In the weeks leading up to Mother’s Day, Savvy Auntie received a number of notices that Sears was airing a commercial that included celebrating ‘all your mothers’ this Mother’s Day. We contacted @MySears on Twitter and asked them to send us a link to the ad so we could take a look.  We were so impressed with the spot that we asked to interview Robert Raible, Vice President of Integrated Marketing for Sears. We asked Robert why Sears included aunts in their Mother’s Day spot, if he thought this was the beginning of a shift in the way retailers are marketing to women and what other ‘forgotten’ communities Sears was thinking of including in the future.

Savvy Auntie: The Sears Mother’s Day commercial is the first we’ve seen honoring ‘all your other mothers too,’ including your cools aunts and Mom’s best friend. What inspired the direction for the ad?

Robert Raible:  First of all, let me thank you for the great feedback on our Mother’s Day commercial.  We’re happy that we’ve inspired people to talk about it in a positive way like your Savvy Auntie community has.

One of the things we try to do at Sears is tap into a consumer insight. The idea for this commercial came out of a discussion with Young and Rubicam Chicago, our agency. We went through the briefing process with them wanting to tap into consumer insight and tell a meaningful story as a way to talk with our consumers.  Y&R conveyed the concept that there are so many kinds of mothers in the world. And immediately we said “Of course!”

There were non-moms in the room as well as moms, and dads too, and we all thought that this was really smart. Once we found this great insight, the creative came easily after that.

SA:  Well congratulations to Y&R, too, for tapping into this consumer insight! As you may know, nearly 50% of American women are not moms (yet), and the US Census shows that this demographic has been growing year after year since the 1970s. We’ve dubbed this segment: PANKs (Professional Aunts No Kids). Will we see more ads from Sears geared toward this influential segment of women?

RR: Sears’ sweet spot is around the home and family and we won’t abandon that. We know that the female consumer influences 85% of household purchases and she’s critical to our success. Historically, we’ve focused on moms, providing her with the things that touch all points of her life from the kitchen to clothing and the like. We acknowledge the women like the segment term you’ve taught us, ‘PANKs’ who are not mothers. We’re going to want to continue to be meaningful to this segment too and they will absolutely continue to be important whether we choose to talk to them directly like in this Mother’s Day spot or in other ways. Now that we’ve tapped into it with success, we’re looking for more opportunities.

SA:  That’s great to hear! Our experience has been that most consumer products, home improvement, electronics and automotive marketers focus on women as if we’re all moms. Savvy Auntie has been fortunate enough to have had Tropicana, Hasbro, Disney, JCPenney and many other major advertisers as sponsors looking to reach PANKs. Do you think we’re about to see a shift in how marketers talk to and about women?

RR: I don’t think we can afford to be business-as-usual. We will see a shift in how marketers talk to and about women. For instance, now we’re moving from mass marketing to one-to-one relationships.  Before long, we as consumers are going to tell marketers how we want to be communicated to. And as brands, we need to deliver relevant content, otherwise consumers will block us out.

 One-to-one isn’t perfect yet. We’re still moving along the continuum and it will continue to evolve. But we have to acknowledge individuals -and like minded people - and provide messaging and content that has meaning to them in their lives. We call this process: “listening loudly.”

SA: We like that! And we know our Savvy Aunties were listening to Sears. In fact, when we shared the Sear’s Mother’s Day spot with our audience, the response was very positive. Here are some of the remarks we saw on our Facebook page:

-I love this ad. My 15 yo niece often refers to me as her "mother from another mother"!
-Maybe they've finally caught on that recognizing aunts, etc. on Mother's Day ultimately means more money for them. In that case, it definitely IS the future of advertising ;-)
-Love it - totally captures the sense of fun I try to bring to my relationship with my nieces!

What was the response you received?

RR: The response we received here via Sears.com was very positive. Here’s a quote from a consumer we thought was great:

“I just wanted to say how touched I was by your "Other Moms" Mother's Day commercial. As a cool aunt to my sister's kids and the one who lets her best friend's kids do anything, it was nice to be remembered. I'm proud to be a loyal Sears customer. I'll be by to pick up a new dishwasher in a few weeks :) Thanks!”

SA: Sounds like you hit a PANK with perfect timing as she focuses on her kitchen appliance shopping! It sounds like this came pretty naturally to you. Did you have a Savvy Auntie when you were growing up and do your kids have ‘another mother’ in their lives?

RA: Yes and yes! But I have to say that I wasn’t necessarily thinking about them when we were working on our Mother’s Day spot. But I did think about it when we had the consumer insight in our meetings with our agency.

My older sister was certainly that position for me. I really looked up to her as a kid. My mother’s sister, my aunt, same thing. I remember we’d go to her farm and hang out and I loved it.

My 16 year old son, Jack, has a best friend in the Bay area from before we moved to Chicago a few years ago. He still calls his friend’s mother his “other mother.” He’s really one of the family.

SA: That’s fantastic!

RR: Before we go, I want to thank you again for the positive feedback. We are proud to have found such meaningful insight that so quickly hits home in delivering the message - and spurring acknowledgment. We know people want to be heard and people are listening. We’re happy that we were able to tap into this community of aunts in a meaningful and relevant way. There are other ‘forgotten communities’ out there, like unattached people during the Valentine’s Day season. We’re thinking about everyone. We’re happy you noticed.

Photo: Mother's Day 2010 ad still, courtesy Sears
Published: May 20, 2010