2022 Mother's Day Marketing Guide

According to the annual consumer survey report released by the National Retail Federation and Prosper Insights & Analytics in April this year, Americans are expected to spend a total of $31.7 billion on Mother's Day this year, an increase of $3.6 billion from the record spending in 2021.

Approximately 83% of American adults are expected to celebrate Mother's Day. This means that on Mother's Day, the implementation of marketing plans by overseas brands in the corresponding categories will help promote product sales.

“Consumers are eager to find memorable ways to honor their mothers and other important women in their lives and are willing to spend a little more on this memorable holiday,” said Matthew Shay, NRF president and CEO.

“Jewelry remains a timeless gift choice for Mother’s Day and will continue to capture an increasing share of the market,” said Phil Rist, vice president of strategy at Prosper.

“Forty-one percent of consumers plan to give jewelry as a gift this year, up 34% from last year, with total jewelry spending expected to reach $7 billion.”

More than half of consumers (57%) plan to spend an average of $40.90 on special outings such as dinner or brunch with their mother or other significant other, indicating that people value spending time with their families more in the post-epidemic era.

Data shows that greeting cards and flowers remain the main gift categories for Mother's Day, with 72% of American consumers planning to buy greeting cards and 68% planning to buy traditional Mother's Day bouquets.

Finding meaningful Mother's Day gifts remains a greater concern for consumers. Most important to them are finding a gift that is unique or different (46%) and finding a gift that creates a special memory (41%).

In view of this, overseas brands in related categories can give their products some special meanings and create a product story related to Mother's Day so that consumers can be drawn into it, thereby showing the special meaning of gifts on Mother's Day.

More than a third (36%) of consumers plan to buy gifts online, 30% plan to shop at department stores, 27% at specialty stores and 23% at local small businesses.

Additionally, 39% of consumers are interested in gift product subscription services like Birchbox or Stitch Fix, suggesting that the gifting experience will expand beyond Mother’s Day. This service is of reference value for overseas brands and has invisibly extended consumers' shopping habits.

Origin of Mother's Day

Mother's Day originated in the United States. The founder of the festival was Anna Jarvis from Philadelphia.

On May 9, 1906, Anna Jarvis' mother unfortunately passed away. She was deeply saddened. On the anniversary of her mother's death the following year, Jarvis organized a memorial event for her mother and encouraged others to express their gratitude to their mothers in a similar way.

In 1908, the church declared the anniversary of Jarvis's mother's death - the second Sunday in May - Mother's Day. Jarvis also organized a Mother's Day Committee and began a large-scale campaign, calling for Mother's Day to be designated as a legal holiday.

On May 10, 1913, the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives passed a resolution, and President Wilson signed a proclamation, deciding that the second Sunday of May each year would be Mother's Day. This move was followed by countries around the world. By the time Jarvis died in 1948, 43 countries had established Mother's Day.

Mother's Day is not only a very popular holiday, it is also a great marketing opportunity for brands or companies that want to go global!

Share your successful Mother’s Day marketing campaign

1. Walmart turns Mother’s Day into a month-long event

For Mother's Day 2021, Walmart decided one day wasn't enough to celebrate the "superwomen in our lives." So the retailer is extending the holiday into a month-long event called Mother's May.

The Mother’s Day marketing campaign in May includes a series of in-store and online activities as well as social media content distribution.

Walmart hosted the Mother’s Day May Market, where it transformed some of its Supercenter locations into outdoor markets with crafts, goodie bags, family photos and other family activities.

Online, consumers can create custom cards, find instructions for making handmade gifts, and shop curated gift lists. Walmart is also offering a $10 discount to first-time pickup and delivery shoppers to promote the service.

For its Mother's Day social media post, Walmart rolled out a video featuring moms, including some of its own employees, in real-life moments with their children.

The video appeared on the retailer's social media, and Walmart is well aware that using user-generated content to spread on social media can attract more consumers.

2. Carhartt encourages mothers to take a good rest

Iconic workwear brand Carhartt has been around since 1889, but in recent years it has become fashionable among streetwear enthusiasts who are drawn to its authentic, everyday style, and these characteristics are exactly the approach Carhartt is taking in its Mother's Day marketing campaign.

