The original Mommy Market is a 1993 movie about 3 children who erase memories of their disgruntled and harried mother via magic to get a new mother in a “Mommy Market”. Today’s Mommy Market, is very real and ought to be very welcoming for its enormous potential to affect buying decisions in a variety of fields including hotels according to the specialist emarketing website emarketer.com. Made up of a diverse and growing group of mama bloggers, these bloggers have one thing in common, all are mothers with a blog. But they all offer opinions, advice, expertise and, most importantly, steer purchases in numerous ways.
Emarketers notes that they have become important marketing partners and powerful allies, spreading the word about products and services to the 32 million moms who go online in the US. The number of moms who blog is far larger than the so-called mommy blogger community. In total, there are 3.9 million women with children under 18 who write blogs, covering a wide variety of subjects, including parenting, couponing, travel, automobiles and technology. While they share one thing in common—having children—they are a diverse group, which is a benefit and a challenge for marketers. The website also suggests that marketers maximize their efforts to reach moms who read and write blogs by aligning their blog marketing with their marketing on Facebook and Twitter. Moms who use blogs also tend to be frequent social media users.
Recently a New York Times article underscored the power of mommy bloggers noting that major corporates have sent popular mommy bloggers to the Beijing Olympics (Sponsored by Procter & Gamble) and to the Oscars (courtesy of Kodak) besides a road-trip to Disney World in a Chevy Traverse. No major hotel players yet but it likely won’t be long before resorts and city center hotels follow suit.
Finding a “central” place to reach a substantial number of mommy bloggers remains a challenge due to the fragmented and diverse nature of topics, lack of metrics or even their viability. A few sites purport to be a catch-all but are unlikely to span the gamut of issues and momma bloggers. Many such as Mom Bloggers Club (which even has an affiliation with a UK club) already have prepared media-kits for prospective advertisers. There, however, is no independent affirmation, yet, of their relevance and it is probably caveat-emptor for anyone looking to spend ad dollars. Nevertheless, it is a compelling demographic to explore and exploit for marketing.
