Mums believe technology makes them better mothers: McCann

“Only 10 per cent said that the engagement ring was the one thing they wouldn’t give up,” David McCaughan, Truth Central director, Asia Pacific, told Campaign Asia-Pacific. Furthermore out of the eight countries in which McCann conducted the survey (UK, US, Italy, Japan, Brazil, China, India and Mexico), Japan and China were the two countries where women were most likely to choose tech, he added.

The study is based on a quantitative survey of 6800 online mums across those eight markets. It also contains insights from more than 40 focus groups in all the above markets plus Indonesia, Malaysia, Peru, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand.

But while global statistics give an idea, they don’t paint the entire picture, as mothers can differ greatly from market to market. China and Japan stand out as polarised examples in Asia-Pacific, McCaughan commented.

For example, when asked if technology helped them to be a better mother, 91 per cent of Chinese mums said ‘yes’, while 82 per cent of Japanese mums said ‘no’. Those findings represent the extreme ends across the eight markets. The global average for this question was 67 per cent in favour of ‘yes’.

“China is an acute example, life there has changed so much in the past 20 years that women have become reliant on their computers and mobiles as access points to info,” observed McCaughan.

Indian and Singaporean mums strongly believe that technology has made information more readily available, and convenient—they can find answers to queries or homework questions, as well as tips on how to handle certain situations or behaviour. Malaysian mothers find technology invaluable for problem-solving, but importantly see it as a means of shortening the generation gaps with their children.

In Japan however, while mums embrace technology, they view television programmes as the most reliable source of information. “Japanese mums are driven by consensus—if it's on TV, it must be approved by the majority—whereas in every other country, mothers rate TV shows poorly as sources of advice,” he said.

This doesn’t mean that advertisers should bank everything on TV in Japan and neglect it everywhere else, but it does indicate how they should be balancing their budgets and weighing ROI, McCaughan said. “Japanese mothers do go online to research a lot, they just trust TV more.”

The differences between Chinese and Japanese mums extend to how much information they choose to share online as well. More than five in 10 Japanese mums have never thought of, and have no interest in, writing a blog. On the other hand, 86 per cent of Chinese mums, who regard weibo as a form of blogging, share regularly.

“In some countries, women are more broadcasters and in others they incline towards being receivers< McCaughan said. "Japanese women are receivers, they don’t like to share and they’re doubtful and fear criticism. Chinese mothers are the opposite as to them, the more you get out there, the better and the more likely you’ll be perceived as a ‘successful mum’.”

In most countries though, mums are active and vociferous online users with nearly 40 per cent of mums around the world running blogs. In Singapore, mum bloggers tend to write about specific mother and baby issues as well as product reviews. Readers will generally take advice from these sites but tend to be led there by a query.

In India and Thailand however, blogs tend to be more diary-like, recording incidents that strike them as cute or funny, and their opinions on events happening in the world around them, said the study.

One question that provided telling insight into ‘what mums want’ was, ‘What would be your dream app for your mobile phone?’ Globally, the most common and slightly whimsical answer was ‘an app that lets me time travel’ and a ‘let me see into the future’ app. But while both of these were popular in China and Japan there were others that truly grabbed their interest.

Japanese mums most wanted an app to ‘cook the dinner for me’, not because they couldn’t cook or because they were reluctant to do so, but because they needed to do things perfectly. “This new generation of mothers has had less traditional cooking training from their own mothers, and at the same time have grown up in a culture with very high expectations from home cooking,” noted the study.

Answering this need could be an avenue for marketers, commented McCaughan, “Cooking schools are a big trend here.”

While Chinese mums would love the time-travel app, a close second for them was an app that ‘would transport my kids to all their activities and act as a taxi’. In most countries this app attracted only 8 to 9 per cent of mums; in China it was twice that number. The answer reflects the Chinese mother’s real desire, as ‘tiger mums’, to get their children into as many after-school extra activities and lessons as possible.

“Both examples seem to play true to cultural stereotypes,” mused McCaughan. “But it would seem a lot of these stereotypes are true.”

While mothers the world over also want their kids to be happy (83 per cent), most have different definitions of happiness and success. Indian mothers, however, while desiring happiness for their children, also really want their children to be successful. While the global average for “success” was 15 per cent, in India, 46 per cent of mums wanted this most for their children followed by 20 per cent of moms in China. Only 7 per cent of Japanese mothers, however, rated success over happiness.

Mothers also have evolving definitions of success for themselves, with 65 per cent of mums around the world rejecting the idea of a ‘supermum’. More than seven in 10 want their kids to know the ‘real person’, warts and all and Indian mums hoped that their children would see their greatest achievement as a mother was that they gave them ‘a childhood full of happy memories’.

In Thailand, mums want their children to see them as a modern mum, ‘smart and young’, they  also want their kids and peers to see them as ‘strong and hands-on’. Whereas in Singapore, mums are more reluctant to praise themselves but hope their children see them as trustworthy.

“Mothers were talking not just about being a mom but also being a whole woman, with many returning to work after having children,” said McCaughan. Marketers can speak to this side by allowing avenues for mothers to create positioning for themselves in a community of mothers, such as via brand forums. 

The tone of voice brands need to adopt is a positive, problem-fixing one, he added in response to the case of painkiller brand Motrin’s failed attempt in 2008 to connect to US mums.

Using the tagline ‘We feel your pain', the TVC attempted to take a commiserating tone toward mothers who ‘had’ to wear their babies in a sling. The approach backfired badly, with mothers lashing out in forums, on Facebook, YouTube and most of all on Twitter—hijacking the #motrinmoms hashtag.

Mums took particular offense to the ad likening the baby sling to a fashion accessory, implying that mothers only used it because it made them ‘look like an official mom’.

“A baby will never be a fashion statement, how outrageous is that thinking???” posted an indignant @Bella_Casa. Motrin was eventually forced to pull the ad and issue an apology.

 “General rules are, never criticise the child and don’t criticise the act of being a mother,” concluded McCaughan.