Singapore – To simply answer the question – Singaporean parents need about S$1,600 to cover a baby’s basic supplies and items, revealed a study by e-commerce aggregator iPrice.

Based on iPrice’s data from thousands of sellers and merchants on its website, the e-commerce aggregator recorded the median prices of selected essential items for a baby’s first year.

The one-off purchases such as baby car seats, strollers, five toys, cribs, step stools, and many more, are all amounting to about S$1,557, while the median prices of items that need to be bought on a regular basis such as diapers, wipes, and milk formula cost about S$43, which when summed up leads to the said estimated budget.

The study notes that the amount only covers basic items and has not included other items such as bath products, cleaning accessories, clothing, feeding items, and baby décor, or even bigger non-item necessities such as healthcare, which all account for overall baby care.

The analysis further remarked that since the prices are only estimated ones, there could be cheaper alternatives, and hence, a cheaper necessary budget.

The study measured the estimated expenditure against the country’s minimum wage to find out how capable parents can provide for baby care. Things are looking up for Singaporean parents since the country records the highest minimum wage in the region with S$1,400, a recent increase announced by its government.

However, this may take a while for parents to save up in other countries such as Malaysia where the minimum wage is just S$387, indicating that the expense of basic baby items would take up about half a minimum wage earner’s salary in the country for 8 months.

Philippines – If there’s a cohort that bore the brunt of the drastic shifts in the pandemic, it would have to be those at the driver’s seat – the parents. Amid augmented health scares and a dampened economy, parents have to keep it tight as they continue to provide support to their families financially and emotionally. 

With this, parents are now becoming more open when it comes to finding a source of income. For Filipino parents specifically, work that offers a flexible arrangement is a top option, and within this favored setup, half of Filipino parents, or 53%, now have online freelance jobs as a top choice – those acquired through freelance platforms Upwork and the like – according to a study by digital platform for parenting, Smart Parenting. This was followed by online selling (35%) and online content creation on social media sites Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok (7%).

Filipino parents are scrambling financially with half, or 52%, were found to have not stashed an emergency fund. The rest have saved up for the rainy days, with the majority (39%) having built their funds to cover less than two years’ worth of emergency expenses. 

Within family income, funding for children’s education (24%) and paying off debts (24%) are top allocations followed by spending for the family’s house and condo unit (23%). Migrating abroad also takes part in Filipino Families’ plans where 7% said that income goes into making this a reality. Meanwhile, amid personal struggles, Filipino families still include in their priorities giving back to other people, where 8% stated income is spent on philanthropy.

The current life-threatening situation is taking a toll on the majority’s mental health. Because of this, families’ mental and emotional well-being has become a top concern for parents in the present. This is true for Filipino parents (66%), followed by worries about adding to their income and caring for their children’s emotional health and social skills (16%).

The Smart Parenting Pulse: 2021 Audience Survey surveyed 2,800 respondents in the Philippines.

Singapore – theAsianparent (TAP), the content and community platform for parents in Southeast Asia has announced its first-ever chief commercial officer, former Johnson & Johnson Digital Director for APAC, Akshay Trivedi

The new appointment comes as TAP recently makes a similar stride in its leadership, welcoming Fiza Hasan Malhotra to inaugurate the platform’s chief brand officer role. 

Trivedi brings with him almost two decades of experience in digital marketing, customer engagement, sales, and market research across FMCG, finance, and media. At J&J, he started out as a digital lead, eventually elevating to the role of APAC regional director for digital, media & content excellence. Trivedi was also previously a director at Edelman Digital and was a senior digital product manager at Standard Chartered Bank. 

For the inaugural role, Trivedi is charged to lead the group’s commercial unit which comprises 60 people. He will be developing and driving global commercial strategy for TAP. 

TAP said Trivedi sets out to boost the group’s market share and revenue through both online and offline opportunities as well as through tapping innovations that would deliver breakthrough products and services to the brand’s parent community.

On reaching the said goals amid the ongoing pandemic, Trivedi mentions “continuing to grow our product lines especially around personalization, making healthcare professionals part of our community” and bringing roadmap that would center around “4 Ps: cutting-edge Products, high impact Platforms, providing our People with the right growth opportunities and designing the most relevant solutions for our business Partners.”

Trivedi also seeks to match external trends with internal potential.

 “A lot has changed in the industry in the last 18 months. Businesses have become a lot more performance and conversion focussed. With a fantastic mix of the best talent and products in the industry, the opportunity is there for us to enable our business partners to realize the best ROI through our cutting-edge solutions,” added Trivedi. 

