Returning to the people-oriented approach, how can Mother’s Day marketing achieve the goal of breaking down first and then building up?

This article explores how brands can break the traditional stereotypes of mothers through marketing activities and connect with real female users during Mother's Day. Through the case of Guanzhan, a new Chinese tonic brand, the article shows how brands and users can jointly redefine the role of "mother" through creative activities and in-depth user insights. I hope it will be helpful to you.

When mothers went camping during the May Day holiday and started making dumplings at the campsite, the aroma that wafted from the dumplings not only made the young people in the next tent salivate, but also made netizens exclaim, "This is the first time I've been so craving for dumplings."

Turning around, mothers put on flowery dresses in the old houses and played KPOP random dance challenges, singing popular hits such as "Flower" and "Sorry Sorry". There was also a group of mothers who punched 500 kilograms on the game console in the boxing gym, which made people feel a little painful even through the screen...

This vivid group portrait of mothers comes from the Mother's Day event of Guanzhan, a new Chinese tonic brand. The related topics also made it to the Weibo hot search list, attracting the attention and discussion of many netizens.

As society pays more attention to women's issues every year, more and more brands are continuing to speak out. Taking advantage of Mother's Day, Guanzhan used the theme of "Moms have no official personality" to allow brands and real female users to break the stereotype of "mother" in a light and interesting way.

Mother's Day makes mom's image collapse, so the content is destroyed first and then established

In the crazy literature of young people, there is a popular saying: "When you are out, you create your own personality." They can fabricate their own personality as they please, and "talking nonsense" sometimes relieves the burden of communication.

But this sentence also serves as the beginning of the Mother's Day short film. What Guanzhan has realized is the constraints that personality has brought to the mother group. In the traditional impression, the image of a mother is usually gentle, great, and sacrificial... There are countless similar labels, just like the "official personality" imposed on mothers, which suppresses the real needs of women and blurs their true appearance.

A mother who seems to have a gentle personality can lift 10 kilograms of rice and throw a 100-kilogram punch; the common social discipline for mothers to be frugal and family-oriented also suppresses their self-pursuit; more strict mothers who "want their children to become successful" may also restrain their own playful nature.

It is not difficult to find that contemporary mothers have already renovated the stereotypes of mothers in society. The single portrayal of the image of mothers in the social context for a long time is still a burden even if it is packaged as praise and praise. As Guanzhan said: These people do not love their mothers at all.

Guanzhan is like a good friend to users in this conversation. Faced with sensitive issues such as maternal punishment, the brand did not choose to preach in a heavy way, but chose to stand beside the users and record every vivid and multifaceted female image.

My mother doesn’t have an official personality. Her best personality is to be herself.

The film invited lawyer Liu Siyuan as the narrator, who observed the "mother's personality" from the second perspective of a daughter, and showed the audience the contradictions and helplessness of the mother's personality in a very relaxed tone:

We love our mother, not her personality. She loves to eat, play, work and herself, but those so-called personalities don't love our mother at all.

Guanzhan did not talk about the greatness of maternal love in general, but focused on each individual mother, affirming their needs and values. The short film presents a variety of female portraits, and without exception, they are eager to enjoy their own lives while being mothers. It also shows us that mothers without personality are really beautiful when they smile.

Being able to "have fun" with users is the humanistic care behind the brand

The essence of advertising is communication. As a brand targeting female users, it should not only communicate with women, but also let the content happen naturally from real life.

Different from the production of conventional TVCs, Guanzhan's "Mom has no official persona" was born out of three real offline activities. The brand invited real users and KOLs to personally participate in a dance party, a boxing class, and a self-driving camping trip, using real experiences to break the past persona.

The retired aunts, whose children are no longer in need of constant care, seem to have lost their focus in life, and the meaning of life needs to be updated urgently. Several sisters agreed to leave their husbands and children behind and go camping by car, which also made making dumplings in the camp the most unique scenery in the camp.

