Businesses love them; consumers
can’t stand them. Yet motherhood statements are everywhere. In our world of PR,
we see them slip into our writing so easily that half the time we don’t even
notice we’re using them.
So, what’s behind these wildly
different reactions? It comes down to what motherhood statements actually are –
those vague, feel‑good lines that sound positive but communicate almost
nothing. We’ve all heard of them – “we value excellence,” “we put customers
first,” “we strive for innovation.” And in PR, marketing and corporate comms, there
sits some of the most frequent offenders.
Motherhood statements come in
many flavours. Some are blatantly generic; others sound polished and
professional but still say very little, such as “reflecting our commitment to
pioneering innovative solutions,” “bridging the expectation–reality gap,”
“these issues have profound effects on families and society.”
What’s wrong with them? Yes, they’re
positive, safe and impossible to disagree with – but they’re also quite vague
and bland. The problem is they don’t guide action, persuade anyone or
differentiate a brand from the crowd.
Companies turn to PR to reinforce
their marketing activities. PR offers credibility, as coverage through the
third-party lens of media lends objectivity and often helps consumers
understand the brand in a real-world context.
Companies will naturally want
their PR materials to reflect their corporate values, but as values are often
abstract, they can easily drift into vague, grand‑sounding motherhood
statements.
It’s no surprise that so many
teams struggle to tell the difference between a well‑crafted value statement
and a motherhood statement in their own PR materials. However, it is worth
remembering – press releases should highlight news, not values and when
everyone is using vocabulary such as innovation, excellence, leadership,
customer‑first, it becomes even harder to stand out.
The antidote to generic
motherhood statements is to be more specific, which means outlining elements
that are measurable and grounded in real actions or decisions.
Numbers and concrete examples
help, but there’s a balance to strike. Too much detail and your announcement
starts reading like a technical report. Too much internal jargon and you lose
the reader entirely.
Pairing the value with a
tangible proof point that supports the news you’re sharing is the way forward.
For example, instead of “We put
customers first,” try: “We’re putting customers first by introducing a new 24/7
live‑chat service, designed for clients who operate outside standard business
hours, such as evenings and weekends.”
Instead of “We are committed to
sustainability,” try: “We’re cutting our environmental footprint by switching
all Australian operations to 100% renewable electricity by 2027, starting with
our Brisbane headquarters this year.”
In both cases, the value is
still there, but it’s anchored in a tangible action.
But we also need to avoid
falling into the trap of being too specific and technical. A line like “To
improve customer service, we have implemented a 3‑phase, cross‑functional
optimisation framework that has reduced operational latency by 7.3% over six
months” is technically precise but hardly reader‑friendly. It becomes far more
engaging as, “We’ve rolled out a new company‑wide streamlining process that’s
already delivering results for our customers, cutting delays by more than 7% in
the past six months.”
Motherhood statements feel
safe, but they don’t persuade, differentiate or inform. Specific, grounded,
news‑anchored writing does. Learning to spot and replace motherhood statements
is one of the most valuable skills in PR – and one of the easiest ways to make
your content actually get read and used.
When you live and breathe your
brand every day, it's easy to lose perspective on how your message lands
externally; partnering with a PR agency provides that vital outside lens to
ensure your news makes sense to the everyday consumer. After all, the goal
isn't just to say something safe, it’s to say something that actually gets
remembered.