In 2021, to celebrate Mother's Day, the brand released a video titled "Never-Ending Transformation" featuring hardworking moms.

The video shows the story of a mother who works in agriculture, construction and other fields, and who immediately throws herself into household chores after returning home from work. It ends with the line "Mom, take a break, you deserve it", and the film received a very good response as soon as it was released.

The brand also created a limited edition "Carhartt Bouquet." The bouquets were not flowers, but pocket t-shirts of different colors, rolled up to look like floral arrangements. It comes with the message "Please take a break", telling mothers to take a break when they should.

Recommended categories for Mother's Day overseas sales

For overseas merchants, Mother's Day is a family-friendly day with universal values. It has huge market potential and a consumer base all over the world.

Therefore, overseas brands should seize this wave of "gratitude economy", understand the consumer psychology of the target overseas countries, carefully select products, formulate appropriate marketing plans, enhance brand value and expand sales scale.

Data shows that categories with gift attributes and feminine attributes have obvious sales advantages during Mother's Day. For example, women's clothing and bags, beauty and skin care, digital electronics, household items, etc.

Women's luggage products are a great choice as gifts for mothers or other important women. What overseas brands need to pay attention to is that they should accurately stratify the audience portrait of their own products and launch suitable products, so as to improve the match with the market positioning and promote sales.

Loving beauty is a woman’s nature, so naturally, beauty and skincare brands are indispensable on Mother’s Day. Data shows that cosmetics ranging from eyebrow pencils, lipsticks, and beauty brushes to skin care products such as facial masks, facial creams, and hair care liquids all achieved good sales during Mother's Day.

Overseas brands can consider launching Mother's Day sets, which can reduce the decision-making costs of gift givers and increase purchase rates and average order value.

With the development of the Internet of Things, people are becoming more and more dependent on various digital products in their lives. Moreover, digital products are usually exquisite and small, and generally expensive, which makes them inherently have strong gift attributes.

For example, some children who want to reduce their mother's housework burden will consider household digital products such as sweeping robots and automatic mopping machines; while for some older mothers, products such as smart blood pressure monitors and heart rate monitors can be sold.

The last category is household items. If the mother likes to cook, she would like to receive a set of exquisite kitchen utensils or tableware.

In addition, flowers are the leading commodity in overseas Mother's Day gift consumption, but are limited by offline scenarios. Overseas brands can choose to export products such as everlasting flowers, or choose to export flower derivatives such as vases and gardening supplies.

Make good use of social media marketing

Young people are the main force in giving gifts on Mother’s Day. If you want to attract their attention, how can you not use the influence of social media!

Mother's Day is the most suitable holiday for brands to be creative in marketing. Proper marketing will increase the brand's overseas visibility, gain market favorability, and enhance the brand image.

How to seize the marketing opportunities around Mother's Day? At this time, content marketing on social media is particularly important!

During Mother's Day, overseas brands can publish a series of content related to Mother's Day themed activities and create tags on their official accounts on major social media platforms such as Facebook and TikTok, and set a Mother's Day-related theme for their own products.

For example, you can publish topics such as "My story with my mother" and "The gift my mother most wants to receive", and guide some interesting interactive content to encourage users to actively share on social media.

At the same time, brands can also upload pictures and videos related to their products, such as DIY tutorials, gift lists, product usage guides, etc., to give consumers shopping inspiration, and actively encourage consumers to share their own growth stories and photos with their mothers under this tag.

The benefit of doing this is that, on the one hand, it can provide inspiration to potential consumers and help them choose gifts, and on the other hand, it can help brands expand their online influence during the holiday season.

Overseas brands can cooperate with mother and baby bloggers and lifestyle bloggers, use the influence of internet celebrities themselves to promote their brands and reach more targeted users.

Using influencers to create marketing and promotional content can greatly increase users’ recognition and trust in the product, and help the brand go global!

It is worth noting that during Mother’s Day, related content marketing should try to highlight the family attributes and avoid too many commercial elements and hard advertising. The core is to share personalized and creative content instead of simply emphasizing sales, so as to avoid causing resistance from consumers.

Attract users and impress consumers with delicate family stories and atmosphere!