At a dance party held in an old house in Guangzhou, mothers put on their flowery dresses again, walked onto the dance floor, and reminisced about their golden years. How could they not bloom again when they were old? Whether it was square dancing or KPOP, they also fulfilled the trendy phrase on Xiaohongshu, "re-raising themselves", and made the hot topics of "young mothers" and "reformed mothers" become reality.

Wei Nijie and Xia Xiazi, who participated in the boxing class, are representatives of breaking the "mom persona" on Xiaohongshu. They tell everyone with their own actions that moms have no official persona. Even after the age of 50, moms can still have a hot life.

Among all the content shared by the participants, the most impressive is every face that made smiling emojis at the event, and every sentence of "It was so much fun, so exciting." In face-to-face communication with users, brands can gain real and immediate product feedback, and also let users feel the brand's humanistic care that allows them to have fun on the spot and without any pretense.

Thanks to the characteristics of offline activities, we can see a lot of UGC content other than the official ones. Mothers who are new to video production add special effects and music to their beautiful photos and post them on social platforms. This is precious user-generated content, and it is also a vivid testimony of mothers' pursuit of a diverse life and breaking the traditional personality.

Guanzhan is also happy to continue "playing" with mothers online. As user Reuters and brand interaction deepened, #妈妈的人生就是荒野# landed on the Weibo hot search list, triggering resonance among netizens and spontaneously joining the topic discussion, jointly blessing and encouraging mothers to bravely pursue their lives.

On May 10, the short film "Mom has no official persona" was officially launched, and the event's co-sponsor, Southern Weekend, also released an in-depth interpretation. More readers shared in the comment section the "personas" they hoped moms could break, and this wilderness puzzle for moms was further unfolded. When more people see the stereotyped labels, the reality will have a chance to change. This is also the original intention and origin of Guanzhan's continued planning for Mother's Day.

Sustainable communication relationships come from people-oriented marketing insights

Since economist Ms. Shi Qingqi proposed the concept of "her economy" in 2007, products centered around "her" have emerged in an endless stream over the past decade, and the consumption capacity of the female group has shown a steady upward trend. They pay attention to the quality of products and pay more attention to the value of the brand.

Under the general trend of women's awakening, the key to retaining people with value concepts is to tell a good brand story, differentiate the narrative, and establish a long-term and sustainable communication relationship with users.

If you want to retain people, you need to start with people.

Looking at Guanzhan's Mother's Day planning, it is a return to the "people-oriented" approach to explore and record content. What are the "official personalities of mothers"? Who is setting up the personalities of mothers? What is the true self of mothers after removing the personalities? Guanzhan raises questions and gives us thoughts, and we get their answers in short videos, selfies, and comments.

Last year on Mother's Day, Guanzhan also teamed up with Sanlian Life Weekly to raise a topic: Mothers' Pregnancy Calculation Questions. Childbearing years, career prospects, economic conditions... These are the considerations of fertility from a female perspective. Although there is no standard and correct calculation formula, every individual's speech is worth recording. It is these concrete "pregnancy calculation questions" that make us feel the difficulties and situations faced by contemporary women in fertility issues.

Over the past two years, Guanzhan's Mother's Day planning has always focused on women's issues, from focusing on women's reproductive freedom to relaxing maternal duties. Guanzhan has accompanied female users to pay attention to the real difficulties behind the reproductive environment, the real needs of women behind maternal duties, and encouraged the free expression of multiple choices. Under different topics, Guanzhan has always given the microphone to women themselves, continuously capturing and sharing these diverse life stories, and continuously enriching society's understanding of women's roles.

Marketing to women is difficult, both because of the difficulty in controlling sensitive topics and the ineffective communication of mediocre slogans. But starting from "people" as the starting point, we can find the greatest common divisor of emotional resonance.

Supporting women in their pursuit of a diverse life has always been Guanzhan’s brand proposition. In the process of asking questions, experiencing, and co-creating, Guanzhan also serves as a "good friend" on the road to women's awakening, protecting the health of users and growing together with all partners.

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