With Mother’s Day on the horizon, it’s no surprise retailers are targeting mothers.
The marketing onslaught this year, however, is coming not just from the usual suspects, such as jewelers and clothiers, but from electronics retailers as well.
Richmond-based Circuit City, who commissioned a national survey that found digital cameras topped flowers and other choices as the top gift desired by mothers, ran a series of promotions related to cameras this year, such as photo competitions with cameras as prizes.
“Mother’s Day and springtime is an exciting time of year for digital imaging and some of our mobile products,” Circuit City spokeswoman Jackie Foreman said.
Reston-based Sprint is urging customers to celebrate the “Alpha Mom” in their family, offering service credits for mothers who subscribe to cellular service and touting features such as their Picture Mail service that allows them to send photos via phone. D.C.-based XM Satellite Radio is pushing its pink Inno XM2go radios, and playing up content that appeals to mothers, such as its Oprah channel.
“Now that women have become much more technologically savvy, electronics are a more desired gift for women,” said Dan Murphy, XM’s executive vice president for retail aftermarket distribution.
The marketing push comes at a time when mothers are becoming “sexier” in the media, and when Generation X and Generation Y members are starting to have children, said Maria Bailey, author of the books, “Marketing to Moms” and “Trillion Dollar Moms: Marketing to a New Generation of Mothers.” Companies also realize that mothers spend $2.1 trillion a year on products other than diapers, she said.
“I’ve never seen such attention to mothers as I have this year,” Bailey said. “It’s phenomenal.”
Companies are more successful when they explain why their product is useful to mothers, rather than “pink-izing” products to make them more feminine, Bailey said. Mothers purchasing gifts for the other women are driving the electronics trend as well, she said.
The fact that electronics products have become smaller and cheaper is also a factor, said Dan de Grandpre, chief executive officer of DealNews, a Web site that aggregates discounts on retail products. The most popular gift they’ve seen this year is digital photo frames.
“It used to be flowers and chocolates,” de Grandpre said. “Now it’s real gifts.”
