Embracing My Inner Hippie : A Woman’s Life Stages

If I continue at this pace, I might be a full-fledged flower child by 2014.  It’s been a slow transition but a clear one: I’m turning hippie.  I promise you won’t run into me in the grocery store barefoot, with my floppy suede hat and bell-bottoms.  No, that’s not what I mean.  What I do mean is that I’m beginning to embrace something that perhaps was there all along.

My 20s and 30s were a time of accumulation.  High-end home stores and high-end shoe stores were my BFFs.  I had more than I could possibly use or wear.  But as I moved through my 40s something kind of wonderful happened –– my world and priorities shifted.  I became more comfortable in my own skin and I needed far, FAR less to make me happy.  I must say, I’m truly enjoying this chapter of my life.

What does all of this have to do with marketing to women?  Simple. It’s about marketers understanding a woman’s life stages, instead of the stereotypes of her chronological age. It’s about effectively speaking to her based on where she’s at in her life, and not by the date of birth on her driver’s licence.  The same marketing messages that are used for women in their 20s and 30s aren’t going to work for me. I need less, I want less.  But I have the money to spend on what is important to me. So, marketers take heed: this hippie has a fat wallet and a new way of thinking.