Today I hosted a "Meeting of the Moms" lunch here at the agency to get a feel for what we're all thinking about, loving as moms and things we think are ridiculous.   We don't agree on everything, and we don't expect to.  Today's meeting included four moms who have 10 kids between us ranging from 5 months to 11 years. 

Given the date (T-minus 19 days till Christmas!), our conversation easily settled on how stressed we all are about pulling together a memorable holiday for our kids and our extended families.  Some of the interesting points:

Eliminating Christmas Cards was one mom's strategy for simplifying things; another put out Thanksgiving Cards as a substitute and now has that nasty little task off her to-do list.  Those of us with it still hanging over our head commiserated mightily about the photo, the outfit coordination for said photo, drafting the letter and finding the letterhead.  No, we don't think this is all required, but for some reason we put it on ourselves to make it happen.

Teacher/daycare provider gifts -- what do you give?  What will they like?  What won't break the bank? 

One Hellish Choice Over the Other -- otherwise known as the decision to road trip with small children to far-flung family celebrations, or to invite them to descend upon your own home where you provide hosting duties.

Santa -- three out of the four of us are taking kids to sit on Santa's lap.  One mom isn't choosing to do so because the kids aren't asking for it and getting the kids spiffed up and waiting in line for the big guy just takes too much time and effort.  Those who have Santa plans agreed it takes lots of time, but choose to do it because it's a "tradition."  And it makes for good photos in the scrapbook.

Church -- two of us admitted that while we work hard to get our families to church regularly, and believe it to be even more important during the Advent Season, attending church has not happened in the last few weeks due to crazy weekend schedules and a need to decompress.  It's not something either of the moms is proud of, as they both believe the priority should be reversed. 

What can all this negativity towards the holiday season possibly mean to companies who wish to reach moms?  If you can make our lives easier, you will have our undying thanks and loyalty.  (It puts some context around skyrocketing Cyber Monday sales, doesn't it?) 

In my last blog post, dated prior to Halloween, the Black Friday gauntlet had already been thrown down by several retailers, and since then each day has brought Black Friday news:  Wal-mart is to open at 10 p.m. on Thanksgiving; Toys R Us is opening one hour earlier at 9 p.m.; a Target employee has started a popular online petition against their midnight store opening.  And all the while debates have raged (on radio airwaves, in the blogosphere and on opinion pages) about the degradation of a holiday.

I think this muddled mess has all the makings of a record-setting online sales season.  The folks at eMarketer agree.  A story today projects online sales during November and December will rise 16.8% this year to $46.7 billion.  As a morning person who typically does join the masses in the wee hours on Black Friday, I find myself at a bit of a loss on how to make the most of bricks and mortar shopping.  Selection of key items is often blown 10 minutes after a store opens, while the size of checkout lines make any small purchase -- and the entire trip -- pointless.  I may just stay home and curl up with my computer instead.  I'm sure others will do the same.

For the last week or so I've been enjoying all the coverage (in the trades, at least) about how various retailers are planning to capture the most shopping traffic during the all-important holiday season.  Wal-Mart will be meeting prices -- even after you've purchased something, JCP has "grab-n-go" gift centers, layaway is "new" again as retailers court credit-weary and strapped consumers, and now (three days before Halloween) Target fires the first shot regarding Black Friday -- they'll be open starting at midnight, which is four hours earlier than last year for the retailer.

Sure, K-Mart has been open on Thanksgiving Day for a couple of years now, and I believe Wal-Mart pulled the midnighter last year, complete with strategies for keeping shoppers at bay until the appointed hour in their 24-hour stores.  So midnight isn't new, but it is for Target, and we can expect all other retailers who have been lingering in the 4 a.m. - 6 a.m. zones to back their open times up, too.  (Macy's, Kohl's, Sears and JCP, are you listening?)

My expectation is that stores will continue to be busy at these non-traditional hours, no matter the start times, but more and more consumers will ditch the crowds and cold each year and decide instead to stay warm in bed, snuggled up to their laptop, tablet or smart phone.  Savvy retailers will ensure the deals and quantities are as good online as in-store, and ensure their sites look and work great, no matter what device got the consumer there. 

Today I hosted the first of what will be many "Meeting of the Moms" lunches here at the agency to get a feel for what we're all thinking about, loving as moms and things we think are ridiculous.   We don't agree on everything, and we don't expect to.  Today's meeting included four moms who have seven kids between us ranging from 20 months to 11 years, plus two more due in July.  Following are highlights from our discussion:

On marketing to kids and the McDonald's uproar about eliminating Ronald:  While we are a relatively health-conscious lot, and welcome more limits on marketing to kids, we don't think McDonald's is evil for targeting them.   The point was made, in fact, that beef, milk and apples, even with the attendant sodium, fat and caramel dip sauce, has some nutritional value compared to lots of processed foods.  Toaster pastries came to mind.

