Uncategorized

April 21, 2010 •
What A Mom Wants

Some organization and a little humor are a good start

This story is about a market of powerful decision-makers that has been around literally forever. While the products you stock have always appealed to this lucrative group, they weren’t created with the group’s unique needs in mind — until now. To find this market, look no farther than the women pushing the strollers of adorable babies everywhere. Yes, it’s the Mom Market, and it’s more complicated than you may think.

“Every mom is a working mom, whether she goes to an office, runs a business from home, volunteers her time for some worthy cause or manages her kids, their schedules, her household and so on,” explained Nina Korelitz Matza, creator and co-owner, Whomi Products. “Whatever her ‘work’ life looks like, she is juggling a lot of balls, and those balls need to be managed.”

Many companies creating products for moms truly understand these demands, since their founders negotiate the same terrain. “I am a mom of young children, and many of our products are based on things I instinctively knew from my own life,” said Nina Restieri, president and founder of MomAgenda. “For example, I know from experience that most moms have ‘dual offices’ in the kitchen and car. That is where decisions are made, phone calls are placed, playdates are arranged, and so on. So (our) products assist moms in both (the kitchen and the car).”

Planners Plus

Much of the product comprising this market, then, helps Mom wear all her hats with panache. “Kristin, my partner, often comments, ‘Once you have a child you are initiated into a club,’” pointed out Maria Newton, partner, Truly Mom. “It is a club of intelligent, competent, creative women searching for the elusive balance between career and family, trying to find the flexibility to have a career and still be able to pick their children up at school and tuck them in at night.”

Complicating matters is the fact that today’s kids have as many activities as the parents, Korelitz Matza added. “We live in an age when kids are hyper-scheduled. Gone are the days when children just came home after school, did their homework, played with their dolls or rode their bikes until dinner.”

BlackBerrys and other digital planners aren’t always helpful, she emphasized. “As the electronic scheduling industry exploded, there was a general assumption that the need for paper-based agendas and planners was dwindling. The Mom Market arose because we moms need planners and specialized, paper-based tools.”
Interestingly, planning products “have as many variations as there are women,” she noted. “If you’ve seen one Mom planner, you have definitely not seen them all.”

MomAgenda’s signature product, the MomAgenda Desktop, is a day planner with space for mom and up to four children. “Having spaces for all the kids makes planning activities easier and less chaotic,” stated Restieri. “As a mom of four I speak from experience!”

“It seems simplicity and organization are at the forefront of the requests we most often hear,” echoed Truly Mom’s Newton. “We have a tri-fold planner designed to fold over in myriad ways, creating flat writing surfaces.”
It features tablets for lists or notes as well as sticky notes and a tabbed calendar. “By design, it is a woman’s ‘office on the go,’” she finished.

Whomi takes a slightly different tack. “The beauty of our products is that you just open them, start using them and you become more organized,” explained Korelitz Matza. Their To Do collection “basically helps you keep lists by category.”

Since wall calendars can be hung in a central part of the home (usually the kitchen), these also make excellent organizers. MomAgenda’s calendars follow the company’s template with planning space for mom and up to four children.

Meanwhile, at MeadWestvaco, wall calendars exude high perceived value thanks to lots of goodies including a chore chart — described as “a big trend” by the company’s Sarah Hibner — as well as a portable engagement calendar. Attesting to this segment’s strength, she commented, “Next year, we are expanding our mom-targeted products to include a variety of organizing and scheduling solutions.”

Sense of (Life)style

But this market isn’t solely concerned with keeping everyone’s lives in order — it has a lighter side, too. “We take real mothering experiences — lactating, yelling toddler, peeing in the tub — and put them on cards, and that genuineness seems to work well for us,” pointed out Brenda Brathwaite, co-founder and writer, Marvelous Mommies Greeting Cards.

The company has a “birth” story similar to many organizations. “One day I thought, ‘Why aren’t there any greeting cards for moms?’” she recalled. “Here’s this hugely defining experience, but the only cards on it have to do with having the baby and a yearly reminder on Mother’s Day. Something was missing, so Marvelous Mommies was born. All our cards come from the silly stories and experiences we share with one another.”

Perhaps one of the first vendors to recognize the need for this sort of humor was Anne Taintor. Her collages of fresh-faced women spouting sarcastic and often somewhat subversive statements can be found everywhere from station promos on the Oxygen Network to an extensive product line.

“According to our sales reps, moms are drawn to our products because of the snarky humor, which typically pokes fun at domestic bliss,” Taintor observed. The line includes clever categories like cosmetic and kitchen accessories so that women can “smile even when the casserole burned” or feel pampered when they “get to sneak a ladylike peek at themselves in our mirror compacts.”

Whatever the category, a sense of style is paramount in every mom product you stock. “Moms today expect and demand products that incorporate beautiful design along with functionality,” emphasized Restieri. “They are juggling so much, and they’re hungry for products that will either help them in their lives, make them feel beautiful or simply put a smile or their faces. Products that recognize and meet these needs will always garner a strong response from the Mom Market.”




Stationery Trends Winter 2024
Get one year of Stationery Trends in both print and digital editions for only $15.

Interested in reading the print issue of Stationery Trends?

Subscribe Today »