The New York Times has a great roundup of the current effort to relate better to women and moms in the "consumer product categories." Stuart Elliott, Times columnist, captures the woman focused trend as a way to "inject emotional resonance" to brands like Pepperidge Farms cookies at ArtOfTheCookie, as well as several other new sites. Women, according to Ellliot, who previously were referred to as "homemakers" by these companies, now are known as "Chief Family Officers." Women, especially moms, were the original social networkers, and this is a sign of recognition that moms are clearly dominating social spaces like MomLogic, and MommyCast (transparency here: my wife is Gretchen, MommyCast co-host.)
Some of the other sites focused socially on moms, mentioned in the article are Goldfish, Pantene, Clorox's Food Division, Fiskars Scissors, and of course Dove, with their wonderful "Talk to Your Daughters" campaign.
I have to say, though, as I read some of this copy on these sites, I cringed, as it is obviously written by well- meaning young copywriters. As we age we become wiser (although I think my kids would disagree), and many of these sites could use a genuine injection of the what makes mom tick...they're a powerful force on the Internet.
I couldn't agree more. It's about time these companies discovered the value of women. Now, they need to hire women with real life experience to reach out to them!
Posted by: Gretchen | Nov 28, 2007 at 01:27 PM