Every mum wants the best for her baby. So it’s no wonder that baby skincare products are big business. So how does mum go about choosing which brand is best for her child?
Is natural & organic always best for baby, or do mums see it as a marketing ploy? Is she concerned about whether a brand is dermatologically tested or for sensitive skins? How much does price factor into her choice? eumom surveyed mums on baby skincare brands to determine what were the deciding factors that helped them to make their purchase decision.
When are mums choosing products?
Almost 85% of mums used skincare products on their baby in the newborn stages. This shows how brands need to create awareness early reaching expectant mums before they are even using the product, rather than waiting until baby arrives. When surveyed on the major contributing factors for their use of a particular product, the majority of mums ranked having used the product before as most important. So if what they initially buy works, they will be reluctant to change, even if there are other positive factors of switching.
Brand loyalty
The research reveals that once a mum chooses a skincare product she believes is safe for use on her baby’s skin, she tends to remain with the brand, even continuing to use the product for her other children.
We have also found that traditional brands tend to score highly amongst mums. These could be the products that her own mother or grandmother used, such as Sudocrem and Johnson & Johnson.
Price point
In other sectors, price is often a key factor in decision making. However, when it comes to baby skincare the perceived trustworthiness of the brand is the key factor, followed closely by peer recommendation. In fact, only 32% list Price as the most important factor when choosing products.
Supermarket own-brand baby skincare products show lower rates of use despite their affordability and highly positive reviews for certain brands. This may be in part due to not having built the same trust or customer loyalty created by established baby brands.
What do skincare brands need to know?
So what do baby skincare brands need to know to get their products on to the shopping lists of mums? A number of factors influence purchase. For example, it is extremely important to mums for a baby care brand to be dermatologically tested with over 80% mentioning it.
Hypoallergenic products also perform well, as shoppers are conscious of their baby’s particularly sensitive skin in the early years. As already stated, recommendations from other mums are incredibly influential with over 50% of mums stating the advice of other mums is important to them during purchasing decisions. Comments from this survey show that many mums use a new skincare brand only when it is recommended to them by friends or other mums; showing the power of peer-review.
How can you better reach mums?
If you are a new brand, or an established brand launching a new product, your focus should be on getting your product into the hands of real mothers, enabling you to share genuine product reviews and customer experiences that your target audience can trust. This enables you to establish your baby brand with a core (highly engaged) audience, positioning your brand as experts, and demonstrating to mums with honest reviews that you understand them. This is why customer focused events can be so effective.
Another highly effective way to do this is through product sampling, which we can facilitate through the eumom gift bag, sponsored events and mum panels. In this way, you are doing what no other medium can, putting your physical product into the hands of the mums who will buy it; and who could then continue to buy it.
In conclusion
Mums told us that they seek out a trustworthy brand to use on their newborn’s skin, and they tend to stick with this product for their other children. Branded products tend to perform better with mums than non-branded products, and the recommendations of friends or other mums play a major role in their purchasing decisions.
Need help reaching your audience? Email hello@zahramediagroup.com or connect through our Contact page
