The Co-op's Karmel USP for mums to chew on

Like Morrison’s Kiddicare and Tesco’s Tesco Loves Baby, as discussed in my previous post Brands, mums and future generations!, The Co-operative Food are hoping they’ve found a USP that mums can chew on.

On May 14^th 2014, The Co-operative Food unveiled its new web pages dedicated to parents and new mums. The pages contain content that offers expert advice and tips on everyday issues affecting new parents.

It makes sense that The Co-operative Food are producing content for mums to access online, considering the recent trend that sees nearly 90% of mums regularity visiting parenting websites for help. Furthermore, new mothers are more likely than the rest of the population to look for deals and advice on mobile websites.

But why would mums look to “the UK's largest mutual business” for advice on parenting? Karmel, Annabel Karmel. Karmel is one of the UK’s most trusted experts on feeding babies, children and families, the UK’s number one parenting author and baby food and nutrition guru. She’s signed a twelve month contract to act as the face of The Co-operative Food’s parenting pages.

CJ Antal Smith, Head of Commercial for The Co-operative’s baby category said that their “partnership with Annabel Karmel will hopefully attract new shoppers to [their] stores”, as well as “add gravitas to [their] baby website and social media channels for mums and dads nationwide”. You can see why Smith’s said this when you take into consideration that The Co-operative recently launched their own-brand range of nappies. They also have plans to bolster their own-brand baby range later this year.

Although Karmel will be posting articles on The Co-operative Food’s social media sties and doing includes real-time social media chats so that parents can address Karmel on all things parenting, the new parenting pages will need to exist beyond the 12month endorsement. But how?

To launch the new page they’re giving families a chance to win a year’s supply of nappies in an exclusive competition. The page also offers mums recipes, advice and downloadable meal planners. But as I said before, without Karmel, why would mums look to the UK's largest mutual business for advice on parenting? Just because they say they’re good for babies’ doesn’t mean they are.

Only time will tell. Check back in in 12 months.