While in a recent meeting discussing the target audience (mothers in the Tampa Bay Area) for a new client it hit me- I now fall into this category! Being a new mom has been extraordinary, exhausting, frustrating, scary, and perfect all at the same time.
Before having my daughter Chloe, I knew that I wanted to come back to work after maternity leave because my career is important to me. It got me wondering about other career-focused women and how they achieve the “work-family balance”. I found that over the past 30 years there’s been a shift in the number of working women who regard what they do for a living as a career rather than “just a job”. In 1971, 29% of women considered what they did a career, while 71% saw it as just a job, according to a Yankelovich Monitor analysis. Now, 48% of women consider what they do a career, while 43% see it as just a job.
A decade ago, mothers aspired to be “Supermom”. Today’s mothers aim to be practical, efficient, and rooted in reality; they want to be “real” moms. Perhaps more importantly, they want to be real women, with interests that extend beyond their roles as caretakers, providers, and nurturers.
But this doesn’t mean that Mom is no longer in charge of the decision-making at home. According to Boston Consulting Group, women control $4.3 trillion of the $5.9 trillion in U.S. consumer spending, or 73% of household spending. To reach this demographic, marketers need not just to communicate that the goods and services they offer are practical and convenient; they also need to make real moms feel confident and in charge. Marketers should empower these female consumers to delegate to others (spouses, children, brands) so they can have more time to be who they want to be whether it’sat home, at work, or on their own. And marketers have to use new ways to reach a population that rarely has time to sit down to read, watch, or enjoy something without simultaneously doing something else.
What I considered multi-tasking before Chloe is nothing compared to what I juggle now!
