Crafting the Customer Experience For People Not Like You: How to Delight and Engage the Customers Your Competitors Don't Understand

Chapter 10

Women and Families

One of my closest friends, Kenja Purkey, called me last summer and needed to talk. I mean, she really needed to talk. Kenja was, in fact, freaking out. You see, she had just learned that she was pregnant, and while this is typically happy news for a woman, Kenja is 40 years old ... with a 20-year-old daughter. In her own words: “Holy smokes. I was this close to being an empty nester and now, BAM! I’m going to be raising a child all over again.” She was reeling from the news and what it meant for her, the plans that she and her husband had made (and would likely have to change), and how their lives overall would be very, very different.

It took a couple of weeks, but she adjusted to changes that this big news meant for her and her family. And then she kicked into planning gear and started doing her homework about what she’d need to buy to get ready for a new baby. After all, she had her last baby more than 20 years prior; it had been two decades since she had looked at or even really thought about baby items. And apparently, everything had changed over those decades. Kenja commented to me that when her daughter was born 20 years ago, “All I needed was all the basic stuff that anyone needs. You went out and bought it, and you were set. Now there is this ‘culture of fear’ that seems to permeate the baby business. All the products seem to stress their safety features and suggest that ‘if you don’t buy this particular item, your baby is at risk and you’re ...