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New Rules Of Mama Marketing: Older, Greener

by Sarah Mahoney @mahoney_sarah, July 12, 2010

Moms The motherhood market is both graying and greening, according to a new report from Experian Marketing Services, and the changes are fairly sweeping.

"The universe of moms of children 18 and under who are 35 plus has grown from 40.9 million to 44.9 million in just four years," Jan Jindra, Experian product manager, tells Marketing Daily. "And of moms who are 35 and under -- the group most likely to be influenced by advertising -- we are seeing big shifts in their willingness to buy green products."

That's exciting, she says, because typically it has been older consumers who have been most likely to purchase green products. "While the true 'Brown' segment has stayed very consistent at about 20%, we've seen the number of younger moms classified as 'Potential Greens' decline from 48% to 25%, as they are moving into the 'Thinking Green' and ultimately, the 'Buying Green' categories.

She attributes that shift to more information available about the impact of green choices on children's health, whether it's reading about organic milk or the benefits of free-range chicken. The growth trend toward green purchases among younger moms, at this point, is outpacing the 35-and-older mothers by at least 5% a year.

She says the report also indicates that the recession -- with a more intense focus on household budgets -- has helped increase women's influence in all family purchases, with 69% of moms saying they are the most influential person in the household when it comes to making purchase decisions.

The study also puts the population of moms who work outside the home (either full- or part-time) at 62%, or 19.6 million moms, while 21.5% (or 6.8 million) identify themselves as stay-at-homers. Some 30.8%, or 9.7 million, are unmarried.

green eco-friendly, marketing, moms, research

2 comments about "New Rules Of Mama Marketing: Older, Greener".

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Andrea Learned from Learned On, LLC, July 13, 2010 at 8:32 a.m.
"Having a baby changes everything" (used by Johnson & Johnson for an ad campaign a while back, but surely not first coined by the brand...) is SO true when it comes to green. Even though people know it is good for their health and well-being to eat, clean and live more "green," they aren't forced to make those choices as adults with no kids. When that first baby arrives, it's an almost overnight transformation. The great thing is that in this digital age, consumers can really put the heat on brands to deliver on those greener expectations. Duly empowered, they realize "wow, we could have asked for this before Junior arrived!"
So, it's good to remember that when a person transitions into more green living due to a baby... that's just the starting point. They'll learn and learn and likely become all the more committed to "green" or sustainable life practices as they age. Green mom bloggers, a segment I partnered with Social Studies Group to research - can be key for marketers to understand and learn from... (We called it the green mom eco-cosm http://learnedon.com/2010/01/green-mom-eco-cosm/)
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Terra Wellington from Wellington Media, July 13, 2010 at 10:59 a.m.

This was the track that my publisher and I saw when I wrote my book The Mom's Guide to Growing Your Family Green (St. Martin's Press). The research overwhelmingly showed that moms were the most empowered purchasers or influencers of purchasing in households.

However, what I have seen is an increasingly polarization in green based on politics. If you are left minded, then you are much more green in all sense of the large umbrella. Right minded, then you probably only partially buy into green, such as the healthy elements of non-toxic products. With this understanding, lately I have been successful in working with companies to find angles that market green as a dual sword of "for the health of it" and how that also has planet repercussions.