In the maternal & child industry, new products are emerging as fast as fresh Chinese chives. Old products are yet removed from the shelves; new products are already entering the market. To meet the challenge of attracting new consumers, enterprises must monitor the market and design and adjust marketing strategies in a timely manner.
Everyday is a brand new day for mothers, so is for the maternal & child industry marketing. There are 13 must-knows for you to manage maternal & child brand successfully.
（Resource: 2016 Report on China Maternal & Child Products Consumption Trend）
There are numerous maternal & child brands competing with each other in the market. Clients begin to buy maternal & child products when they are preparing for pregnancy till the whole pregnancy and even breast-feeding period. Once they have recognized a certain product, they will have greater demand for and high loyalty to the product in the later period.
As a new round of population dividends is being unleashed, the priorities for maternal & child brand are to attract clients when they are making first purchase, leave a brand footprint and, most importantly, win the hearts of clients. Then based on the contents published by experts and by promoting word-of-mouth marketing and WeChat community blogs, the brand owner can build clients’ loyalty. Together with MGM campaign, target clients will be initiated to communicate the brand, therefore creating more business opportunities.
（Resource: 2016 Report on China Maternal & Child Products Consumption Trend）
In terms of the share of sales channels, maternal & child market is one of the first batch of industries embracing mobile e-commerce.
Many demands have been standardized in the mobile e-commerce era. For example, when searching for milk powder, consumers will search both brands and product reputation. In such scenario, DSP or structured brand information can help to meet consumer demands in an automatic way.
（Resource: Research Report on The Consumption Awareness and Habits of The New Generation ‘Moms’）
After seeing product photos published by buyers, 45% of viewers will comment on the product, 34% of them will buy the product and 28% of them will retweet the content. To this end, ‘reputation’ becomes a steady information flow that is having a spontaneous production and circulation, a rapid communication and a reciprocal influence.
For communication contents, more efforts are needed to produce PGC and integrate and use UGC so as to achieve a good reputation and contents integration, selection and creation. Since advertisers, KOLs and consumers all serve as communication subjects, marketers should incentivize KOLs and loyal consumers to participate in marketing campaigns and guide reputation flow via socialized operation.
（Resource: 2016 Report on China Maternal & Child Products Consumption Trend）
As consumers are getting younger, there are higher possibilities for individualized products to succeed in the market.
In spite of its high price of 200+ RMB, Comotomo feeding bottle has registered a 200 million RMB annual sale in just 5 years. Young mothers like its high-tech silicone bottle body which makes milking more convenient and its innovative nipple design which mimics the mound shape and nipple feel of a mother’s breast.
（Resource: 2016 Report on China Maternal & Child Products Consumption Trend）
The lower the city tier is, the higher female consumers’ share is in the maternal & child product market. This phenomenon should be given more considerations when the brand owner is expanding and penetrating distribution channels in lower-tier cities.
（Resource: JD Big Data Platform）
4th-tier city consumers begin to buy and spend more on buying milk powder from overseas markets than 2nd and 3rd-tier consumers. In the meantime, 5th-tier city consumers have seen a big rise in their consumption potential and they spend more than their 1st-tier city peers in the same period, which helps them rise to the 3rd place in total amount.
The booming trend in the 4th and 5th-tier cities has direct relations with cross-border e-commerce. This new means of purchase makes it possible for county-level consumers to buy affordable and quality imported milk powder.
（Resource: Analysys）
Internet maternal & child communities in China are continuously expanding their business reach and improving business portfolios in light of changing demands. Starting from the community and pregnancy tools, maternal & child business has been reaching out to healthcare, family trip, education, e-commerce and local O2O service and other relevant sector, thus forming a maternal & child ecosystem and realizing a cross-border integrated eco-development.
（Resource: 2016 Report on China Maternal & Child Products Consumption Trend）
The mobile maternal & child community users have many fragmented times. Their active periods are relatively evenly-distributed and the most active time is between 8-10pm. The APP users share the same general trend but they are most active between 8-9pm.
（Resource: 2016 Report on China Maternal & Child Products Consumption Trend）
Information quality is the first consideration for users to choose mobile maternal & child product platforms. Another two major factors are the user size and reliability of product channels which account for 27.5% and 23.9% respectively.
Maternal & child brands can combine parenting knowledge with product sales conversion, which can enhance consumer trust in the brand products.
（Resource: Roland Berger & Nelson）
By integrating online and offline channels and correlating consumption behaviors, brand owners can have a better understanding and prediction of both consumers and their requests. So they can make more data-based and scientific marketing decisions and improve overall efficiency through data analysis and application.
On the one hand, the user profile generated via operations can help to position target audience more accurately; on the other hand, big data analysis can make channel adjustment smarter. In the meantime, data sheets covering multi-dimensions will help in performance monitoring and refined operation.
（Resource: Roland Berger Research Report on China’s Maternal, Infant and Child Market & Nelson）
66% of users will feel happy for buying quality products; 66% of them think high quality products will make them more confident.
Quality is always the guarantee of brand credibility. It is also the precondition of successful marketing. Word-of-mouth communication can serve as a perpetual motion machine. But any quality problem can destroy the whole communication chain and undermine all previous marketing effort.
（Resource: White Paper on The Trend of Maternal & Child Family Heath Management）
98% of users have the habit of checking record data; 93% has dependence on smart hardware; and 40% will adjust their lifestyles in reference to smart hardware data.
Since smart hardware is being well recognized, users will first consider its functions and performance when making a purchase. In terms of functions, data monitoring and recording are most important functions for them and security and data accuracy are most valued performance factors.
（Resource: Sina White Paper on Maternal & Child Consumption）
With the rise of “she-economy” or “womenomics”, modern women are having a greater say in every aspect. They believe in scientific childrearing and can learn and summarize to make independent judgment. This raises higher requirements for the user-profile-based accurate communication. Human attributes, product demand attributes and touch-point preference and other dimensions need to be taken into consideration in brand management and promotion. Through well-targeted communication and enhanced interactions, by building interests or emotional connections, users will be prone to buy the brand products again and again.
