Posts Tagged "Mom Trends"

Twins are the new trend when it comes to U.S. births. As of 2009, the last figure available, 1 in every 30 babies born here was a twin, compared to 1 in 53 in 1980, according to a recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report.

The twin birth rate rose by more than 2% a year, on average, from 1980 through 2004, leveling off briefly that year to less than 1% annually then rising nearly 2% again from 2008 to 2009.

In 2009, twin rates increased in all 50 states, with the most significant jumps in lower New England, New Jersey and Hawaii. In Connecticut, twins now account for nearly 5% of births.

Nationally, 3.3% of all births were twins in 2009, up from 2% in 1980.

The greatest increase in twin rates was for women 40 and older. They are more likely to use fertility treatments and to have two embryos implanted during in vitro fertilization, whereas younger women are more likely to get just one.

About 7% of all births for women 40 and older were twins, compared to 5% of women in their late 30s and 2% of women age 24 or younger.

Rates doubled for whites, rose by half for blacks and by about a third for Hispanics. Historically, black moms have twins most often, but white moms have almost caught up.

Are you a mom of twins? In what way has that influenced your purchasing decisions? Marketers, are any of you focusing on this growing market?

Some of you know that my son is currently studying and working in China, and that when we visited recently I was struck by how few children there were on the street. This led to a post about China’s one-child policy. So I thought I’d share an article that ran in today’s New York Times, about a change in that policy. It said, in effect, that China’s slow population growth rate has moved the government to offer some families the opportunity to have a second child, but those families are often choosing not to.

The reason: They don’t feel that they can support another child in the way that they would like.

I wondered: How has the recent state of the economy impacted the decision of American moms to have, or hold off on having, more children?

Your thoughts?

Moms can’t live without their smartphones, according to recent research by BabyCenter. In fact, moms’  adoption of smartphones has increased 64% over the past two years, and 51% of moms report that they are “addicted” to smartphones. The survey looked at 5,000 moms across the U.S. Following are some key findings:

• More than half said they bought a smartphone “as a direct result of becoming a mom.”
• After becoming a mom, the most important smartphone features became, in order, the camera, the video, then apps. Fifty two percent of moms said they had 10 or more apps on their phone and one-quarter of them were for their kids.
• Moms are 40% more likely than avergae to use their smartphones for social networking.
• 68% of moms use their smartphones to shop and 62% report that they use shopping apps to compare prices and do research.
• The majorty of moms sleep with their smartphones next to their beds and more than half check their phones first thing in the morning.

Moms, are you devoted to your smartphone? What do you use it for and what kinds of apps would you like to see? Marketers, what apps do you offer for moms and how else do you use smartphones to reach them?

Do moms make better business managers?

Parenting effectively requires a lot of skills — the ability to negotiate and to have patience, among them. As a mother,  that means moderating a battle between two toddlers who want the same toy, serving dessert IF they first eat their broccoli or reading  a favorite story for what seems like the millionth time in a single night. As a manager, it involves resolving squabbles, dealing with personal issues, or explaining, yet again, the way you want something done.

The question of whether moms make better business managers came to mind after I spotted  some online coverage of the recent Super Mom Entrepreneur Conference and Expo in New York City. Since I’m also a mompreneur — I started Child’s Play Communications when I was pregnant with my son –  it got me thinking about whether our experience as mothers made a difference in the business world.

I know that one thing motherhood taught me was lessons about picking your battles. A perfectionist at heart (big time), I learned that in  business things can’t be perfect all the time, much as you would like them to be, and sometimes you just have to count to 10, clean up the mess and move on — even if you feel like giving the employee who created the problem a permanent time out. Motherhood also taught me to multi-task like a maniac, a skill I know I did not possess prior to pregnancy. There are times, in fact,  when I look back at running a business while my child was young, while also being the good wife, managing all the household responsibilities,  cooking dinner every day, taking care of a mom who was sick, running various school committees,  keeping clients happy, supervising staff – and wondering, HOW DID YOU DO THAT?!

So tell me, moms, do you think the experience of  motherhood has made a difference in your abilities at work? And marketers, do you see this among the moms you hire?

BabyCenter just released the results of a fascinating new study that dug deep into the kinds of moms who are involved in social media, how and why they spend their time there, and — most importantly for marketers — their varying levels of influence.  I’d like to share their findings, in two parts.

First, a summary of key messages:

• Motherhood is the #1 reason for social media usage.  According to the research, pregnancy and birth motivated the vast majority of mothers in social media —  94% — to seek out information and share opinions with others online.
• Just 18% of social moms wield an astonishing 78% of the overall influence.
• Mom bloggers — as compared with all moms in social media  — make up 16% of the audience but are responsible for a huge percentage — 67% — of the influence.
• Not surprisingly, moms use different social sites for different reasons, from socializing to gathering information.

Moms, what motivated you to get involved in social media? What do you use it for? Where do you like to go, and why? Marketers, how do these findings impact your plans for reaching moms through social media?

For more on the BabyCenter “2010 Mom Social Influencer Report”  visit here. or check out tomorrow’s post for more on the subject.