Over the last few years we’ve talked a lot about how brands view mums. They’re often keen to try and stick them into neat little boxes, with the aim of better understanding this profitable market.

But what we’ve discovered time and time again is that the opposite is true – if you try and squeeze mums into a limited profile it narrows your perspective to a point where products and communications miss the spot, or worse, damage your brand.

This idea of thinking beyond demographics now has it’s very own bit of jargon – ‘post demographic consumerism’ in marketing speak and is set to be a key trend for marketers in 2015 (it was a key trend for us in 2011!).

So if you take one truth from this blog it should be this – stop thinking of mums in terms of simple (or even complex) demographics. It doesn’t work. Instead, try and really understand mums, their families and lives within their world – and what a diverse, busy and noisy place it is. Their lives are always moving on to the next life stage, dealing with the next challenges and trends to keep up with.

And here are a few other tips to help your brand connect with mums in 2015.

Tap into mums emotions

If you’re a parent then you’ll probably suffer from the universal parental emotion – guilt. You might also feel a few other emotions, worry, pressure, doubt. As a brand you’re in the perfect position to address these emotions and help parents overcome them. Let mums know it’s ok not to be perfect.

See mums as a whole person

Once you have a baby you don’t stop being a person. We do have interests and hobbies too. And we care about what’s happening in the world. Engaging on more than the ‘mum’ level will help you understand how to reach mums and what they want.

Have your own voice

Look to mums attitudes and current shopping journeys for inspiration. And keep an eye on the less obvious competition. If you want to keep ahead of the pack and be a trend-setter then you’ve got to really get under the skin of your consumer and competition.

For example all the big 4 supermarkets have lost market share. And growth – it’s with the discounters – Aldi & Lidl. So that must be because they are cheap? That’s not the whole story. Waitrose have also grown (and hold more market share than Aldi). We think that’s because Aldi and Waitrose have something in common – a clear proposition, they know who they are, why their customers like them and know how to successfully engage with them.

If you’d like to talk to us about really understanding your consumers in 2015 get in touch. In our next blog we will look at some of the emerging mum trends for the year ahead. So, what do you want to know about mums in 2015?