Mothers Day on the high street 2013

According to a straw poll conducted in the office of Which? Magazine, what mums wanted most for Mother’s Day could not be bought on the high street. What they wanted was centred around a warm, fuzzy emotional connection with the family, it was not about what money can buy, more like; breakfast in bed, to have dinner cooked (without a trashed kitchen as a consequence) and home made cards and presents. This would be the ultimate day.

Nonetheless seasonality is key to retail and there has been an ever-growing trend towards capitalising more and more on seasons and occasions for the last decade or so. So how did Mother’s Day measure up in 2013 on the high street?

A quick visit to a local retail park would not suggesting a robust sample but nonetheless it was a surprising non-event. Sandwiched between Valentine’s Day and Easter a mere six weeks apart would appear to have squeezed on this opportunity. There was little in the way of events, or even POS material in sight.

Most of the effort has come from the supermarkets for product range and idea generation. While Asda had a reasonably good range of products on offer, what met you at the entrance to the store, can be summarised fairly succinctly in 3 words: PINK, FLOWERS, CHOCOLATE. It was a big display but surely in 2013 we have moved on from this? Tesco too had a large range of gift ideas, from wine to chocolate, mugs, coasters, teddies, money boxes, kneeling mats for the garden, slippers and pyjamas all stacked high on the shelves. A big range, but still not inspiring. And why was the rest of the high street so weak in this area? Boots, surely Mother’s heartland had no reference to Mother’s Day at all.

What is perhaps important to consider is that while the grocers did dedicate reasonable space to Mother’s Daythey didn’t tap into the “sentiment” of the occasion, nor provide much in the way of imagination, possibly apart from Asda’s bedroom door hanger for mum to use!

In terms of the bricks and mortar seasonal activation calendar, the multiples are on a steady roll, every season is executed the same, just different colours of cardboard to differentiate between them. Seasonal activation needs to tap into the sentiment of the occasion more, and for this occasion a bit more of the experience that mum’s are looking for will be a winner for 2014.

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This post was written by Dawn Odoi