Mommy WOM
September 10th, 2007
Long time no see, blogfriends! While I have been keeping busy for the last few weeks with my newest production (photo shamefully shown here), I have also been experiencing the Mom WOM phenomenon first hand.
There are entire companies and marketing practices devoted to the conversations between mothers and harnessing their brand recommendations. There are very sound business reasons for that – women are major influencers in a huge range of purchase decisions. We’re not just talking formula and groceries either, retailer Best Buy estimates that women influence 90% of consumer electronics purchases. In addition their pocketbook power, working moms in particular also tend to have larger numbers of daily contacts than the average “Joe” – 46 per day according to a Lucid Marketing report from December.
Much has been written about motivations for moms spreading Word of Mouth recommendations (both positive and negative), but as the recipient of lots of well-meaning unsolicited parenting advice, I have been thinking more about why certain recommendations spark me to action and others are simply filed away. I can identify 4 major factors that weigh in on whether a recommendation sparks action, the last of which is potentially unique to Mom WOM.
- Relevance of recommendation. With a few weeks to go until delivery, a colleague offered me her “soothing motions glider”. I didn’t really understand what it was or why I’d need it. 2 sleepless nights after bringing our son home, a nurse told us that this item would help our newborn sleep. At that point, I would have jumped naked through rings of fire to acquire this previously-irrelevant item.
- Credibility of the speaker. If Dina Lohan tried to offer me parenting advice, I would file it in the “do the opposite” mental drawer.
- Desire to raise MY credibility with the recommender. If my hero/mentor tells me to try/read/see/do something, I may do it just because I want an opening to speak with them again, or to demonstrate my respect for their counsel.
- And last, but definitely not least in the MOM WOM realm: GUILT, or the desire to always do what’s right & best for the kids. We updated family and friends about our pregnancy progress using Baby’s First Site – an application that allows non-coders to easily build cute websites showing off their kids. 6 hours after the birth of our child, my husband had uploaded digital photos to the baby’s website and sent the site to family and friends. 3 days later, I received an email from my college roommate in Chicago with her “Baby’s First Site” for her child – born just a day after ours. She even mentioned that seeing our website efficiency had made them feel bad about not doing a site for their kid, so they decided to follow suit.
What motivates you to act on recommendations you receive? I’d love to read your thoughts in between playing Mozart and reading common Chinese phrases to my 2 week old - another mom told me that could help him compete in Economy 3.0…
Other posts by Virginia.
Billy says:
He’s beautiful, VeeDub. And yes, it’s OK for him to be beautiful… but only for a few more months.
By the way, I act on the recommendations I receive from people I respect and people who are successful at the things I long to be great at (like not ending sentences with ‘at’).
Hello, Jennifer.
That is all.
September 11th, 2007 at 2:11 pmLionel Menchaca says:
Woohoo! That’s just what the world needs—another Miracle. Really happy for you and I think you did a great job translating this into a WOM issue.
When I was a new dad, a fifth major factor came into play—desperation. One of our friends had recommended a book called “The Baby Whisperer.” At first I thought… just another book recommendation.
A few weeks later I’d come home in the late afternoon to find a son who would be in a really bad mood, and that usually translated into a night without much sleep. We had ruled out the usual stuff–he wasn’t hungry, had a clean diaper, etc.
That’s when we pulled the book out and learned that naps tend to be really important, even though little ones might not fall asleep right away. Soon after, we got him on a good nap schedule and life was good.
Congrats again!
September 11th, 2007 at 2:47 pmJennifer says:
Ah… I miss Billy.
And actually… that ‘at’ was okay.
And I miss Veedub… and I am very sorry I haven’t been by to meet Fletcher yet!
AND… as a non-Mommy with LOTS of new Mommy friends, I have been absolutely floored by all the Mommy WOM. From the overlapping gift registries to immediate conversations about anything from birth to naptime to college savings for goodness’ sake. There’s nothing quite like babies to get people talking. And why not?
Certainly, no product or brand can replicate the excitement over one’s first child (ask my little brothers… the next two aren’t really all that exciting)… but tapping into those milestones, those events, those real needs and discoveries… that’s where the conversations happen!
Even if that conversation happens to be about the best baby booger sucker on the market.
September 12th, 2007 at 6:34 amMr. Steve says:
Dad-to-be here, and I was amazed at how many people were offering us their registries. Seriously. No work needed, just copy our answers. But, as with all WOM movements, we’ve had to take those recommendations into account, while making our own decisions. Certainly, we respect the opinions of the experienced and the evangelists, but not everything will work for us.
One thing that Mommy WOM does so much better than other WOM movements is that deviants are STRONGLY discouraged. Here in SC, epidurals are common-place. Our hospital claims that over 95% of their deliveries are done with epidurals, a national high. So when my wife proclaimed that she wanted to try natural childbirth, she was (and still is) bombarded with literature, phone calls, and askance looks by the Epidural Evangelists.
We value and cherish everyone’s advice. And about 99% of it, we are taking and running with. That’s the other thing about Mommy WOM…all of it is genuine. A sincere interest in helping your “neighbor” through a difficult time. Sleep schedules. Pediatrician recommendations. To breastfeed or not to breastfeed. Everyone remembers “just trying to get by” in the first few weeks (months, in my mom’s case…okay, years), and everyone remembers the joy of that first full night’s sleep, and that first smile. Why on earth wouldn’t you want to share that joy? To me, that’s what is really at the heart of all Word Of Mouth.
September 12th, 2007 at 7:52 amJohn Bell says:
Beware. Now that you are an official “mom blogger” you will start to recieve pitches from clumsy marketers to try their products…
September 12th, 2007 at 12:58 pmWe missed you today but it was a great meeting(not nearly as great had you been here, of course)
The Zone Read » Blog Archive » links for 2007-09-11 says:
[...] Brains On Fire Blog » Blog Archive » Mommy WOM Nice post and cute baby, both from Virginia Miracle. (tags: mom wom) [...]
September 13th, 2007 at 6:36 pm