The ‘Mommy Influencer’ Moment: Why High-trust Digital Communities Can Be an Entry Point to Emerging Markets
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The ‘Mommy Influencer’ Moment: Why High-trust Digital Communities Can Be an Entry Point to Emerging Markets
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By Liviya David, Business Development & Research Analyst, Botho Emerging Markets Group
January 23, 2021
If you Google “mothers in sub-Saharan Africa”, the majority of the results include statistics about maternal, infant, and under-5 child mortality. There is no mention of the 500 million African women and girls nor the 230 million women of childbearing age in the region—or the platforms (or lack thereof) tailored to meet their needs. Although the commercial opportunities around this segment are immense, finding a centralized dataset with key statistics about African mothers is challenging as the data scarcely consists of more than anecdotes.
What if we could change the global perception of African mothers from one of suffering to one of promise? One way to shift the narrative is to encourage brands to harness high-trust relationships between African mothers and “mommy influencers”—women who have built social media platforms showcasing and monetizing their parenting experiences—to try, recommend, and share products with their communities.
Africa’s mother and babies market is huge and growing: by 2050, 40% of all children will be born in Africa. Now is the time for businesses to get ahead of the curve and meet the needs of this population segment. According to Millicent Muigai, CEO of Kenya’s MumsVillage, a pioneering e-commerce company focusing on this demographic, “There are about 9 million live births each year [in Kenya and Nigeria alone]. The size of the opportunity is astonishing.” The company recently merged with BabyBliss to create Bliss Group in July 2020 to tap the estimated $7 billion mother and babies market in Nigeria and Kenya and the continent’s growing e-commerce space. On social media, platforms like Nairobi’s Kilimani Mums (120,000+ Facebook likes) and influencers that regularly interact with their followers like @yummymummy.ke (180,000+ Instagram followers), @mamaolivek (83,000+ Instagram followers), and @aishaandlife (25,000+ Instagram followers) are similarly on the rise. Strong growth of digital communities highlights that the mother and baby market on the continent, especially in its biggest economies, is abuzz.
For those outside the target market, the opportunity around this underserved population may be challenging to see. To understand the scale of the prospect of mom-centric marketing and information, consider the content and products marketed to American mothers: on TikTok alone the #momsoftiktok and #momlife hashtags have garnered over over 55 billion views. When a user watches videos on those hashtags, the platform re-targets them by populating their feed with related motherhood-focused content. Further, conferences like M2Moms see experts from top fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) brands speaking on the ‘how’ and ‘why’ of marketing to American mothers. Similar product creation, events, and content could exist for companies across sectors looking to enter into or expand within African markets. Capturing this segment requires tapping into these digital channels.
Shifts in parenting during a pandemic show that the demand for trustworthy, localized information is increasingly being met by digital communities. African mothers now turn to mom-centric spaces, especially localized ones, more than ever due to COVID-19. This growth is also a partial product of development gains and urbanization: more African women now live in cities, where they earn more money and often pursue different lifestyles than their parents. As a result of this cultural shift, mothers may be more likely to search for advice and seek to share experiences with women of similar backgrounds. Given that African women now make the majority of household purchasing decisions, brands might consider tapping mommy influencers to grow market share among this population.
While market data may be scarce, influencer marketing remains a popular and effective tool among Kenyan and Nigerian marketers. Brands in both countries increasingly leverage micro-influencers (1,000-10,000 followers) given their “tight-knit and hyper-engaged communities.” Not all mommy influencers are micro-influencers, but they do share one trait: trust and strong engagement with their followers. This relationship is built on discussion of sensitive topics and is influenced by the fact that mommy influencers often recommend products they use on their own children. That trait is key as baby productions are often subject to a long, careful consideration window pre-purchase. Muigai of Bliss Group emphasizes that brands should work with influencers at the right time for maximum return on investment, noting the value in “going deeper” with engagement. She also underscores that brands should watch influencers to build niche audiences and sophisticate their campaign execution to find that “sweet spot.”
International FMCG companies and home-grown enterprises like Showmax may have the most to gain by establishing a deeper foothold in emerging markets by tapping mommy influencers. Unilever—owner of Dove and Vaseline—saw emerging markets drive 4.4% of Q3 2020 sales goals. These markets now account for 60% of their global revenue. Procter & Gamble, owner of Pampers and several feminine care brands, may rely less on emerging for its sales today but could benefit from Africa’s growing youth population, rising demand for diapers and luxury goods, and rising household discretionary incomes that could afford Procter & Gamble’s premium products and brands. For newer or smaller African businesses, moreover, word-of-mouth effects may be more pronounced where brand awareness is poor.
Businesses should move now to take advantage of the mommy influencer moment in Africa. Businesses could leverage relationships with mommy influencers to have them recommend their products on their social media pages, offer coupon codes, and talk about their experiences with the brand and how their products make their lives easier. If they are not doing so already, multinational companies could leverage the networks of African mommy influencers as fodder for focus groups to guide product innovation and marketing optimization. Lastly, international brands and local businesses selling products geared towards mothers could collaborate to curate and execute marketing-to-moms conferences, like South Africa’s Power of Mom, for other markets across the continent. These platforms can generate unique insights for some companies to market to and develop products for mothers while offering others a platform as leaders in the mom’s and women’s segments.