Mums and the word

Reading the Trends article “Making your messages strike home” (MW 17 September), I was struck by how mums as consumers are really, of course, just women as consumers, amplified.

Choice question: Networking has long influenced women’s decisions
Choice question: Networking has long influenced women’s decisions

A mum’s influences and her media selection is totally in line with how women, with or without children, source their information and make brand choices – by listening, by talking, by researching and “on the go” – the latter accounting for the high percentage of final purchase decisions being made in-store.

Social media, long before it was identified and named, has formed the basis of how women have made decisions throughout time. Women are natural networkers and word of mouth has always played a major role in their brand and product choices.

As the article asserts, the world of UK mums is complex and busy, and media planning needs to reflect this. But those marketers who take time to listen to women know that busy complex lives are a universal reality for women and that every aspect of the marketing mix needs to reflect this if their messages are to strike home in the hearts and minds of women, whether they’re mums or not.

Sam Jordan
Managing Director
Baber Smith