Mum, kids and social media

This post touches on mums’ lifestyle in the UK, their media habits and their aspirations for their kids. Currently there are three clearly defined categories of mum. The three ‘categories’ of mum, as defined by Mintel, are as follows:

Time-Poor Mums (30%): Time-Poor Mums are likely to work full-time and are less involved in children’s activities. They’re regretful that they’re unable to spend time with their kids. However, they appreciate the advantages of sending kids to a better school and improving their kid’s chances of landing a good job. 

No-expense-Spared Mums (31%): No-Expense-Spared Mums are the quintessence of a Tiger Mum, encouraging their children to excel academically as well as develop a variety of interests and abilities that surpass the national curriculum. Their well sustained financial situation and the fact that over half are raising just one kid, these mums save more money and provide more for their kids future.

Mum Worriers (39%): Mum Worriers push their kids to develop assorted interests outside of school hours, ensuring they have enough varied routes to choose from when they grow up. Their lower household income holds their own ambitions back, and prevents them from saving a nest egg for their kids.

Although there are three groups, I’m sure there is a lot of crossover and this is evident when looking at what mums really want for their children. The five key thing that mums in the UK want for their children are:

For them to be happy (85%)

For them to be confident in themselves (75%)

To be well prepared for ‘the real world’ (53%)

To be good with money (50%)

To lead a healthy lifestyle (48%)

Although this may have been heavily influenced by Mum Worriers and No-expense-Spared Mums, making sure kids are involved in a multitude of extracurricular and recreational activities is key!

Mums will frequently encourage their children to play team sports, take up creative activities and read. These could be paths that brands can use to add value to a brand. If brands are seen to be supporting the same things that mums want their children to be involved in, they’re likely to buy into the brand. This is demonstrated by the fact that 50% of mums engage with brands on social because the brand resonates with them as parents.  

When it comes to engaging mums in today’s digital age, Facebook should be taken very seriously. 76% of mums engage with Facebook at least once a week! The next digital platform that mums regularly visit is well below 76%, with YouTube being visited by only 28% of mums weekly. Twitter is even lower with only 21% of mums visiting weekly.

Taking the all of above into consideration, it would appear that a targeted camping using Facebook, which offered mums the chance to give their kids a healthy product, in conjunction with a promotion that offers relevant and worthwhile extracurricular activities, would be ideal.