Monday, December 18, 2006

Research: Parent segmentation

This month's 'brand strategy' features a nice and interesting article on different segements of parents written by Warwick Cairns, planning director at Brandhouse.

He identifies the following six segments:Stage-school parents:
Tap dancing, tennis, guitar lessons,... Whatever it takes, their child will win at all costs.

Microwave mums:
Home is an advanced digital entertainment multicomplex. Children have their own TVs, Sky subscriptions and DVD players. Sit-down family meals are rare, not least because there is no kitchen table.

Disciplinarian strivers:
Ties, shiny shoes and ambition all matter - you will be an accountant. Native disciplinarian strivers have been boosted by hard-working first-generation immigrants, determined that their children will become respectable professionals.

Laid-back traditionalists:
Children learn basic manners and values and are expected to behave at school. The rest is free-range 'benign neglect' until it is time to find a job. This come via luck and natural ability, the family business, a local big employer or, failing that, through calling in favours.

Pushy progressives:
Relentlessly 'on-message' about most things. They disapprove of selective and private education and feel that 'ordinary' people would benefit from more children like theirs attending their schools. Unfortunately, the local school is just too bad, so they pull strings for entry the right state school on the other side of town.

Fairtrade families:
They choose home schooling, or the failing local comprehensive with a varied social mix and high murder-rate, to broaden their children's horizons.

Source: brand strategy (Dec 2006/Jan 2007)

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