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Selling Moms on Children’s Nutrition

A recent poll of 2,500 American women by Woman’s Day/AOL Food, found that nearly 80% were not concerned with their children’s weight.  As reported in MediaPost, the poll results also revealed this contradiction:

"80% believe eating healthier would be easier
if cost weren’t an issue; yet 85% said their actual eating habits were
not influenced at all, or only a little, by the cost."

Hmmm.  I am not a mom, but I am certainly aware of the news about increasing cases of childhood obesity and diabetes.  On the human behavior front, what do you think would inspire or motivate the moms represented by this study to change their health/nutrition-related decisions, especially with regard to their kids?  Is the bottomline the cost of nutritious foods, despite what women claimed in this study?

Hey Nora (Nora Lee, author of The Mom Factor), will you share your perspective?

***

On another note, Nora and I discussed moms and single women on her "Coffee with Mom" podcast recently.  Listen up if you’d like our take on how marketers can reach those segments more effectively.

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Monday, June 25th, 2007 in Consumer Behavior and Research, Health.Sports.Wellness, Moms, Single women

  • Well.. perhaps McDonald's is making an effort on this front (engaging with moms about health). See what you think of the discussion going on surrounding my MarketingProfs Daily Fix post on the McMoms journaling program: http://www.mpdailyfix.com/2007/06/mcdonalds_bold_move_womens_opi.html
  • My cynical side suggests that the grocery business is not the right business to sponsor this movement. Produce is only a small part of what they sell and they have so many products (healthy and unhealthy) vying for space and attention! Healthy eating might not do much for their bottom line. It would have to be viewed as a goodwill gesture, like supporting breast cancer research. And yet, where else do Moms come together over food? The obvious place is Fast Food Restaurants and they certainly have no bottom-line interest in healthy food. This is a tricky problem. What about TV?
  • One thing that to consider is where these women gather already. Are they Wal-Mart shoppers? If so - maybe the retailer could sponsor a week's worth of significant discounts on vegetables with a free book of easy recipes and a map of the store's produce aisles that makes the shopping easy for those recipes (have the event host do some of the "homework" for the women). If the main "community" place for the moms is a church or community center, a local grocery store might sponsor some sort of event with healthy recipes and maybe a presentation by a cook from a restaurant the moms would all know/admire/find accessible. If a few local campaigns are attempted and proven, then - maybe - a large brand could make a national effort and go into more communities. It is a very interesting issue, because the cause - that it would be in the public interest for moms and kids to eat more healthfully - is not motivating in and of itself, so a more rewarding and immediate reason to try healthy food for a while would have to be clear. Katya Andresen's book, Robin Hood Marketing, would be a great place to start for any nonprofit that might be pursuing this cause.
  • Frankly, Andrea, the poll shocks me. I'd like to see the original questions. I think parents need to be much more concerned, but we can put some perspective on this. The CDC reports that about 18% of kids 2 to 19 are overweight. That, more or less, tracks with the 20% of Moms who are concerned about their children being overweight. But there are another 20% or so on the high end of normal and those parents need to wake up! But setting that aside, it looks like all of us concerned with childhood obesity have our work cut out for us. Education is the key. And, just as with any marketing campaign aimed at Moms, the education has to occur where they live. If these women believe it's costly to eat healthily, then a campaign aimed towards Moms that shows them that healthy is not expensive might be a great place to start. The problem, of course, is who would sponsor such a campaign? Andrea, who would you look to?
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