Young moms create balance between home and work in style

MANILA, Philippines - If you are a 20-something mother now, chances are despite the heavy load of parenthood, you still want to have everything: gadgets, a vibrant career, a healthy home and social life, and cute photo of your baby on Facebook.

Entrepreneurs Mary Tan and Melissa So, distributors of premium baby products, sees a thriving market in today’s high-achieving and style-conscious young mothers who want to create a balance between home and work life in style.  

“Moms like to show off their kids; they like to take photos of their kids and upload them on Facebook,” says So. “Most of the moms today are gadget-savvy so they also want nice things for their kids. For moms today, even diaper bags have to be fashionable.”

Tan is a co-founder of Heintz Marketing Inc. which distributes Dr. Brown’s, Simplisse, and Evenflo, while So is a co-founder of Recherché Marketing which distributes Boon and Minui. Their products are sold in Robinsons Department Stores, Rustan’s Department Stores, SM Department Stores, Landmark, Babyland, Baby Company Boutique, NUMA, Sta. Lucia East Department Store, and Metro Gaisano.

As distributors of high-end baby products in the country, Tan and So were confronted with the challenge of making price-sensitive and value-skeptical customers see the desirability and usefulness of their products.

To do this, they created We Luv Moms, a community of modern mothers that congregate on www.weluvmoms.com, a website that is devoted to their needs.

“This is our way of telling moms that we understand their needs,” says So, a mother of a three-year-old boy. “It’s not just enough to put our products in the market. In a way, we are elevating the selling of baby products into a lifestyle.”

The site, which functions as a value-added service to the product lines, provides insights into home and career management as well ways as self-improvement. There are articles on fashion, wellness, and nutrition, such as recipes for training the baby’s palate for solid foods.

There are also featured lifestyle services from partner businesses such as The Blounge salon, The Maya Kitchen, The Zen Institute and Kindermusik.

Registered users of the site can also publish a photo of their newborn babies for free under the Birth Announcement feature. 

Tan says that the website is also a way of educating the market about their products. Based on their interaction with their customers, Tan and So discovered that parents in the economic bracket A, B and Lower B would be willing to pay a premium price for baby products if these are guaranteed to be safe, practical and convenient.

“Majority of the new moms are into lifestyle now. This was not the case 10 to 15 years ago,” says Tan, a mother of three boys aged 13, 10 and five. “So we think its also helpful that we can provide them information.”

“Parents are now very health conscious. They look for organic products, they are wary about the use of plastics and they look for long-term savings,” she adds.

The products endorsed on the website are priced between P500 (feeding tools) and P15,000 for high chairs.  

“When it comes to premium brands people tend to underestimate the benefits when they see the price. That’s why we try to educate the market,” Tan says.

So said We Luv Moms also welcomes entrepreneurs who want to be part of the organization.

The products on the website are also found on www.babiestoddlers.com and www.weemall.com.