CPG Brands: Who Makes Household Decisions in Families?
When it comes to CPG brands, determining the likely marketing audience should be listed at the top of any marketing plan. Find out who decides what to buy. As one of the first steps to develop a marketing plan, a CPG marketing agency will conduct audience research. Obviously, they need to learn as much as they can about the behavior and demographics of consumers who they might attract to their products. If these products appeal to couples of families, the business should determine which member of the household typically makes buying decisions about CPG products. That way, they will know how to effectively target the other steps in their marketing campaign. What CPG marketing agency research reveals about household decision makers for CPG brands Of course, consumer packaged goods come from multiple industries. They can range from pet food to coffee to stockings. Few household members make 100 percent of the decisions about which products or brands to buy. Still, it’s no surprise to see a study on Chain Store Age that found women, typically mothers, make most of the buying choices in average, two-parent families. Some interesting results from this study found: In a typical, traditional family, Mom usually chooses what to buy. Though fathers have recently grown more involved in household purchase decisions, mothers still make most of these choices in 80 percent of families. Still, men have grown more involved in the CPG-shopping process lately. Lately, moms make about two-thirds of the household decisions, compared to about 80 percent in the past. Of course, men tend to make certain kinds of decisions for some CPG products more than women do. For instance, in most traditional families, expect more men than women to buy goods for lawn maintenance and home repair. They’re also slightly more likely to choose items related to autos and tech than they are for more general products. Women made almost always made choices about children’s clothes or toys. In some areas, men and women tend to share buying decisions equally. These include products related to entertainment, furnishings, and appliances. Who buys the groceries? While consumer packaged goods can cover a lot of different areas, people often associate them with items found at the grocery store. Some obvious examples include peanut butter, soap, and coffee. At least in traditional families, Pew Research found that women do at least 80 percent of both the cooking and the shopping. That’s true if a couple has children or not. Couples have started sharing more household chores than they did in the past. At the same time, women usually buy and prepare food most of the time. Pew Research also mentioned that women tend to spend less time doing paid jobs than men do, so that may account for some of the imbalance when it comes to grocery trips and food preparation. Who should a consumer package goods agency target? Of course, it’s impossible to offer a one-size-fit-all answer for all kinds of CPG products. Also, even in cases where one gender or another tended to make some kinds of choices more often, they did not always make them and also probably made some purchases because of influence of the other partner. After all, if a husband expresses a preference for a certain brand of salad dressing or pickles, his wife will probably remember that on her next trip to the supermarket. Similarly, if children ask for a certain kind of socks or a new video game, that request may eventually lead to an adult purchase decision. Even 10 years ago, AdAge promoted the idea that CPG companies should target men more. Even if surveys show that women tend to make two-thirds of household decisions, that still leaves one-third of purchase choices to men. AdAge also pointed out that even though women still do most of the shopping, men do more of it than they used to do. Even a smaller share of a market could add up to a growth opportunity for some CPG companies. Why do marketers need to know who tends to choose their types of product? Marketers need to define their audience before they can make good choices about a number of other factors in their marketing plan. These can range from the platforms used for marketing to the color of the product packaging. Consider these examples: Crazy Egg revealed that women like blue, purple, and green the most, but they tend not to prefer gray, orange, and brown as much. In contrast, men also like blue and green, but they also tend to gravitate to black. Men also tend to dislike orange and brown, but they shy away from purple. Men and women both use social sites, still they may tend to favor different kinds of platforms. For instance, expect to find more women on sites like Pinterest and Facebook and more men on more discussion-oriented sites like Reddit. No consumer package goods agency can generalize about exactly which gender or member of the family makes all the household decisions about CPG brands. This can also vary quite a bit for different types of products, and not all families have the traditional mom, dad, and kids. Still, determining their most likely customers will make plenty of other marketing decisions easier for CPG brands.
