P&G looks towards helping the mum of the future

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FMCG giant P&G has focused the majority of its brand strategies around praising, rewarding and catering to mums, and last week it revealed what it believes to be the mum of the future.

At a media event in London last week, it pinpointed four archetypes for “tomorrow’s women”: happy bohemes, green explorers, premium professionals and karma hunters.

Premium professionals would be familiar to us already as the ambitious career women, who are informed, healthy and utilise technology to manage their busy lives. The concept of the Chinese “Tiger Mum” will become more widespread as the premium professional’s ambitions spread from her own personal ones to those of her family.

Happy bohemes are expressive and creative, and are heavily involved in social media and affinity groups. They have a focus on “we time” vs “me time”.

Green explorers are wholesome, relaxed, have values around sharing and participation, have a strong focus on ethics and believe in creating a better world. They’re the type that might be inclined to buy an electric car, or run many of their errands via bicycle.

The karma hunters are seeking “me time” over “we time”, in pursuit of holistic health and happiness.

Clearly not all women will be from one “tribe” but may have traits of several, however brands wanting to engage with this audience will gain value from tapping into those varying priorities.

For example, I can see premium professionals having a myriad of apps on a super smartphone to help them manage their daily lives, with multi tasking being the norm. However I can also see a premium professional mum having an eco-conscience, and wanting both “we time” and “me time”. Brands that can facilitate this will be of great value to her.

The concept of balancing demands on time will be a continual challenge. P&G also showcased some major insights on this thanks to a recent European study of 10,000 mums in 13 countries.

They found that a major issue was having hardly any free time at all – the average was less than an hour a day. UK mums are particularly strapped for time, with an average of 26 minutes spare a day, compared with the seemingly more leisurely Finnish, who say they have 69 minutes spare a day.

I can see how this study will be of great value to future product development and market strategies. Saving ordinary women time was already the crux of P&G’s beauty TV campaign last year, when it created a three-part ad series showing how its improved products such as hair dye and make up could be applied quicker than ever, and achieve professional results.

In doing this, it has realised that shaving a few seconds off a range of daily tasks can add up to release more of that precious time.

P&G only revealed some teasing nuggets of its study, but one of the many comparisons I predict the firm will be making is to get to the bottom of what Finnish mums do to have so much more free time, and taking this on board.

Being the enabler of that free time to increasingly busy mums will ensure they play a priceless role in the lives of its target audience – and that is one key way for brands to create real emotional engagement and lasting loyalty.

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