May 29, 2007

Know Your Audience: Targeting Middle Aged Women for a Web 2.0 App?

In my introduction to Startup #1: Echonote, I mentioned that I would be focusing marketing efforts toward women aged 35-50 years old. I imagine many of you thought that this was an error on my part and/or that I was a complete idiot. I can assure you that you’d be wrong on the first though the second remains to be seen. In any case this is why I think targeting this demographic is crucial to Echonote’s success:

The majority of women in this age group are moms: According to a 2003 Census Report, 82% of women between the ages of 40 and 44 were mothers. Add on a few years on either end for good measure and we’re on our merry way.

Many of these mothers’ children will be leaving home: The average age for first-time mammas is 25.1. Doing some simple math reveals that these mothers’ first born child will be 18 when they are 43.1, which is right in the middle of our target. This leaves a great divide between a mom and her child which I hope to help close.

Moms = Connectors: Out of 5.5 million stay at home parents, 5.4 million are mothers. These ladies have had years of building relationships with other mothers through carpooling for soccer practices, attending recitals, organizing birthday parties, etc. (For a good read and an explanation of “connectors”, definitely check out The Tipping Point by Malcom Gladwell)

So in theory, these moms should have good reason to keep in touch with their recently departed children, and more importantly, have gained many friends from years of raising these children. These two things should provide this demographic motivation to give echonote a first glance and also spread the word if they like what they see.

So what do you think, am I complete idiot?