No One Likes To Be Called Names

This is something our mothers taught us.  Along with don't point and chew with your mouth closed.  Yet, as marketers we feel compelled to come up with catchy names to describe consumer groups, and understandably so.  How can you effectively communicate with "women, 25-49" unless you start to see them as individuals with particular ways of viewing the world?  Where the name calling starts to get ugly is when these catchy descriptors leave the boardroom and migrate into actual campaigns.  "Soccer Mom" making its way out into the world is what ultimately moved minivan market share right over to SUV's.  The backlash got attached to the specific name, instead of the real issue - that people don't like to be stereotyped.  Even more so today, when The Individual is TIME's Person of the Year. 

According to an Ad Age article, brands like Nintendo, GM and Sprint got a little overexcited by this lucrative market segment - known for her type-A personality, adoption of new technology and influence over her peers.  Sprint even started to use the A-word in their advertising, helping to fuel the Beta Mom and Slacker Mom backlashes.  Turns out most women don't like being pigeonholed into the "take charge" Alpha Mom Escalade any more than they did being shoved into the ready-to-serve Soccer Mom minivan.  As pointed out in the article, these personas don't even begin to reflect the diversity of mothers out there.  Three mom subsegments for the entire mom universe?  Maria Bailey, author of "Trillion-Dollar Moms: Marketing to a New Generation of Mothers" counts more than 50.

Such obvious we-get-you blather exactly spells out the problem many women have with being a so-called Alpha Mom, Ms. Bailey said, which is that "that they don't want to be pushovers for marketers to influence." And that, she says, is exactly what the term has come to imply.

The problem isn't targeting Alpha Moms.  Meeting the needs of this high income, influential group has plenty of upside.  Better to focus your communications on how your product or service appeals to her need states and leave the name calling in the boardroom, where it belongs.