7 Mother’s Day Marketing and PR Tactics that Are Strategic Year-Round

Anna Jarvis, who successfully campaigned to establish Mother’s Day in 1914, strongly believed the observance should be rooted in “sentiment, not profit.” Indeed, the last decades of her life were spent railing against the commercialization of the holiday she helped create. But the profitability of celebrating mothers proved too potent a force to put back in the proverbial bottle. Indeed, it was a group of florists—not family members—who paid for Jarvis’ end of life care. 

Today, Mother’s Day is practically synonymous with bouquets, brunch and bangles cheerfully touted weeks ahead of time in gift guides, advertisements and holiday sales. According to the National Retail Federation, shoppers spend an average of $250 on Mother’s Day gifts and experiences. Both well-established sectors like natural products and emerging industries like cannabis have been eager to claim their slice of this $33.5 billion retail holiday. 

What Vibes Should Mother’s Day Marketers Be Aware Of?

Mother’s Day campaigns may be cranking into high gear with cheerful messaging, but the actual experience of motherhood itself is far more complex than the average greeting card conveys. Mothering and the people doing it looks a lot different than when Anan Jarvis was making her case to Congress, that’s for sure. 

For example, American women are having fewer children on average than in decades past, and they’re doing so later in life—particularly in high-income, high-education urban centers like San Francisco, Manhattan and affluent suburbs near DC and Boston. 71% of mothers of minor children work—and nearly half of American households with children are led by a woman who is the sole or primary earner. 

Despite the prevalence of working mothers, childcare costs are prohibitively expensive even for middle class and more affluent families, and workers are still fighting for stronger parental leave and pregnancy accommodation protections. Cultural and economic tides have also had a palpable influence on motherhood. For instance, the COVID-19 pandemic had a profound impact on the mental health and career prospects of mothers as well as their children. 

Motherhood in the Media

It’s no surprise that many of the pain points motivating women consumers are tied to motherhood or being child-free. The challenges and rewards of parenting have never been discussed in such detail by such a wide audience. The rise of confessional writing, Mommy Blogger culture and the amplification of social media have provided women an unprecedented ability to speak with great honesty and range about their experiences. 

Traditional women’s publications typically shied away from pairing their clients’ valuable advertisements with, say, the kind of visceral descriptions of the third trimester that one might now casually encounter on Instagram. Similarly, accounts of LGBTQIA+ motherhood and queer family-making that would have once been considered unmarketably niche, at best, have now the subject of books like Molly Wizenberg’s The Fixed Stars, Maggie Nelson’s The Argonauts and children’s fare like Tierra Williams and Joyeeta Neogi’s My Two Mommies—not to mention articles on a wide range of websites. 

So how can brands speak to mothers at a moment when the very notion of mothering has never been more diverse, controversial, fraught or visible? By moving past the platitudes and digging into the nuances of what motherhood means and the connection to a woman’s identity, hopes, frustrations, ambitions and joys. 

7 Mother’s Day Marketing and PR Tactics that Are Strategic Year-Round

Here are a few Mother’s Day marketing thought-starters that will resonate throughout the year:

1. Modesty is for moms. And no, we don’t mean relaxed-fit jeans—we mean modest ingredient lists. As Douglas Brown wrote for New Hope Network after Natural Products Expo West, “Long lists of ingredients no longer signal innovation. Instead, they trigger scrutiny by shoppers in the channel.” Women make the vast majority of household buying decisions, and busy moms in particular will appreciate product formulas that give them time back from reading labels—and succinct, punchy wellness messaging to match.

2. Mobile-first marketing. In a similar vein, digital marketing and content marketing are some of the best ways to speak directly to consumers who are short on time and likely squeezing their scrolling into the time spent in checkout lines, school pick-up lines, bathroom lines and revenge bedtime procrastination. If your owned media channels aren’t optimized for mobile, you’ll be missing out on key demographics like millennial moms and major channels where social proof builds trust with potential shoppers.

3. Representation matters. One thing our PR team at Grasslands has discovered is that journalists are hungry for stories about not only women who are cannabis executives, but women who balance careers in regulated weed and are raising children. Women still face—and feel—more stigma around cannabis consumption than men, particularly when it comes to parenting while working in the industry or the question of consumption during pregnancy. So it’s encouraging to see journalistic interest in the experience of women like Jane Sandelman of Cannatrol, Laura Monn Ginsburg of Blunt Strategies and Nicole Lucien of Bliss + Lex whose executive ambitions refute lazy stoner stereotypes and who help normalize cannabis consumption.

4. Discretion is the better part of valor. Speaking of stigma, women tend to prefer discreet consumption methods like gummies, capsules and cannabis beverages over flower or concentrates. Messaging that acknowledges the myriad reasons for that preference, from stigma to consistent, predictable dosing will go a long way to connecting with the core emotions driving your customer base. Well before holidays like Mother’s Day, use your content to serve your sales funnel by investing in audience segmentation and message mapping that meets your customers where they are at.

5. Hear her out. Moms, like other consumers, don’t want to be told how they feel. There’s already too much noise—much of it negative—around how people parent. Rather, moms want to feel heard. Brands that practice active listening and reflect that attention back to their audiences through strategic brand messaging, B2C consumer education and tailored marketing automation are more likely to gain the hard-won loyalty of hard-working women. Even a carefully designed retail experience can signal to consumers that they are a priority.

6. Think beyond gift guides. Contextualizing cannabis accessories and other products for journalists ahead of gifting holidays can generate plenty of coverage—and revenue—ahead of 420, 710 and the winter holiday shopping season. But mainstream media publications are still warming to cannabis coverage, especially when it comes to product recommendations over, say, news coverage of federal drug policy or a thought leadership op-ed from a cannabis CEO. Proactive pitching and relationship building with cannabis journalists at trade publications and mainstream reports are just as important for securing coverage. So can PR collaborations and memorable brand activations that create crossover appeal and contextualize natural products from functional beverages to cannabis. All these tactics can help brands stand out from the usual “give her flower instead of flowers” narratives around Mother’s Day.

7. Embrace your brand story. Sharing founding stories that connect to family is a time-honored means of humanizing a brand to create a sense of immediate connection and warmth with the customer. For example, Natural Grocers put out a news release for Mother’s Day last year reminding the public of the chain’s co-founder Margaret Isely and her personal history with natural medicine and nutrition. Grasslands' longtime friends at Mountain Top Extracts proudly share that their brand began when its founders began growing medical cannabis at home for a sick family member. And San Jose cannabis retailer Purple Lotus leverages its long history as a family owned and operated business as a point of distinction in the busy Bay Area market.

‍Wondering what to look for in a cannabis PR agency and / or natural products and wellness public relations partner? Grasslands is a Journalism-Minded Agency™ with a proven process rooted in deep understanding of what both brands and the reporters who tell their stories need to connect with diverse audiences. ‍The Grasslands team is always ready to talk through your brand’s unique needs and pain points to find a custom solution.