By Rick Aristotle Munarriz
February 29, 2008
The Knot (Nasdaq: KNOT) is hunting for storks. The wedding planning hub is buying Bump Media, the company behind a series of localized The Bump print publications and TheBump.com, a website for expectant mothers.
It's a perfect fit, and not just because The Knot and The Bump both relegate huge lifestyle milestones to common nouns that sound more like medical maladies than joyous occasions.
The Bump Media purchase works because both companies cater to information-hungry readers who are about to spend a truckload of money on unfamiliar things.
The companies are similar in theory. The Knot enhances its lead-generating content site with local publications to attract ad buyers at the city level, as does The Bump. The difference is that one distributes its periodicals through bridal shops instead of obstetrician offices.
Reaching out to expectant mothers isn't new to The Knot. It has strapped on its baby booties in launching The Nest Baby and acquiring lilaguide.com. The Knot's bread-and-butter business will always be its wedding planning directories, related content, and active forum, but the company's tactical moves indicate a desire to move early and later into the courtship cycle.
Whether it's dating websites (GreatBoyfriends.com) and prom-planning hubs (PromSpot.com), or newlywed hangouts (TheNest.com) and soiree-sorting resources (PartySpot.com), The Knot's wingspan is widening.
Even if expansion means bumping up against other female-fueled hotspots like GE (NYSE: GE) subsidiary iVillage and Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (NYSE: MSO), it's all part of the noble pursuit of fattening up the Rolodex.
Even a tech haven like CNET (Nasdaq: CNET) got into the baby battle when it acquired UrbanBaby.com two years ago. Eyeing the dot-com giants, Google's (Nasdaq: GOOG) recent move to store medical records doesn't sound so wacky, given the earlier launch of Microsoft's (Nasdaq: MSFT) HealthVault. This latest move into the health market might be of interest for a company that specializes in expectant mothers.
Making bigger waves in the baby market is the right approach for the company, especially since photographers who pay up for wedding leads on The Knot may fall right into shutterbug gigs at baby showers.
So keep hunting storks, The Knot. It won't be long before you reach so far in both directions that you'll be watching over both The Crib and The Crypt.
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