This was the case for a mom who recently offered free formula through a group I belong to. Perhaps they even did so many months before the samples arrive at their door. Some women may not remember providing their personal information to a formula company. Sponsorship of these clubs What and Getting Free Formula Samples This brings up back to the question of how a mom could get formula she doesn’t remember requesting it? The answer is pregnancy apps and “baby clubs” that are either sponsored by formula companies or provide personal information to formula makers. Nonetheless, collecting behaviors for predictive analytics is a daily way of life on the Internet. The exact veracity of this anecdote has been disproven by the source of that story, Eric Siegel.

His telling included a shocking revelation, a father earned of his teenage daughter’s pregnancy through special offers on baby items sent directly to here. In 2012, Charles Duhigg reported that Target started working on this digital marketing strategy in 2002. It is not a particularly new business strategy.

This data can be saved for future useĭata mining to understand future behavior is called predictive analytics. For example, a woman planning a pregnancy may search for good deals on folic acid, a nutrient needed to prevent birth defects. Formula Marketing Before PregnancyĪs reported in The Guardian, formula companies now use pregnancy and fertility online shopping and browsing behaviors to target women before their first pregnancy. Online shopping habits are a rich trove of information that companies can use for a long time.Ĭombined with pain point marketing companies camouflage marketing as education and support. Marketing has changed a lot in the last twenty years, especially with the rise of social media and digital marketing.

By 2002, even marketing professors wondered how to go about ethical advertising of infant formula. Direct consumer marketing was a big shift and one that the American Academy of Pediatrics did not like. Modern Infant Formula Marketing Is a Problemįormula companies have only marketed directly to consumers (mostly moms) since 1988.

Enfamil samples not pregant