With technology, now more than any other time in history, we have the ability to segment groups of consumers at a number of different levels (psychographically, geographically, demographically, etc.), yet there is still a tendency to talk about consumer groups - especially women and even more especially mothers - as one big group with common desires and interests. First, let me say that I have tremendous respect for the two organizations behind this report, Six Months With Millions of Moms, posted today on MediaPost. It currently is the most emailed article on the site, according to MediaPost's own rankings, so clearly there is a lot of interest. My concern is that brands would just take these insights and run with them, without doing any further probing with their own mom consumer segments. Example - recently we completed a project involving consumer insight work and in this particular case, Lesson Number 8, quoted below, didn't hold water.
Lesson 8: Moms Want Better Packaging.Moms want packaging that is environmentally friendly and they make purchasing decisions with this in mind. The "three "Rs" are key to moms: reduce, reuse, recycle. If the packaging does not support these, moms lose faith in the brand.
The women we spoke with, many of whom were mothers, said environmentally friendly packaging was "nice" but didn't factor into their purchase decision for this product at all. (Sorry to be so vague, but NDA's and all...). A separate project for a different type of product incited the opposite reaction. In that case, packaging was a real hot button and would affect purchasing and views of the brand.
Secondary research provides an important foundation, but it cannot substitute for understanding your own customers and, in particular, what factors into their decisions when purchasing from your product category or your product/brand in particular. The value is in sparking ideas for the conversations you must have to get to your own actionable insights.
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