Your Best Customer Is Not a 'Woman With Children Under the Age of 4'

Moms are statistically more likely than general consumers to talk about children's products 39% of the time, Health and Health Care 29%, Financial Services 28%, The Home 24%, Food and Dinning 19%, Household Products 19%, Media and Entertainment 14%, Personal Care and Beauty 10%, Travel Services 9%, Beverages 9%, Technology 8%, Automotive 3% and Telecommunications 3%.

Moms spend an average of 18% more time talking about products than other women. This statistic increases to 23% among pregnant women and new moms, who have an average of 109 conversations per week about products and services.

Word-of-mouth (WOM) among women is incredibly desirable for brands, since 67% of these conversations are positive and 60% include direct suggestion to purchase.

We have a white paper on the subject titled "7 Keys To Mom's Heart" that is based on our experience and research with moms.

Rodney Mason, CMO
Moosylvania
The Great State Of Design
www.moosylvania.com

www.twitter.com/rodmoose

www.twitter.com/moosylvania.com

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Rodney at Mooslyvania -- I love all your comments on this blog and elsewhere on ad age, but I think you missed the point this time.

I agree. In fact, I often say to marketing teams, What would "Judy Consumer" think? "Judy Consumer" has had some thoughts, for instance, about BING.

Once you give your target a name and face, the creative sparks start to fly. And it's fun :)

Certainly this transcends the online world. I am always shocked when a large retailer, for example, does not recognize me when I walk in the door over and over again. That is one of the reasons I stopped going to Starbucks...to impersonal...and started going to a local coffee shop that was a mile further down the road. I like the customer service and the feeling that I was a person, not an order (plus the coffee was much better).

Now, let's translate that to larger institutions. Yep, it still applies. Certainly understanding how you reach that customer (meaning I want to efficiently market to moms under 4) is different than how you treat the customer once they have purchased from you.

I completely agree with the need of creating a higher level of communication that is direct, yet allows the customer to communicate with other users. Venues that communicate not just the promotion of a brand, but get to the level of communicating trust, is something that is very rare. How about reaching a specific market with the trust of the healthcare provider to start the conversation? We talk to new moms on a personal basis via thier doctor, and continue direct communication through their entire experience. That is showing you care about them and what they are going through. It provides value through education, and nothing is more important to customers than understanding.

Timothy Kelley
CEO
www.TheBabyCD.com

I think the philosophy behind this article is good, but it's way too broad to be applicable for all brands. Small companies, B2B companies - these firms should absolutely know their best customers by name and have an intimate relationship with them. That's no more applicable now as it was in the years before social media.

Where I have a harder time seeing this apply is larger CPG brands. Is it possible for Coors to know that John Smith, bricklayer from Shimoka, KS is among their "best customers"? Probably not. They sell to millions, and even as social media allows us to establish more personal relationships, it's no less important for a brand to understand the demographics of their audience as a whole. Demographics still apply even in an age of engagement.

Clearly, Facebook, Twitter and other networks are amazing resources for forstering one-to-one interaction between brands and consumers. But sticking with the Coors example for a moment, the 200,000 people on their Fan page doesn't necessarily mean those are Coors' best customers. Are they the most engaged online? Possibly. But "engaged" doesn't necessarily mean "best," nor does it necessarily mean "most brand loyal." When it comes to overall marketing efforts, this community certainly can't be ignored, but they also can't become the profile by which demographics are determined.

Jason Miletsky
CEO, PFS Marketwyse
Author, 'Perspectives on Marketing' and 'Perspectives on Branding'

http://www.getperspectives.com

http://twitter.com/jaymiletsky

Riffing on the comments so far, on a micro-level, SMBs should absolutely know the names, faces, and further nitty-gritty details of their very best customers (and, maybe even more importantly, those customers poised to enter the 'best' realm).

Looking at a macro-level, Coors for instance (as Jay points out) may not be in a position to individually recognize John Smith, Kansas bricklayer, but they can mine findings from social media and other rich customer-centric avenues to create the "John Smiths" profile. Personas, for example (http://nutlug.wordpress.com/2009/08/01/have-you-met-joe-yet/)are a valuable tool to understand, segment, and communicate to key customer groups, even if you can't shake their hands and thank them for their business.

Keith Wiegold
Nutlug Content Marketing
nutlug.wordpress.com

Can you know every single customer's name?

No.

But you can know enough of them to get them to spread the happy word about you.

I agree with Keith, although after reading the link that you left in your comment (good read, by the way), I don't see "personas" as being much different than a combination of standard demographic and psychographic profiles that are typically used to define a larger audience.

I also agree with Keith - there are certainly opportunities to reach out to happy customers and get them to spread the word, and the social media space definitely helps create that momentum. That's especially true when it comes to executing a viral campaign - happy customers make great seeds. But really, the best way to get people to spread the word about you is just to have a consistently good brand, that delivers on its promise time and again.

Jason Miletsky
CEO, PFS Marketwyse
Author, 'Perspectives on Marketing' and 'Perspectives on Branding'

http://www.getperspectives.com

http://twitter.com/jaymiletsky

Sorry - in my last comment, the start of the second paragraph should read "I also agree with Craig.."

Jason and Keith -- Coors needs to know, if not their "best" customers, the customers that love them enough to talk about them.

Even the biggest brand has a top 100 fans. Those are the ones whose names you should know.

Personas are great, but real people are better.

I agree real people are important, especially for viral efforts. But I really have to disagree with your use of the word "better." Accepting that real people are better than demographic profiles is an admission that social media marketing is better than traditional. I'm huge fan of SMM, and work it into client strategies whenever applicable. But Coors top 100 fans aren't going to tell them how their media budgets should be spent on TV, radio, endorsements, arena marketing, etc. Demographic profiles provide more value for those efforts, and those efforts can't be discounted or regulated to the museum simply because social media and engagement marketing has established itself as a legitimate vehicle that's here to stay.

I'm not saying top fans aren't important, but those 100 can't overshadow the demographic profiles of the masses. There's room for both, and both are necessary. CMO's don't have to choose between social media and traditional, when smart money uses the strengths of both.

Jason Miletsky
CEO, PFS Marketwyse
Author, 'Perspectives on Marketing' and 'Perspectives on Branding'

http://www.getperspectives.com

http://twitter.com/jaymiletsky