Alpha Moms Tell Marketers Where To Go

According to modern marketing experts, there are moms — and then there are Alpha Moms.

In the eyes of marketers and manufacturers, these Alpha Moms are plugged in, well researched and trusted by their peers. But you're familiar with them as know-it-alls, go-to girls or the sort-of pushy woman down the block who always seems to know all the answers.

Just as Alpha Kids are a prime marketing target — dictating what the next "cool" gotta-have-it item will be — Alpha Moms are also a potent business force. Experts say an Alpha Mom controls 85 percent of the spending in her family, and a cool $500 billion in total spending.

The Early Show National Correspondent Tracy Smith met one Alpha Mom, Jen Gross, a California working mother with three kids to raise and a business to run.

"I know exactly why marketers are after me," she told Smith. "I'm savvy, I'm technically adept. I surf the Internet. Ultimately, I'm running my kids' lives. They want me to know what to buy for my kids."

The Alpha Mom "sets trends … she is a woman who basically puts markets on fire," said Michael Silverstein of the Boston Consulting Group, a marketing firm.

"People ask me for my opinion and advice, and I gladly will tell them what I think," said Gross.

One way she spreads the word is electronically, via BlackBerry and cell phone. The Alpha Moms "are very, very digital — they're huge digital consumers," explained Laura Groppe, CEO of the Girls Intelligence Agency.

According to Smith, marketing gurus like Groppe take pains to influence the influencers. A fun evening trying out products is the rage. Companies target Alphas and hope to set off a geometric tidal wave. In fact, Nintendo courted Alpha Moms before launching its Wii gaming system for kids.

Alpha Moms, said Smith, are concerned with maximizing their children's lives and development when they're not there. They care about their kids and they'd love to spend more time with them — but there is no more time.

"We all have mom meltdowns," Gross told Smith. "I usually do it, I pull over to the side of the road. I cry. I call my best friend in Oregon. And then I go home. It's all good again."

Smith learned that researchers believe that if you satisfy an Alpha Mom, she'll tell 10 other women. And if you dissatisfy her, she'll tell 300.