What’s a BlueSuitMom?

by Tracy Lyn Moland and Nancy Cleary

What’s a BlueSuitMom?

An executive mom, who, most likely, is wearing a beautiful shade of blue suit on her commute to a very important, very fulfilling career. Of course, she can also be seen wearing that same Chanel suit to a soccer game and getting mud on her Pradas. Such is the life of a BlueSuitMom – a never-ending challenge of balancing her life, family, and career.

What do all the best resources for BlueSuitMoms — BlueSuitMom.com, Today’s BlueSuitMom, Mom Talk Radio, Moms Mind Pool, Marketing to Moms, Trillion Dollar Moms, Diary of a BlueSuitMom — have in common? Maria T. Bailey. She is an award-winning author, radio talk show host, nationally known speaker, and the foremost marketing authority on marketing to moms. Maria is currently the host of The Balancing Act, a new show for women on Lifetime TV (debutes July 8^th) and co-host of the nationally syndicated morning radio talk show, Good Day with Doug Stephan, which airs in 350 cities through the US with 3.2 million listeners a day. As founder of Newbaby.com and BlueSuitMom.com Maria reaches over 1 million visitors online a month, and as host of Mom Talk Radio she entertains and informs over 250,000 listeners a week. 

I personally have the ultimate respect for what Maria has done for Mothers. Beyond being a writer and entrepreneur myself, I am most importantly a Mom. I have had endless experiences where companies just do not understand who their market is. Companies that tell me Moms are not their market yet just walking through their doors proves they are wrong. I have had to change my young child on a table in a family friendly fast food restaurant as their was no other option – well maybe the floor of the bathroom.

Just this Christmas I was working with a company that was planning a media tour for marketing their best holiday gifts. This was a national chain that sells most every thing. They were very against using a Mother as the spokesperson for the campaign as they felt Moms were not their target market. Every Mother I know does all the family holiday shopping, extended family shopping, work shopping plus often for contacts through her partner’s work. Many Mother’s even buy their own gifts.

In her books Marketing to Moms (2002, Prima Lifestyles) and Trillion Dollar Moms (2005, Dearborn Trade Publishing) as well as her market reports, consulting, and endless research; Maria is changing perceptions and creating very successful marketing campaigns. Not only are Mother’s happy to be treated with respect, companies like Disney, Nestle, Office Depot, and Best Buy are realizing increased sales because they are finally marketing to the actual people who spend the money. She is currently working with Pulaski Furniture, Build A Bear Workshop, Nestle, Daimler Chrysler, and Genworth Financial.

According to Maria, “Consider this – companies are spending billions to capture the mom market, but 70% of mothers feel companies are not doing a good job at speaking to them. The opportunities for companies to capture part of the $1.6 trillion in mom spending is great.”

She continues to say, “I use my writing to bring awareness to companies as to the spending power of mothers.  I truly have a passion for getting big businesses to understand the economic impact mothers make on the US economy. Mothers spend more money each year than the gross national product of Australia, Portugal, and New Zealand, to name a few.  It's time that companies view moms as more than the person who buys diapers.  I speak to major corporations each week about the spending power of moms in the home and in business. In fact, I think the greatest opportunity for companies right now is to recognize mom business owners. Our research shows that moms who own a business will buy the same brands at home and at the office. This means that these women present two channels of spending.”

The above is what I as a writer have to say, I will close with Maria’s own and truly inspiring words, “Great business mentors always advise entrepreneurs to launch a business based on personal passion. I was fortunate to have found a way to combine my personal passion for being a mother with my passion for building businesses. 

After having three babies in less than two years, I launched my first marketing company which focused mostly on children and mother related businesses; however, I was soon hired away from my own company by H. Wayne Huizenga and Steve Berrard, the founders of Blockbuster and Waste Management with the promise that they would teach me how to build a business.  To me, the opportunity presented better lessons than Harvard Business School so with three babies under 20 months, I took a position with their newest company AutoNation as a senior executive.

I took part in over 200 acquisitions as we built the company into Fortune’s Fastest Growing Company in 1994.  During the seven years in the car industry, my former clients still called asking for marketing advice.  In 1999, I left AutoNation and with the help of investors, launched BlueSuitMom.com in the Internet hay-day.  Six months later, it was acquired by the founder of Alamo Rent A Car, Michael Egan.  A year later as September 11 hit the travel industry hard, I bought back my company just when my first book, “The Women’s Home-Based Business Book of Answers” was published. We launched Mom Talk Radio at the same time.  BlueSuitMom.com and Mom Talk Radio received a great deal of attention and companies soon asked me to replicate what we had done for their companies. Microsoft and Discovery Channel were our first marketing companies.  A year later my publisher came back and asked me about my business, saw the unique niche we were carving out in marketing to moms and asked me to write, “Marketing to Moms: Getting Your Share of the Trillion Dollar Market”.  The rest is history. That book catapulted BSM Media into the corporate headquarters of Coca Cola, Nestle, Burger King, Chuck E Cheese, and many others. Every time I spoke on the subject, we picked up another marketing client.  Six years after launching our business, revenues have grown close to a million dollars, growth is up 400% year over year, and we have created a new category of marketing agencies.”

We are anxious to read your next book – an inside glimpse into your life, Diary of a BlueSuitMom: Bubble Gum on My Business Card and other Wonderful Working Mother Moments (Wyatt-MacKenzie) will be released in November 2006!

For more information on Maria please visit  www.bsmMedia.com.