student just as much as a suburban father with three children. “Moms” is both too narrow and too broad a label to define an entire quarter of the population, who are infinitely diverse.

Yes, they may want to be a brand for all “Moms” but this doesn’t mean that all Moms will care—and trying to appeal to every mom may come at the expense of appealing to any one mom in particular.

How do we get around this problem? How do we find the one particular kind of Mom that is more likely to fuel a brand’s next cycle of growth than the rest. From relationship with brands to shopping behavior, we set out to unearth how understanding the differences between types of Moms can significantly shift a brand’s direction and ultimately its fortune.

We set out to unearth how understanding the differences between types of Moms can significantly shift a brand’s direction and ultimately its fortune.

The six Moms personas

To get to the heart of the matter, we fielded a potent blend of syndicated, qualitative, and nationwide quantitative research, which helped us identify and understand the six major mom-personas in the United States. We not only investigated each Mom’s attitudinal and behavioral changes in the past year, but also actionable applications for brands. The building blocks to a communication plan, from times and places to messaging and positioning — the “Where,” “When,” and “How” of Dirt’s elemental brand questions.

In no particular order (because we love all Moms the same), they are:

• The Veteran Mom — As parents of older teenagers or active empty nesters, their role has shifted from guardian to life coach
• The All-American Mom — The most traditional of the “mom” typologies, they ground their identity and sense of self-worth in being the best mom
• The Renaissance Mom — Focused on “what’s next,” and are inspired to reinvent or improve themselves as a mom
• The Alpha Mom — Ambitious and goal-orientated, always one step ahead, trying to do more, better, faster while avoiding burnout
• The Iconoclast Mom — Independent trailblazers who are open-minded and embrace more progressive economic, social, political, and family values/views
• The Crusader Mom — Even though they may feel more uncertain and anxious about the future, they hustle to play the hand they’ve been dealt with tenacity and grit

We even made this useful infographic. Ready to be downloaded today.

As for the results, they did not let us down. Here are 9 “Mom Nuggets” to ponder.

Nine things to know about the Mom personas

1. When asking what factors influence how they perceive themselves as a mom, while the younger Iconoclast Mom is more likely to look at mommy bloggers and social media influencers (1 in 3), the All-American Mom suffered from “keeping up with the Joneses’” being more concerned with their peers and conversations with friends (35%).

2. Alpha Mom’s biggest challenge during the pandemic? Healthy habits, with 38% saying so. We know one of the first things humans do when they enter a busy period is neglect their health. But these are Alpha moms, and they were busy pre-COVID. The big difference these last 12 months? They’ve not been in the position to “outsource” help, meaning less time to focus on their career.

3. For the Renaissance Mom, their biggest challenge during COVID was “work-life balance” with 1 in 3 calling it out. As a self-reinventer by nature, this isn’t to say they didn’t embrace the recent monumental change in culture, but it did mean they had to re-evaluate their values as a mom and find their new groove.

4. Millennial Cliche Alert: The Iconoclast Mom (who yes skews younger) is more than twice as likely than any other Mom to struggle with financial planning and money management.

5. The All American Mom wants brands to offer more actionable advice on being a better Mom — because working hard is part of the American identity and (more likely) because it’s something she can use to stand out in conversation with other Moms.

6. Interestingly and conversely, when asking Alpha Moms what they wish brands did more of, they danced around the same spot, selecting more times than any other option: “Don’t pretend to know what it’s like to be a Mom“ and “don’t talk to me as a Mom, talk to me as someone who has an identity outside of Motherhood” — definitely an opportunity for brands to show more empathy when trying to engage with the more “career-minded” and “confident” Moms out there.

7. Who would have known Princess Diana and Martha Stewart had so much in common? When providing a list of famous moms and seeing who our personas gravitated towards as brand ambassador, these were The Crusader Mom’s top two picks.

8. Veteran Moms were the only persona to not warm to Princess Diana as a brand’s spokesperson. Instead, they would prefer someone like Chrissy Teigen to sell them something.

9. Sorry Kris Jenner and Gwyneth Paltrow fans — both competed for the least likely to sell any of our mom persona’s something. I’m sure they’ll survive.

For more “Mom Nuggets” or if you’re interested to discuss the implications of the full study for your brand, please don’t be shy. Email us here and we’d be more than happy to set something up. We also have the ability to tailor the analysis to be more specific to any brand wanting to reach “all Moms.”

Remember Father’s Day is fast approaching. And with more than one “Dad personas” — spend a little longer thinking about that gift.