All parents want the best for their child. No wonder that they increasingly pay attention to the quality of the articles they buy and their composition. What exactly influences their choices?
Young mothers especially pay attention to the safety aspect. What they buy for their children must meet all standards. This is especially important in the case of products such as plastic toys or a car seat – parents check the certification of the article and make sure that it will provide safe play or travel for their child. They also verify the materials used for baby clothes (the composition of the materials, or the type of dyes used for printing). This makes them sleep more soundly.
Young parents are a group burdened with many expenses, therefore the quality criterion is equally important to them – they do not want to risk that the product will break down after 2 weeks of use. They would rather spend a larger sum of money at one time than buy cheaper substitutes more often. For this reason, they try to spend more time on shopping, so as not to make decisions too hastily.
In recent years the country of origin of products has become important for Polish consumers. In the report “Fashion for Polishness” half of Poles admit that they are willing to pay more for a Polish product. This trend has not escaped young parents as well.
A great example of Polish product that conquered the market – not only the domestic one – are Szumisie Bears by Ania Skórzyńska. It is a cuddly gadget that helps infants fall asleep and limits their waking up during sleep by generating a pleasant humming sound, known to children from the fetal period. The product’s profile on Instagram is already observed by more than 20 thousand users
Other valued domestic brands include Lamere – a clothing brand with clothes for children and their moms (almost 16 thousand observers), Mrugała – a manufacturer of shoes for learning to walk (almost 50 thousand observers), or Le Pampuch (over 44 thousand observers), offering a cross-section of various children’s goods.
Advertisements often provide consumers with an idealized image of motherhood, which often raises objections from the main stakeholders. After all, every mom knows very well that raising a child – in addition to a lot of love and joy – also brings problems that they have to face. That’s why brands are slowly breaking away from the stereotypical mom who is always smiling, made up, nicely dressed and makes all her plans.
This is a good thing, because, according to Baby Center’s research, moms describe themselves as worrying and reacting too emotionally, in a word: stressed. They also agree that their portrayal in advertisements is simply hypocritical: only 20% of pregnant women and only 15% of young mothers believe that they can identify with the heroine of the advertisement.
It is worth seeing how the Ariel brand fights against stereotypes in a commercial aired in India:
However, also among the Polish commercials we will find some which show the true face of motherhood and the variety of childrearing methods, in this case under the slogan “Mums cope best in the world”.
In social media we are increasingly willing to share our private lives, including our consumer choices. Thus, young parents often reach for recommendations from other parents, who report their discoveries and recommendable products e.g. on Instagram. Photos of clothes or toys are often followed by questions about the visible articles and where they were bought, and the authors of the photographs are willing to reveal some of the secrets.
The development of such platforms is also a large space for communication of the brands themselves. Parents appreciate being able to stay in touch with them, share their concerns and get quick answers to their questions. Mutual tagging also gives the impression of a very close relationship and affects consumer loyalty in subsequent purchases.
I would like to thank young mothers Ania , Karolina, Magdalena, Monika and Dominika for their help in making this blog post.
