Moms Give Up High Heeled Shoes and Lipstick For Search

Wednesday, December 09, 2009

Moms are a hot target audience for many marketers, given that they are often the primary household decision maker.

Moms make choices involving their family's health, well-being and livelihood and this transcends across various different categories including health, grocery needs, mealtime choices, auto, apparel and even travel.

According to BabyCenter's 21st Century Moms Report, a new mom is born every 7 seconds!

It's no wonder, then, that this year, we saw a flurry of research reports including The Rise of the Real Mom published by AdAge, Power Moms by Nielsen, and eMarketer's Moms Online: More Influential Than Ever. These new reports speak to the powerful influence of Moms and the growing importance of the internet and social media in their lives.

As a search expert with Mom on the brain, Google was curious to learn more specifically about Moms and Search. To accomplish this, we partnered with BabyCenter, a Moms expert, on a joint research study designed to take a look into the mindset and motivations behind decision-making Moms.

Just days ago, we released the findings from our new study, conducted with OTX Research and Sterling Brands, titled, "The Four Truths About Moms and Search". Here are some highlights:

Truth 1 of 4: The Stork Delivers Search

• Mothers conduct nearly twice as many searches as non-mothers: the study showed that before becoming a Mother, participants averaged 11 searches per week -- while Mothers averaged 21 searches per week.
• Searching is now the number one activity conducted by Moms online, surpassing e-mail.

Truth 2 of 4: Moms Become Black Belts in Search

• 3 out of 4 Moms believe that they have become better at searching versus a year ago.
• More than 1/3 of Moms don't make it past the top section of the first page of search results, which includes both paid and organic results.
• More than half of Moms actually search via full sentence queries, such as, "What should baby poop look like?" to zoom in on more specific results.

Truth 3 of 4: Search is Mom's GPS to Store

• Moms use search engines throughout their purchase decision making process; half of the Mothers surveyed use search during the awareness, familiarity and consideration stage of this process.
• Expecting Moms and Moms with Teens are even more likely than the average mom to use Search Engines during the loyalty stage: to stay in touch with a brand and keep up to date with new offers and products.
• 53% of Moms say they have every expectation of seeing well-known brands highlighted within a sponsored link, and 59% of Moms say they would click on a coupon noted in a sponsored search result.
• 55% of Moms can link a purchase in a physical store back to a search conducted via a search engine.

Truth 4 of 4: Search is Mom's Back Up Brain

• Moms most often delegate activities like finding recipes, reviews of products/services and finding coupons/deal to search engines.
• Moms are passionate about search. In fact, 56% of Moms say they would give up high heeled shoes for search, and 53% would give up lipstick!
• When we asked Moms to choose if Google was a family member, friend, colleague, manager or acquaintance, 65% of Moms consider Google a close friend or a family member.

These truths reveal to marketers that motherhood creates a unique search window during which a valuable connection can be made. To make sure that messaging is getting through to Moms, marketers need to make sure they appear prominently on the first page of results when Moms enter both broad and specific queries into a Search Engine. Finally, marketers should not underestimate the power of search to drive upper purchase funnel activities and to connect with Moms on an emotional level.

Posted by Jenny Liu, Industry Marketing Manager, CPG