The Good Mother Myth: 3 things marketers can do to create realistic content for parents

The Good Mother Myth is precisely that - a myth. Societal expectations for perfection place unnecessary pressure on parents, causing unhappiness and frustration. Child and family product marketers can become allies of their target markets by communicating realistic images of parenthood. Ultimately, realistic messages must show parenthood’s challenges and frustrations, encourage truth, and embrace a variety of parenting styles.

The Good Mother is nurturing, patient, and selfless. You probably recognize her as the smiling woman pictured in advertisements preparing breakfast in a spotless kitchen, nuzzling her happy baby, doing laundry, baking cakes, or getting the kids to school. The modern Good Mother is not only selfless, but she somehow maintains a sense of self through a successful career in a fast-paced, challenging environment. She smiles when her baby spits up on her freshly laundered suit. The Good Mother is kind to almost everyone; she is not kind to herself.

The Good Mother Myth

Mintel analyst Lauren Bonetto includes pressure to be a super mom as a key trend in the US September 2014 Marketing to Moms report. A Google search for “parenting tips” yields over 8 million news articles, and “mommy wars” are a common theme. In The Good Mother Myth: Redefining Motherhood to Fit Reality, editor Avital Norman Nathman presents essays from highly educated and successful women who fell prey to the pressure of being a Good Mother. They acknowledge the unfair societal expectations which they internalize after becoming a mother and the damaging effects to the happiness of both themselves and their families. The essays suggest reevaluating motherhood and accepting all mothers, whether they choose to work or stay home, breastfeed or formula feed, only use organic ingredients or pick up McDonald’s for dinner. After all, there is only one requirement for motherhood: love your children.

Should marketers join mothers in redefining motherhood? Absolutely. Over-worked, over-stressed, and over-pressured parents will rejoice in messages portraying realistic parenthood. Marketers should follow three tips when communicating with real parents.

1.    Show challenges and frustrations.

How can marketers work against the Good Mother Myth without becoming the bad mother brand? Dr. Laura Oswald, founder and director of consulting firm Marketing Semiotics, Inc., explores this question in her book Marketing Semiotics: Signs, Strategies, and Brand Value. When asked to develop a positioning strategy for a new diaper brand, Oswald and her team were challenged because “it was a dangerous game for marketers to move brands out of the ‘Good Mother’ positioning. They faced the dilemma of competing head-on with Pampers,” known as the brand used by Good Mothers, “with an even ‘better Mother’ image or hovering dangerously at the edge of the opposite pole, the ‘Bad Mother.’” Through a semiotic analysis, Oswald identified a countercultural positioning opportunity which “demystified motherhood and gave vent to the frustrations of mothers in the marketplace.” Parenthood is not all smiles and happiness, and marketers can adeptly acknowledge unfair societal pressures without harming their brand image.

Exhausted parents in Sproutling's advertisement

In a blog post from June of this year, I discuss Sproutling, a wearable baby monitor company. The brand garnered my attention with an amusing advertisement, pictured at left. A Millennial couple has a new baby, and they desperately miss sleep, social interaction, and each other. Sproutling manages to capture parenthood’s chaos while sharing impressively innovative technological specifications, linking the product to benefits sought by the advertisement’s star couple. By showing a montage of parenthood’s challenges and frustrations, Sproutling aligns themselves with their target market. The brand is a friend and encourager during the frustrating days of early parenthood.

2.    Encourage truth.

Bonetto discusses social media in her report for Mintel: “While it can serve as an outlet for moms to celebrate their successes and reach out for help when times get rough, it can also put pressure on moms to have a ‘picture perfect’ life.” In “No More Fakebook” in The Good Mother Myth, hilarious writer Sarah Emily Tuttle-Singer openly contrasts her ideal, Instagrammed life with the true, chaotic life of child rearing. She writes, “Keeping up with the status messages is exhausting… and it turns friends into frenemies.” She promises to be more honest online “for all [mothers’] sakes.”

Marketers can build parents’ confidence by encouraging their audiences to stop staging pictures of ideal parenting. Bonetto encourages marketers to use campaigns which “ensure [parents] that they are not alone and bring societal expectations in line with the realities of being a parent.” Imagine the equivalent of a Dove Real Beauty Campaign in the child products industry. Social media campaigns which encourage truth from parents could send an empowering, too rare message: “You are enough, you are adequate, and you are wonderful, just the way you are.”

3.    Embrace parenthood’s variety.

Similac's "The Mother 'Hood"

Marketers can embrace all parents by incorporating a variety of parenting styles in messages. Similac, an infant formula brand manufactured by Abbott Nutrition, provides an excellent example. In the advertisement “The Mother ‘Hood,” pictured at right, Similac calls for an end to the mommy wars, showcasing a broad spectrum of parents, from organic yogi moms to stay-at-home dads. The advertisement parodies the societal debates about parenting and offers an inclusive message, “No matter what our beliefs, we are parents first.” In descriptions on Similac’s campaign webpage, the brand “believe[s] it’s time to embrace mothers who choose to embrace motherhood” and claims it’s “time to put down the fingers on the subtle suggestions.” This inclusivity is comforting and encouraging to parents and ultimately helps redefine motherhood.

Key Takeaways

The Good Mother Myth places unfair pressure on parents. Marketers can alleviate this pressure and thereby align themselves with parents by showing that they understand parents’ reality. Showing challenges and frustrations, encouraging truth, and embracing parenthood’s variety are the three keys to creating more realistic messages.