Tuned In
Alpha moms know what's hot in parenting--and they could be your best marketers.
Marketers and businesses have been courting a new breed of do-it-all moms. These "alpha moms" are the leaders of the pack, keeping up on the newest products and trends and passing the word on to their mommy peers. "Alpha moms are incredibly influential," says Isabel Kallman, CEO of Alpha Mom TV, a new cable TV channel that targets moms. She says if alpha moms believe in a new product, they'll become advocates in promoting it by word-of-mouth. That's why Nintendo tested out the Wii on alpha-mom focus groups months before its release.
So how do you reach these on-the-go moms? Try going online and researching networking sites where moms are known to hang out, such as ClubMom.com.
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"They're hungry for information," says Jen Singer of MommaSaid.net, a site with resources for moms, and author of 14 Hours 'Til Bedtime. "They hang out on the internet trying to find out what other people think about products."
Alpha moms are a majority of the clientele at Lisa Johnson's Pilates studio, Studio Elle, in Brookline, Massachusetts. Johnson, 40, caters to their busy schedules by allowing the moms to arrange sessions online. Targeting alpha moms has been successful for Johnson, who projects 2007 sales of nearly $400,000.
But Kallman warns that categorizing moms as alpha moms can backfire. "You need to understand they're all moms and they're all women," she says. "You should also appeal to the mom as a role and not her only identity."