Unlock The Power of Using Babies to Market Your Brand
Babies are adorable! There’s nothing in the world as beautiful as a smiling newborn. For years, marketers have caught on to this, providing uplifting content that features babies in the forefront. One example is an Evian campaign that features babies on roller skates, dancing to “The Rapper’s Delight.” The video has over 18 million views on YouTube. Another example is the famous E*Trade baby commercials that we look forward to while watching the Superbowl every year. But beyond just babies, the team at our Orlando marketing agency thinks the fanfare around using babies to market your brand offers opportunities to make emotional connections to their target consumers. By being able to identify with their users, marketers can target the emergence of celebrity baby stories, and can often leverage these no matter what their relationship to baby products. Through Twitter and Facebook, companies attach to celebrity baby stories that seem to fall in line with their brand stories and brand visions. Motherhood and maternity-oriented businesses seem to be especially in line with welcoming newborns, though it seems that broader companies like Target and Wal-Mart could stand to benefit just the same. When the royal baby was born merely months ago, Twitter was on fire with tweets from marketers around the globe. Pampers used the birth of Baby George to promote a video under the pretense of the fact that every baby is a prince or princess, which it had obviously been waiting to push until the moment the Royal Baby arrived. Marketers also catch on the tabloid celebrity baby fads. When Kim Kardashian and hotheaded celebrity Kanye West, recently gave birth to their daughter North West, marketers flocked to the notion that the baby could epitomize what it means to be a luxury baby brand. Additionally, there are rumors that Kim herself is planning to launch a clothing line for babies, attesting to the marketing power of celebrity status and the Kardashian family’s ability to capitalize on it. [quote]The luxury baby market is expected to be a $10.4 billion industry in 2014, with strollers going for as much as $3,000 for an Aston Martin brand leather stroller.[/quote] By latching on to uplifting baby stories, marketers can identify with the emotions behind the brand’s mission. In joining the conversation, these marketers prove they are in tune with things that are happening in the world, and that they are appreciative of the uplifting nature of a good celeb baby story. Be it Alec Baldwin, Fergie or Simon Cowell, fans love and support stars on their mission to start or continue growing their families. By offering comforting tweets about celebrity babies, marketers can seize the opportunity to join the conversation, while also pushing their products incidentally. Brand are solidified based on their relationships with potential customers, so encouraging chatter about celebrity babies and being early informers of such breaking news helps drive a brand’s social media. The best thing about all this is that people aren’t going to stop having babies anytime soon, and as long as there are babies, there will be opportunities for people to love seeing them. The team at our Florida marketing agency thinks celebrity #babies can help brands see #success! Contact us today to learn more!
Hot trends in hotel advertising: Subtlety works best
“I want a feast I want a bean feast Cream buns and doughnuts and fruitcake with no nuts so good you could go nuts. No, now! I want a ball I want a party Pink macaroons and a million balloons and performing baboons and Give it to me now. I want the world, I want the whole world. I want to lock it all up in my pocket It’s my bar of chocolate Give it to me now! I want today I want tomorrow I want to wear them like braids in my hair and I don’t want to share them I want a party with roomfuls of laughter Ten thousand ton of ice cream And if I don’t get the things I am after I’m going to scream! I want the works, I want the whole works! Presents and prizes and sweets and surprises in all shapes and sizes, And now! Don’t care how I want it now! Don’t care how I want it now!” The above song may be a harmonious tantrum performed by one Veruca Salt in the 1971 film adaptation of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, but the lyrics speak to the way a hotel should perceive its guests. That’s not to say that all guests are sniveling, snotty-nosed adolescents, but for an industry that deals in comfort and convenience, it doesn’t hurt to operate under that assumption. The average overnighter takes for granted the luxuries a hotel provides. So when something does go awry, no matter how miniscule, the concierge often takes an ear-licking. Guests expect their stay to go off without a hitch. They don’t want to see an establishment’s seams, so to speak. So, a hotel must present itself as competent, discreet and ahead of the curve. There are numerous approaches that can be taken to this end. Here, we discuss four: 1. Street propaganda: Guerrilla marketing, a low budget, avant-garde approach to self-promotion can be highly effective in portraying an out of the box, curatorial image to a potential client; it also falls into the discreet category. A good propaganda campaign should promote with clever subtlety. Our Florida advertising agency knows the value of this technique lies in its ties to social media marketing. A really creative guerrilla strategy can take on a life of its own by inspiring observers to document their reactions through Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and countless other social media sites. The following link demonstrates several examples of unique street propaganda: http://www.boredpanda.com/cool-and-creative-street-ads/ 2. Easy online accessibility: Hotel’s must make their website accessible and up-to-date. The site should leave no question unanswered. A customer should be able to book a room, dinner reservation or spa appointment with the touch of a mouse. They should be able to speak to a hotel representative via online chat. Basically, a hotel’s website should act as an interactive reception desk. Daily updates and notices regarding not just the hotel, but also the surrounding area can be helpful as well. It pays to work with a good developer who is aware of the latest advents and limitations of the Internet. 3. Go green image: Environmentally conscious business practices are key. More so than a hotel making sure it’s operating with the tiniest footprint it can muster, it should also promote these efforts to its guests. If the restaurant in the hotel only uses organic, farm-to-table ingredients, this should be made known. If the lobby motif is made from recycled materials, shout it from the rooftops. After all, green is definitely the new black. Guests will respect any effort to that end. 4. Respond to online comments: Yet another cheap and fruitful way to make a positive impression with an audience is to keep up with what that audience is saying. This is sort of a no brainer, but to be truly effective, don’t just keep track of sites like Trip Advisor or Travelocity. Instead, reply to comments, be those comments good or bad, with useful information. If a past guest complained about an obstructed room view, apologize and offer them a room with a better view during their next stay. If another applauds the tuna tartar at your dining establishment, thank them kindly and tell them they’re a real mensch for saying so. This practice makes a hotel seem more human; less like a machine on autopilot. In search of a hotel advertising strategy to ensure that your visitors will also become your biggest fans? Contact our team of marketing experts today!
