We’re Busy, not Beautiful, Say Mums in BabyCentre Survey

BabyCentreBrands are worlds apart from the pregnant women and mums they are trying to engage when it comes to the way they represent their target audience in advertising and marketing, according to the latest instalment of BabyCentre’s annual research for marketers, published today.

Despite expecting and new mums placing great importance on being portrayed realistically in ads, brands are alienating them by sticking to stereotypes rather than listening to real women, the study, entitled Mind the Gap: the Disconnect between Mums and Marketers, finds. BabyCentre’s report shows the problem is set to become exacerbated as more and more millennials become pregnant and enter motherhood.

BabyCentre is the pregnancy and parenting digital destination owned by Johnson & Johnson, the consumer products, healthcare and medical devices company. It reaches more than 45m parents worldwide each month, with 2.7m BabyCentre members accessing the site via mobile each month. It also has two apps – My Pregnancy Today and My Baby Today – which attract 248,000 unique montly users. In the UK meanwhile, 85 per cent of new and expectant mums online visit BabyCentre each month.

The report is part of BabyCentre’s annual 21st Century Mum Insight Series. It’s based on multiple sources, including an in-depth survey conducted by BabyCentre with pregnant women and new mums recruited through BabyCentre.co.uk, supplemented with motherhood stage-based social listening through the BabyCentre Talk Tracker and qualitative research gathered from one-on-one conversations with survey sample members. The survey was fielded to pregnant women or mums with children up to 5 years old between 18 and 25 September 2015, with 1,007 respondents, including 281 pregnant women and 726 mums.

The disconnect
The report reveals that just 14 per cent of new mums and 26 per cent of pregnant women think the way the audience groups they are part of are depicted by brands in advertising and marketing is realistic.

The reality for these audiences differs significantly to how they feel brands portray them. For example, while pregnant women are most likely to identify as being emotional, anxious or uncomfortable, they report that brands are most likely to portray them in advertising as beautiful, glowing and healthy. The picture is similar for mums, who are most likely to describe themselves as busy, loving and emotional, yet they believe brands most commonly portray them as beautiful, confident and glowing.

Seven in 10 pregnant women and mums say it’s important to them that brands portray these groups realistically in ads and marketing. When BabyCentre looked at what makes certain brands a favourite, understanding what it’s like to be a mum scored highly, with 72 per cent of mums saying it was important to them and 35 per cent saying it was very important.

“It’s an immediate turn off for pregnant women and mums if brands don’t get them or try to understand their lives,” said Julie Michaelson, BabyCentre head of global sales. “Looking at the size of this disconnect shows it’s not just a small gap – the figures are way off. For example, brands are 115 per cent more likely to portray pregnant women as ‘glowing’ than the proportion of expectant mums who actually see themselves this way. For the descriptor ‘beautiful’ this leaps to 125 per cent. The result is that brands risk alienating the very people they’re trying to reach because mums feel their communication lacks truth. One mum we spoke to said: ‘If I can’t relate to people in ads, it doesn’t relate to me at all.’”

Let real mums lead the way
One of the most resounding messages in the report is that success means letting real life and real mums take the lead in marketing. While 9 in 10 expectant mums say online reviews of products are influential, the single thing they value most in a review or recommendation is if they know it came from another parent (85 per cent agree). 71 per cent of expectant mums said they trust reviews/recommendations from other mums the most when thinking about the brands they become loyal to, while just 44 per cent said the same of experts.

Similarly, when asked what brands can do to help first-time mums prepare for motherhood, the most popular options were to feature mum reviews (desired by 52 per cent) and to show real life scenarios (56 per cent). In comparison, recommendations from experts were deemed helpful by just 20 per cent of respondents. Brands’ websites and magazines were rated low down the list of sources of information that give mums most confidence (selected by just 6 per cent).

The report also found that brands and retailers are failing to cater for mums in store. Michaelson continued: “One mum in our research told us ‘I can’t do my shopping and hold the push chair and handle a crying baby all at once.’ By bringing reviews and recommendations into the store, having aisles that are wide enough to accommodate a buggy, and cleverly positioning products – for example putting the under-eye concealer with the nappies – brands can show they get real mums and can buy themselves loyalty. And with more and more mums using their smartphones in store to help them make smart buying decisions, retailers and brands can win by bringing mobile into the physical shopping experience.”

The research shows that not addressing the disconnect is going to increasingly put marketers at a disadvantage, as more and more millennials become mums. Millennial mums are more likely than Generation X mums to think it’s important that brands portray pregnant women realistically (70 per cent vs 61 per cent) and believe that a key element that makes a brand or product a favourite is that they understand what it’s like to be a mum (75 per cent vs 69 per cent). They are also 52 per cent more likely than Generation X mums to say that liking a brand’s ads is an important part of what makes a brand a favourite and 29 per cent more likely to re-evaluate their brand choices across multiple categories when they become pregnant.

“Brands must walk a tricky tightrope,” Michaelson concluded. “They need to inspire mums without alienating them. This means not presenting unrealistic representations of mums and their lives. Embracing mums as the experts and empowering them to communicate honestly and truthfully with their peers on brands’ behalves is key to cracking this challenge.”