Mother’s Day Is May 8th
With Mother’s Day coming up this weekend, it just wouldn’t be right not to write about such an important holiday, especially for jewelers – heck, for U.S. retailers as a whole. Mother’s Day, according to eMarketer, is the third largest retail holiday in the United States; it is said that over 80% of Americans celebrate Mother’s Day each year. And part of celebrating = spending. The National Retail Federation reported that in 2015, $21.2 billion was spent on Mother’s Day with the average person spending $173 on gifts for Mom (this is up from an average of $163 per person in 2014). Along with the winter holidays (Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah), this is a time where retailers (especially jewelers) really need to make sure they’re dedicating ad dollars.
There are a few “basics” when it comes to Mother’s Day marketing. First, generally, who should you be targeting for Mother’s Day? On average, we aim to communicate Mother’s Day messaging for our clients to adults 25 years and older in their markets. “But I don’t have the budget to cast such a wide net” you might be saying to yourself. “The number of adults 25+ in my market is enormous.” Well, should that be the case, we recommend concentrating your budget first on targeting adults age 25-34, where the most money spent seems to lie; the National Retail Federation reports that the typical 25-34 year old spends an average of $244 on gifts for Mom, or about 40% more than the national average. Concentrating your limited funds there will help you get the best ROI for the holiday. From there, open the target to adults 25-44, then adults 25-54, as budget allows.
It’s important to have a strategic media mix as well. The top three places consumers shop for Mother’s Day, again according to the National Retail Federation, are at department stores (33%), at specialty stores (28%) and online (25%). With online shopping rivaling in-store shopping, it is important to remember to appropriately divide your marketing budget between both traditional media and digital media. Here at Fruchtman, most of our jewelers are utilizing a healthy mix of radio and/or TV along with such digital efforts as search engine marketing (often referred to as SEM or PPC), social media marketing, retargeting and geofencing to drive shoppers to both their brick and mortars and to their websites. Leaving digital media off the table equates to giving up a large chunk of your target audience, especially when targeting adults under the age of 30.
And finally, timing is everything. It is important to know that unlike holiday shoppers (that tend to be last minute), Mother’s Day shoppers are typically planning and buying their gifts more in advance. Analysis done by MediaPost showed that most Mother’s Day shopping is done between 5 and 10 days before the holiday, with the peak purchasing time landing at 6 days before Mother’s Day. We’ve heard many a story of jewelers putting all of their marketing dollars into, say, the Thursday through Saturday leading up to Mother’s Day – this is not something we would recommend. The majority of the jewelers we work with here at Fruchtman began their Mother’s Day campaigns this last weekend if not a day or two before that, and will run through this Saturday. The key is to be in front of your target at any time they are in the buying cycle; advertising just a few days out from Mother’s Day doesn’t necessarily allow for that.
With the right targeting, right media mix and the right timing, Mother’s Day can be an absolute success for retailers, especially jewelers. Want to know more? Drop us a line; we’d love to chat. suits@fruchtman.com