On the appointment, TAP founder and Group CEO, Roshni Mahtani Cheung, shares, “Akshay’s track record in strategizing at scale while playing to the core strengths of a brand, company, and its people is what we’re banking on to bring cohesiveness to our growth initiatives, where we’ve already got all the right elements in place: excellent products, an engaged community, strong partnerships, and deep purpose. 

She adds, “As a young dad and having worked with top brands across industries, he understands the needs of the community and of clients, respectively. This enables us to better serve both and all grow together.”

TAP is currently present in 13 countries in Southeast Asia and available in 11 languages.

Last March, its community for parent influencers, VIP Parents (VIPP), entered the Top 5 Stories of MARKETECH APAC. In an exclusive conversation, VIPP’s Co-Founders Heena Singh and Jessica Tremel shared the difference parent influencers make in inspiring fellow parents on the best brand and services for their families. 

Singapore – theAsianparent, the content and community platform for parents in Asia, has hired its first-ever chief branding officer, Fiza Hasan Malhotra

Malhotra most recently comes from Singapore-headquartered workplace design consultancy, Space Matrix, as its global marketing director. She boasts more than two decades of experience in brand innovation and marketing strategy. 

theAsianparent is the largest content hub and community platform for parents in Asia which spans across 13 markets in the region such as in Malaysia, Singapore, and the Philippines. In November, it has also announced its new country manager for Indonesia, Rotsen Quispe

Malhotra’s career spans digital transformation, public relations, corporate communications, event management, and social entrepreneurship. Prior to her role at Space Matrix, she was the head of business development and corporate innovation at Impact Hub Singapore. She has also worked for global brands Credit Suisse and Citibank. 

Malhotra said, “My goal is to put theAsianparent Group and its core brands on the path of global market leadership, powered by authentic brand experiences delivered to our community of parents, employees, clients, and our current and future stakeholders.” 

For one of her first projects as the new CBO, Malhotra helmed theAsianparent Awards, which seeks to find and celebrate the most trustworthy parent and baby brands for Asian parents across the region through its panel of parent judges and by community vote.

Of the appointment, founder and theAsianparent Group CEO, Roshni Mahtani Cheung, says, “theAsianparent brand is one I chose with care and nurtured from its infancy, so it is with even greater care that I chose whom to entrust it to. theAsianparent has come to mean many wonderful things to those who encounter it. We want to distill all that into one essence, so when anyone hears the brand or sees the icon, they know, in a snap, what we stand for.”

Malhotra adds, “I am excited to be part of a team that is passionate not only about performance and innovation but also impact—with our mission to help 100 million parents have healthy pregnancies and families. We are currently Southeast Asia’s largest parenting community and continue to look at market expansion and other opportunities across our platforms. To help build and grow a Singapore HQ brand into a leading global player is a huge passion of mine and I look forward to leading the team in reaching that summit.”

In March, the platform entered MARKETECH APAC’s top 5 stories for its VIP Parents Platform (VIPP). VIPP is the hub’s platform to getting to know the most proactive parents and giving them the opportunity to be influencers as well as for brands to reach out to the said cohort. 

Singapore – Parenting-focused platform theAsianparent which has presence all over Southeast Asia, has launched its VIP Parents platform (VIPP), which comprises of its most vocal and influential parents, enabling brands to engage directly with this segment of parents across the region.

The VIPP platform has been officially launched six months ago, and according to theAsianparent, the VIPP has a base of over 40,000 moms and dads, giving marketers the opportunity to tap this audience. Brands can use the platform to let parents participate in surveys or polls, create original and meaningful content, and even have them review their products and attend brand events, with the possible opportunity of bringing parents on board as official brand ambassadors.

On the side of parents that are part of the platform, VIPP provides an opportunity for them to learn and earn. The women-led VIPP team has a training program for registered VIPP moms and dads to help them increase and maximize their social capital. 

Founder and Group CEO of theAsianparent, Roshni Mahtani Cheung, commented that the reality of parenting such as messy homes, spit-up, tantrums, and eyebags are rarely reflected in ad campaigns that target the mother audience, saying that engagement begins with “understanding.” 

“With VIP Parents, brands can get direct feedback from our parent community at their convenience, whether that’s a quick poll to gather first impressions on a new product or a massive survey that could help fine-tune a local campaign. Enlisting our moms and dads, who are already talking about these brands anyway, to both amplify and ground their campaign messages, is that sought-after authenticity every digital marketer talks about,” said Cheung.