Three cheers for mum

Mother’s Day used to mean flowers, a card and breakfast in bed, but more and more retailers are starting to use Mothering Sunday as a hook to promote other products. Here’s a quick look at the early bird emails we received before 1st March celebrating mums in 2013.

Whittard of Chelsea
 I love tea. A lot. So when Whittard of Chelsea suggests I buy mum a tea hamper, it feels as though the email has been personalised based on my penchant for traditional tea varieties, rather than what she’d like. If I bought this for my mum, I’d definitely have to go round more often to help her drink it all. Curiously, the email doesn’t mention how much these hampers cost, which makes a change from the usual price-driven emails received at this time of year.



Oh So Cherished 
I like that the email from gifts and personalised stationery marketer Oh So Cherished comes with a reminder of the date with the title “My Beautiful Mum Gifts - 10th March 2013”. But I’m not quite sure who the audience for the email is. Oh So Cherished’s customers are women aged 22 to 45 years old, would they buy a “My Beautiful Mummy Handbag Mirror” or an “I Love My Mummy Book”? I can definitely see dads buying this on behalf of the little ones, but are enough dads going to receive this message? Perhaps Oh So Cherished should have prompted the recipient to share the email with her loved ones with a big “hint, hint” call to action. Or picked more “grown up” suggestions like necklaces, memory books, personalised compacts, leather albums or pen gift sets like the ones we found on the carefully curated Mother’s Day landing page on the Oh So Cherished website.



Occa Home

My favourite Mother’s Day email of 2013 so far, for a couple of reasons, is from Occa-Home. The first reason: it’s the first I’ve seen for the often-forgotten mother-in-law. Second, the subject line raised an unintentional smile: “Don’t Forget your Mother in Law - Buy 1 Get 1 Half Price”.--MT