What we find annoying is how expensive healthy food can be, and how inexpensive food can be that's not good for us or our families.

We also find it hard to determine what is actually healthy because marketers will tout health claims (tons of servings of whole grains!!) but a review of the nutrional label reveals even more sugar.  

What we love:  SmartTaste and Dreamfields pasta, which taste like "white" pasta but has fiber and other nutirents.  V8 Fusion and Fruitable juices, one of the few juices that are 100% juice.  Seriously.  Check the labels on the other ones.

We also proclaimed our love for all things convenient -- grocery delivery services, drive-through pharmacies, evening and weekend hours (for any business), individually packaged foods (OK, some of us had a problem with the excess packaging) and one-stop birthday party venues.

The take-away for retailers and consumer product companies working to capture some of the $2.1 trillion in household spending moms control each year?  Create convenient products and services that are easy to understand and are healthy.  You'll have our undying loyalty -- and our willingness to spend more if you can get it right.

A lot of people have been up in arms about Amy Chua's "Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother."  But after only a few weeks following release, the book was #3 on the New York Times Bestseller List, and now, in May, it's at #22.  I believe it has sold so well because it has itched a nagging feeling among mainsteam American parents, making them question their lax and kid-centric approach to raising children.  Impressive sales of this book may be what the parenting pendulum needed to start swinging the other way. 

What does this mean to CPG companies and retailers?  Moms may be re-thinking their approach to parenting, which will require more time and effort to coach and encourage increased performance out of their kids.   These time investments will require moms to take shortcuts in other areas of their lives, such as food prep, shopping, cleaning, laundry, etc.  Smart companies will take this into account as they develop new products and services.

The view out my office window includes what is likely the largest retail testing ground in the country -- Mall of America.  Our close proximity allows us to stop over once in a while and do a little unscientific research.  Recently we went with the goal of chatting up female boomers to learn about the stores they shop and their involvement with technology and social media.  Granted, we didn't talk to a large sample, but out of the 20 or so women we interviewed, about 80 percent of them had Facebook profiles, and about 50 percent of them were aware that they could engage with brands on Facebook and had done so primarily to learn about discounts and promotions.

I believe our small sample points to a larger trend of boomer women becoming more and more comfortable with social media.  An article in today's AdAge takes that thinking further.  They recently conducted research about digital engagement within all age groups and found that Facebook is the #1 preferred social platform upon which to engage with brands.  The next closest is Twitter at 18%.  The main reason to "like" something?  Sixty-five percent do it in hopes of receiving coupons and a healthy 42 percent engage so they might enjoy better customer service.  Twenty-two percent "like" a brand so they can keep abreast of company news, which I would interpret to mean new product introductions.  (I should also note that 48 percent of respondents didn't want to engage with any brands on any platforms). 

The take-away?  Brands who are working to engage with boomers shouldn't shy away from the social media channels, thinking this audience is too "old" to get it.  And the first place to be is Facebook.

A recent article in AdAge introduced me to yet another Groupon knock-off, called Plum District.  This one is specifically targeting moms, which, according to the Marketing to Moms Coalition Survey, is a 50 million-strong market that controls 85% of household spending -- or a total of $2.1 trillion a year.

The interesting twist to Plum District is they are ensuring the daily offers are of interest to their target demographic by using moms as their sales force, ala Pampered Chef and Tupperware.  Women who get a local retailer to place an offer with Plum District get a cut of the action and can push out the deals using their own social networks to pump up sales volume and, in due turn, their payday.  I think it's a pretty ingenious way to apply social networking to the tried-but-true direct selling model. 

AdAge writes today about a Yahoo! survey that finds six out of 10 dads identify themselves as the primary household grocery shoppers.  This will be welcome news to a male colleague of mine who, during every brainstorm in which we start talking about the mom deomographic, insists men make purchasing decisions, too.  (Apparently he does lots of the shopping at his house.) 

The point of the article is marketers must evolve their approach to go beyond targeting moms.  And it makes sense -- men have taken the larger job loss hit with the economic downturn and Gen X and millenial dads tend to be much more involved parents than previous generations.  It stands to reason that they're more involved in buying everything from ketchup to toilet paper.  You can see the article here.

I had an interesting article in my in-box this morning.  A British department store surveyed women and learned none of us (women, that is) start dressing our age until we turn 70.  Assuming we don't start caring about such things until our teens (when we want to dress older) and don't stop until age 70, that's 55 or so years for all women where we're floundering around trying to figure out what styles to wear.  Half a century of flux.

This study rang true for me -- as a 40-something, minivan-driving mom who works with lots of 20-something single women, figuring out how to dress in an age-appropraite, professional and frump-free way is always a challenge.  Retailers who have figured out how to help me, with fun styles cut to fit a mom body, win my business.

Something else that rang true with the study?  Only 12% of men give any thought to trying to dress younger.  Check out the article: