Marketers Collaborate With Millions of Moms Online to Identify Trends and Develop Innovative Products Using MarketTools(R) Moms Insight Network

Jul 02, 2007 09:00 ET

Marketers Collaborate With Millions of Moms Online to Identify Trends and Develop Innovative Products Using MarketTools(R) Moms Insight Network

Del Monte Foods Discovers Why Moms Buy Certain Foods for Families

 

SAN FRANCISCO, CA--(Marketwire - July 2, 2007) - MarketTools, Inc. today announced a dynamic, new market research solution, called Moms Insight Network, for marketers to better understand one of the most highly influential consumer groups -- moms. The Moms Insight Network is the first research solution that synthesizes input from millions of moms' online conversations, lets marketers engage directly in ongoing conversations with moms to uncover pressing needs and new ideas, and helps to turn those findings into innovative products and services. The solution's hosted proprietary community, ZoomPanel Moms, is the only online community formed exclusively to allow marketers and moms to exchange ideas and perspectives.

MarketTools' unique methodology provides a deep and authentic understanding of this important market segment that has never before been available. By listening into and actively participating in the conversations that moms are having with each other -- on everything from brands of diapers to the role of spirituality in their lives -- marketers can get a clearer picture of what moms really want and why. In addition, Moms Insight Network helps marketers identify new issues to explore, fill in the white space of unmet needs, and collaborate with moms on ideal solutions.

Identify issues to explore. By tuning into conversations that moms are already having, the Moms Insight Network allows marketers to ask questions they wouldn't have thought to ask, or identify hot buttons and issues they may not have otherwise thought to explore. For example, observing moms' conversations on a wide array of topics including school policies, diet and nutrition, vaccinations, seat belt and car seat laws, revealed that moms believe strongly that they are best equipped to make decisions about what is suitable for their children. They express resentment toward and distrust of rules and regulations -- especially those made by public entities. This over-arching sentiment greatly impacts moms' perceptions of marketing and advertising. Marketers should keep in mind that moms will respond more positively to messages that position them as the experts and empower them to make their own decisions:

 

--  "Public schools and public libraries should not be allowed to censor.

    It is up to the reader or guardian to censor. I am intelligent enough to

    decide if a book is offensive. As for my children, I don't need someone

    else to make my parenting decisions."

--  "I don't know about anybody else, but I've had more than enough of a

    governmental entity telling me what we should & should not eat."

--  "I also think that parents should be able to make their own decisions

    about how they are going to discipline their children."

   

Fill the White Space. As moms share their solutions and workarounds for every day problems, they provide a blueprint for marketers to solve their unmet needs. MarketTools' analysis of moms' conversations revealed several creative workarounds for getting children to eat vegetables -- workarounds that foods companies could consider in their packaging and product plans:

--  Blended up - "I shred carrots, onions, peppers and broccoli so tiny,

    into casseroles and meatloaves and they never know!"

--  Dipped in something - "My sons love ranch dressing on their salads.

    And they have decided that Ranch dressing is more than for a salad. They

    dip fresh veggies of all kinds in ranch dressing! They never complain about

    eating enough veggies!"

--  Cut into shapes - "I love to cut them in fun shapes and make them into

    faces on a plate so the kids will think they're fun to eat."

   

Collaborate on ideal solutions. By collaborating with moms as they chat about solutions to the problems they face each day, subscribing clients can integrate consumer feedback into the ideation process. For example, discussions about packaging revealed a common desire for smaller, more concentrated cleaning products:

"I wish they made more cleaning products ultra concentrated. It's great that laundry detergents are going that route. I buy a lot of things at warehouse club stores and some of those bulk packages can get, well, bulky. The ultra concentrated cleaners are usually still small though, even in bulk."

 

Del Monte Foods uses the Moms Insight Network to listen into moms' discussions about food and cooking. "We subscribed to Moms Insight Network to improve our understanding of why moms buy certain foods for their families, and the values they attribute to those foods," said Gala Amoroso, Senior Market Research Manager, Del Monte Foods. "By tapping into thousands of moms' real conversations, we're looking forward to getting an inside perspective on what they're really doing when they cook and eat at home. With this window into their lives, we can then identify the unmet needs in the market and can explore issues and opportunities we wouldn't have thought to explore previously."

 

At the core of this solution is MarketTools' integrated research service, MarketTools Insight Networks™, which allows researchers and marketers to capture the universe of voices from a variety of online resources. The Moms Insight Network offers:

 

--  Broad understanding of a key market demographic - The Moms Insight

    Network synthesizes information from more than 50 million blogs, message

    boards and media sites, capturing and distilling the key trends.

--  Platform for exploring ideas and stirring discussions - MarketTools

    created an online community called ZoomPanel Moms where more than 10,000

    mothers participate in discussions.  The forum's moderator can post polls,

    activities and questions on behalf of companies that subscribe.

--  Method for validating concepts and ideas - Each subscribing client

    also has a quarterly survey with 500 moms from a nationally representative

    sample so that they can validate and quantify what they learn in the

    community.

--  Fresh and actionable insights - Moms Insight Networks includes a

    quarterly analysis of the trends and issues raised in both the broad

    internet text-analysis and in the ZoomPanel Moms community, along with

    recommendations and implications.

   

"Moms Insight Network is about helping marketers find innovation through collaboration directly with the end consumer," said Emily Morris, MarketTools' Director of Product Marketing, Panels & Communities. "Moms can be distrustful of marketers and often turn to one another for advice and product suggestions rather than blindly believing advertising and marketing messages. By providing a natural forum for moms' conversations, and letting marketers interact with them, we're helping companies get smarter about moms to provide more targeted products and services."

Availability

 

Moms Insight Network subscriptions are available now. For more information, visit: http://www.markettools.com/resources/files/DS_Moms.pdf.

About MarketTools

 

MarketTools is the defining provider of on-demand market research, giving companies and individuals the ability to continuously understand their target customers through innovative approaches based on advanced technology, research expertise, global market reach and an online panel community of over 2.5 million individuals worldwide. MarketTools' full-range of research applications and services provide organizations from Fortune 500 companies to small businesses and non-profits with unique access to their target markets to uncover unmet needs, reduce time to market and capture market share. Further information: www.markettools.com