Book Report - The Mom Factor

Dottie DeHart Rocks
DeHart Public Relations

The Mom Factor is groundbreaking new book from Urban Land Institute explains how Moms decide where to spend their time and money in restaurants, stores, theme parks, and other family attractions.

Washington, DC (May 2005)--Listen to your mother. It's good advice for practically everyone. But if you own or manage a store, restaurant, amusement park, sports arena, museum, or any other location where families go to spend money, this friendly little admonishment takes on a whole new meaning. Simply put, mothers control America's purse strings.

And that truth, according to a compelling new book from the Urban Land Institute, is reason enough to get them firmly in your corner.

It is estimated that women engage in 80 to 88 percent of all consumer spending in the U.S.," says Nora Lee, author of The Mom Factor: What Really Drives Where We Shop, Eat, and Play. Now, consider that three-fourths of America's 108 million adult women are mothers. It doesn't take a mathematician to see that Moms make well over half the consumer buying decisions in this country! That is staggering financial power . . . so why don't businesses bend over backwards to attract us?"

It's a good question, and one that is thoroughly explored in Lee's book.

The Mom Factor is rich in real-life observations and anecdotal evidence of what happens when companies ignore Mom and what happens when they acknowledge her. And Lee has helpfully concentrated her findings into what she calls "The Mom Factor Checklist," eleven elements that make a store, restaurant, or other family venue appealing to mothers. Here, condensed from the book, is her list:
1. Health and Safety
2. Customer Service
3. Value
4. Efficiency
5. Social and Community Conscience
6. Story
7. Comfort
8. Learning and Teaching Opportunities
9. Fun
10. Continuity and Change
11. Connection to the Heart

"You know the old adage, 'If mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy'."