How Three Businesses Broke Into the Mommy Market
Safety first: Jennifer Beall of CleanBeeBaby.
These days, it takes more than cutesy advertising copy to win the attention of moms--who control more than 85 percent of household spending. "We think of moms as the CEOs of the household," says Greg Duffy, co-founder of video monitoring platform Dropcam. Here's how he and other entrepreneurs in three key sectors--tech, retail and service--broke into the lucrative mommy market.
Photo courtesy of Dropcam
Tech. Dropcam sells a Wi-Fi video monitoring camera for $149 and offers DVR service plans that start at $9.95 a month. Basic live streaming, sharing and alert services are free.
What's different: It's the first monitoring camera for in-home use. The majority of customers are parents. Dropcam comes with night vision, 720p HD picture quality, two-way audio, motion-sensor alerts and 16x digital zoom, all in a pretty aluminum package that fits in the palm of your hand.
How it started: Greg Duffy co-founded Dropcam in January 2009 with the goal of building a camera that was simple to set up and allows you to watch a video feed from anywhere in the world, from many devices. The company, which raised nearly $6 million last September, debuted its HD product in January at the "Mommy Tech" section of the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
Why moms dig it: Dropcam keeps sharp eyes and ears on kids, with applications like baby monitoring ("Moms are using it to catch their babies' first steps when they're not around," Duffy gushes); checking that older kids have arrived home safely; contacting children who are ignoring their cell phones; and sharing footage from birthday parties.
Smart moves: Busy parents have only a few minutes to decide if a product is worth buying, so Dropcam's marketing has always focused on immediate benefits for them, rather than listing feature-rich specs.
Sweet success: The first shipment of HD cameras sold out in a week. Dropcam's 2011 revenue was five times that of the previous year. Duffy notes the company is the largest inbound streaming site on the internet. "YouTube takes in about 48 hours of video every minute," he says, "and Dropcam is much, much larger than that. I have the bills from the data center to prove it."
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