The £73bn opportunity for brands selling products and services to parents
For all the big ideas that modern parents have about producing healthy and happy little people, the truth is that children themselves exert massive influence over many of the major decisions we make once they’re born.
We choose to live in locations which afford access to the best schools; holiday in places that will be relaxing and safe with babies in tow; buy cars that have seven seats when we’d prefer a sporty little number; fall hopelessly for the latest must-have trends in plastic toys.
As brand builders with a particular interest in the parenting market, it’s a world we’ve made it our mission to understand, and one that offers valuable business benefits for brands that succeed in being welcomed into the lives of families.
To understand parenting, you’ve got to understand what it means to be a parent, and also what the world looks like through a child’s eye. It’s a complicated mix. Fortunately, we’ve got considerable experience in the field, supporting businesses ranging from private day nurseries to pet stores, retail garden centres and consumer magazines. Our experience also extends to the education sector, which is neatly complementary in supporting the needs of young people.
Of course, we’d advise that building a compelling brand proposition is the first step towards ensuring that your revenues comprise some of the estimated £100,000 that it now costs to raise a child in the UK (a rough average based on Moneysupermarket research). For the record, raising a girl will cost you more than a boy, with the former costing £108,884 and the latter costing £79,176.
That money goes on childcare, clothing, electronics, sporting equipment and toys, among other things. And in spite of the occasional set back and set to, most parents will grudgingly admit that it’s a price worth paying.
To put that opportunity into perspective, there were 731,213 live births in the UK in 2018 – suggesting a total parenting spend of more than £73bn over 18 years. It’s both a lucrative and competitive market, so what would we recommend?
Build a brand for parents and children
Every product and service has its own defining features, and that is no different for products and services designed to appeal to parents and young people. We’d always recommend a holistic approach to branding – ensuring consistent messaging across every consumer touch-point, be it the look and feel of a website or retail outlet, staff uniforms, brand advertising or public relations and content marketing activity. This is a crowded and competitive market and creating standout is essential. However, it’s also important to consider that you are attempting to appeal to two very different sets of consumers with very different values, and that your parenting products and services need to reflect that. Pester power can be a factor in influencing spend but savvy parents will still need to be reassured that they are getting value for money in buying safe, healthy and sustainable products. Building a brand for parents or children isn’t going to work – you need to build a brand that appeals to both.
Channels to market
Deciding on your channels to market will largely depend on the parenting products and services you are offering. While digital disruption has offered multiple new options beyond traditional print, PR and above the line advertising, some of those traditional options might still be the most effective for your products and services. Some brands are still all about brochures and packaging, others need only exist online.
Our work with the Kids Allowed nursery provider facilitated the brand’s visibility and re-defined customer touch-points to ensure the experience of the brand lived up to its true offer across multiple channels. Truth was tasked with positioning Kids Allowed as the leading childcare provider in the North West – future proofing the brand for expansion. The Kids Allowed product is an impressive one and the business has been a massive success, as indicated by its recent sale. The strength in the brand’s offering has been through listening to what parents really need from their childcare provider. As such, the customer service is outstanding, with so much more than nursery provisions. Before and after school care, holiday clubs, concierge services and a free coffee when you drop your child off in the morning… to name but a few. Truth provided brand strategy and developed the visual identity to deliver better conversion rates and springboards Kids Allowed from a local player to a regional leader. Digital execution included a ‘Your Day, Your Way’ social media campaign, which invited parents to tell us why they would like their child to benefit from Kids Allowed’s range of services - for a chance to win free childcare for a whole year at its Knutsford nursery.
Our work on behalf of Lifecycle Marketing represents another approach. The brand is probably most renowned for Emma’s Diary - the parenting club endorsed by the Royal College of Midwives. The business wanted to expand its reach beyond this and acquired two brands into its portfolio: Families (magazine) and Mums-in-the-know (web and social community groups). Both brands operated on a hyper-local level and were more colloquial in conviction; however, Emma’s Diary is part of a large corporate and the need to integrate these brands whilst still enabling engagement beyond baby was the remit of our brief. Both received a soft re-launch under the Families brand, however, we needed to deliver an evolved brand experience so as not to dilute the intimacy both businesses had enjoyed.
With so many options, it’s important to select the channels to market that will deliver the best results.
Working with parenting influencers
Peers arguably remain the major brand advocates for parenting products and services. Other mums and dads are happy to help with advice and recommendations for the best clothes, pushchairs and holidays. The advent of digital technology has empowered ordinary people to exert extraordinary powers online, providing brands with new ways to reach customers. Understanding influencers is an essential process for any brand hoping to appeal to parents. Traditional advertising is one route, but it might be more beneficial to find a way to engage with parenting bloggers.
Then there are kids themselves. A 2016 study from Facebook for Business gave an interesting highlighted the extent to which parents believe their children influence their own buying decisions.
It found that the modern family is an inclusive environment where friends, experts, brands and especially kids’ opinions are encouraged and taken seriously. From the everyday moments like “what movie should we watch?” to big-ticket purchases like “PC or Mac?,” children in particular are shaping the direction money is flowing at home.
Facebook’s research will undoubtedly be skewed towards the platform itself, but it still offers some interesting insight for brand budget holders. Forty one percent of millennial parents globally said mobile devices help them be a better consumer when making purchases for their family, compared to 30% of Boomers. Globally, parents are more likely to use Facebook when making family-purchasing decisions (5x more than parenting websites, 7x more than magazines, 3x more like than a leading online video platform).
Fifty six per cent of mums globally say they follow business on Instagram, 62% of mums globally say Instagram is a place to learn about products and services.
57% of parents globally say they purchase more child-specific products than their parents did.
Kids influence how much money is spent (71%), how people spend free time (70%), where people go on vacation (64%), how often people eat out (58%), where people live (43%).
Where kids exert the most influence are quick service restaurants (38%), non-alcoholic beverages (25%), packaged food (17%), beauty and personal care (12%).
The lesson here is that understanding your influencers will help you to concentrate your efforts and maximise your return on investment.
Getting fulfilment right
Juggling work commitments with parenting places pressures mums and dads to shop in ways that offer the most convenience. That’s a fact that offers both challenges and opportunities for brands. Research by Pitney Bowes for its 2018 Global Ecommerce Study showed that 46% of US consumers with children in their household were shopping online weekly, versus 23% for those with no children in the household.
In common with other consumers, shoppers with children in their household in the family tend to shop via an online marketplace (61%) versus 40% direct with a retailer.
Consumers are also brand conscious, with 61% knowing that they want to buy from a particular brand. Those that do favour brands are split almost equally between those who value a brand-driven experience over price and those are motivated mainly by price.
Interestingly, a major factor influencing whether consumers complete a purchase was the cost or speed of delivery.
In summary, parents are influenced by their children, respond positively to strong brands that meet their ideals, and are increasingly likely to find inspiration online. Loyalty, however, is acquired through convenience, meaning that the most successful parenting brands will be those that truly deliver products and services in a way that meets the needs of modern parents.
To find out more about Truth Creative’s work with brands for parents and children, visit www.truth-creative.co.uk/parenting