Marketing to Moms: How Millennial Moms Are Changing the Rules

Brands and Millennial Moms

Millennial Moms Demand More of Marketers

Marketers have long recognized the importance of talking to millennials. But as millennials become moms themselves, companies are being forced to find more effective ways to reach this group of tech-savvy moms.

Kraft Canada’s new peanut butter campaign is an example of how marketers are beginning to focus on telling the emotional story rather than the product story. The ad shows a mother giving a teddy bear to her baby; as the baby grows, she takes her bear with her everywhere. Eventually, the child becomes a mother and her baby begins life with a teddy bear as well. Very few shots of the product or the brand are shown.

According to Leisha Roche, senior director of marketing for grocery brands at Kraft Canada, “The companies that will win in the future are those that find a way to humanize their brands.” “You can’t just push your brand any more.”

Millennial Moms Live in a Digital World of Their Own Making

Unlike the generations of moms before them, this new group of millennial moms grew up with the Internet their entire lives, and are consuming media almost exclusively in their digital world. Brands need to understand that their messages must be able to compete where people are posting interesting, relevant, human content all the time.

Millennial Moms Look for Emotional Connections in Advertising

And though moms of all ages resent boring advertising, or advertising that doesn’t speak to them, millennial moms are showing themselves to be much more vocal in their opinions, and better at using online platforms to share those opinions. Today’s moms want to see ads that reflect the reality of their everyday lives – with all of the good, bad and ugly. Not the outdated stereotypes that are infuriating to so many.

As marketers continue to trust that moms can make the connection between an emotional message and their brand without being beaten over the head with it, they’ll begin to cement those important relationships with this group of moms that will build for years to come.