Yahoo News: Julia King, 38, is part of an emerging class of women whom marketers call Yoga Mamas. These middle- and upper-income mothers are more style- and brand-conscious than their parents. No matter their income, they spend like lottery winners on their babies and toddlers. In the process, they’re revolutionizing the baby-products market and forcing manufacturers and retailers of all sizes to adjust.
From the start, they are focused on active, fashionable, and fit pregnancies, and then on the fitness and well-being of their offspring. They tend to be more educated and have more disposable income to spend on fewer children than past generations. As a result, the $27 billion infant and preschool products business is growing more than 4% per year, faster than the overall toy, apparel, and furniture industries. “This group is influencing other moms who have money and plenty of moms who don’t,” says Timothy Dowd, a senior analyst at market research firm Packaged Facts. “Yoga Mama is pumping up sales across the board.”
Marketers say the evidence is in the brisk sales of premium-priced products: Burt’s Bees Buttermilk lotion is $8.99 and a top seller at drugstore.com; $11.50 buys a 2 oz. jar of popular California Baby Calendula Cream at Whole Foods Market; Italian leather toddler shoes are $129 at Nordstrom; Bugaboo strollers Yoga moms love for ergonomic design and brand cachet are $700 and up. And the appeal is well beyond Rodeo Drive and Manhattan’s Upper East Side, where baby-bling-buying includes Gund brand diamond and emerald jewelry for newborns.
