The change has happened and it’s really happened really fast. The joint family has broken down. In the nuclear family of today, a mother’s role has become more prominent. The woman has a greater say in child rearing than earlier and yes, she is more empowered to take crucial decisions. She decides which hot beverage her child will drink, which school he will go to, and what career he will take up. She is definitely more empowered today, than ever before.
Rewind three decades and life was a struggle. It was not a time of abundance. Choices were also limited and yes, the mother was personified by Lalitaji. And remember what Lalitaji stood for? Smart thinking and budgeted purchases. These were the two ideals that she personified. Thrift was important primarily be-cause family sizes were large. Mothers did not get the time to give their kids individual attention and so marketeers did not focus too much on mothers per se.
However, the times are a changing. There are a few key modifications that have taken place in the position of a mother. As Saumya Chattopadhyay, director, Strategic Plann-ing, Ogilvy Africa for Airtel Pan African Business, explains, “Not only does the mother occupy a prominent position in the family but her character, has also changed. From a top-down, authoritative relationship, motherhood is gradually moving towards inculcating democratic values — those of giving kids more freedom; from looking within the family to looking outwards to society for approval, benchmarks and validation.”
Today’s woman also has a higher focus and involvement and she is a modern home manager. She has given up the dictatorial style of parenting and no longer believes in the dictum, spare the rod and spoil the child. She can be personified by the Hor-licks mom who will do
anything to make her child taller, sharper, and stron-ger. “There is also an eagerness to share power with the kids urging them to take decisions on their own,” says Chattopadh-yay. Still, the mother’s buying behaviour is so widely divergent that marketeers may find it difficult to market to moms.
However, a recent survey points out that there’s a common denominator in the buying behaviour of all moms. All of them look for time efficiency, healthy products and cost savings. So, companies that address moms need to keep these things in mind. Women are also heavy users of the Internet, using the medium to get information about products. They also depend on the social media to give them the low down on children-related items. Their conduct is so individualistic that it requires a highly personalised, one-on-one marketing effort.
Mothers can be segmented into three categories — baby boomer moms, Gen X moms and millennial moms. Of course, the differences are rooted in the age of these moms. Older mothers have higher income levels than their younger counterparts and naturally older moms will have older children. There is a new dimension to motherhood as well — that of the New Age mom.
A New Age mother is modern and she also has a sense of competition with other women. She wants to show how well she’s bringing up her kids and wants to get a pat on the back from her husband and other family members (especially her in-laws). Hence, the marketeer has to address these issues while addressing this type of mother. Says Mondira Deb, advertising professional and mom of a seven-year-old, “A mother is more responsible in bringing up her child today than earlier. She also takes time out to develop her skill sets.”
But, says Chattopadhyay there is a downside to this. “Even talent is milked as a path to success. Just look at the number of children participating in reality TV shows. The scary part is that normal, non-achieving kids are becoming a source of anxiety for their parents even at an early age. The pressure to succeed is robbing these kids of the right to a carefree life.” Marketeers should not encourage this un-healthy competition.

The writer is a well known industry watcher