"Did you order something from Land's End?" My man called my cell to ask while I was at the eye doctor's shop this morning. The neighbor had called him to let him know a package was on our front porch.
Why, no, I hadn't ordered anything this time, but I was immediately struck with a curiosity that made the next hour of waiting nearly unbearable. What could have possibly arrived with my name on it? I adore surprises in the form of packages.
Here's what I found in the big box left on my front porch:
(No, silly, not the kayak. Can you imagine the UPS guy bringing that or Land's End sending it?)
Land's End heard about my upcoming Mommy Blogger Weekend at Disney, so sent a beautiful (and big!) beach bag and a giraffe towel (with pink edging; love it) for my trip to Orlando. Land's End is one of those companies that have discovered that we moms are great at marketing amongst each other. Cool, huh?
I'm excited about these companies paying more attention to what we moms want. It's an exciting time to be a mommyblogger. Johnson & Johnson recently hosted Camp Baby, Disney is hosting a Mommy Blogger Weekend (next Friday, yay!), and last fall Hewlett Packard asked for reviews of their photo books (that link takes you to the one I wrote on my former blog), while Precious Moments started a Precious Moms area on their site. These companies, and others, have discovered that they should listen to mommies, because we moms like to (and will!) share our likes and dislikes with each other. Duh, right?
It seems that mommies are holding the television remote less often and picking up the laptop a bit more often, so the companies are searching for us where we are...online! I'm especially happy for our internet obsession, as I think the internet offers more than television, in the form of community, self-education, and just overall coolness (um, I should disclose that I am watching American Idol with a zillion other people this evening for their Idol Gives Back Show; I'm no purist, you know). We moms have so much to offer each other.
So, mamas, keep blogging. Let's keep those companies listening to us. Imagine! We can let them know our biggest peeves with their equipment/packaging/etc. and know that we finally have a listening ear, not just a far away executive committee's wild guess of what we like.
~ Lori Seaborg
