• Ad Age, Monday, May 21, 2007 11:15 AM

Logic dictates that if there are Alpha Moms, there also must be Beta Moms. The latter--the self-proclaimed antithesis of the super-achieving Alpha model--are lashing back. The problem many women have with being a so-called Alpha Mom, says Maria Bailey, CEO of mom-marketing firm BSM Media, is that "that they don't want to be pushovers for marketers to influence."

In fact, Bailey counts more than 50 subsegments of moms (with some overlap; for example, home-schooling moms tend also to be Christian moms). How, then, should marketers navigate the minefield that is mommy marketing?

One suggestion Bailey makes in her book--"Trillion-Dollar Moms: Marketing to a New Generation of Mothers"--is to wage life-stage-based marketing. One example: Kara Forney's local pregnancy guides, "The Bump," which offer advertisers access to the thousands of newly pregnant women who enter the market every day looking to buy baby gear in their local markets.

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