The Purchasing Superpower of 50+ Women

Last week, as part of the L’Oreal show at Paris Fashion Week, a model threw conventional standards to the wind and strutted down the runway without shoes, tossing her platinum locks as she twirled her flowing maxi dress. This was no fresh-faced, twenty-something super model. Nope. Instead it was 74-year-old Dame Helen Mirren, refusing to be rendered invisible.

And the crowds loved her! The media, too. L’Oreal has hit upon something that other brands and marketers still struggle with: reaching, and celebrating, women over the age of 50. More

4 Industries That Should Be Marketing to Baby Boomers

It’s not an overstatement to say that today’s marketers are almost unanimously focused on Millennials. Sure, Millennials are the largest living generation, but Boomers have greater spending power, controlling nearly 70% of all disposable income and spending $3.2 trillion each year. With that much spending at stake, it makes economic sense to aggressively be marketing to Baby Boomers.

That’s especially true with Boomer women, who will control two-thirds of all consumer wealth over the next decade, with estimates ranging from $12 to $40 trillion. More

The Importance of Boomer Women to the U.S. Economy

Eileen Fisher Markets to Boomer Women

Boomer Women and the U.S. Economy

Boomer women control more than half of the nation’s discretionary income and three-fourths of the country’s financial wealth. The youngest of these super consumers are turning 50 this year, and over the next two decades their ranks will swell with the force of a tsunami. So why do marketers continue to ignore them?

That is the subject of Boomer Women: The Invisible Goldmine released today by Girlpower Marketing.

Download the free white paper here.

Today’s Boomer women are vibrant and young. They are much more media savvy and financially independent than their predecessors. Yet 91 percent of Boomer women surveyed feel that marketers ignore or don’t understand them.The primary problem is that marketers believe these consumers are no longer relevant, and are locked into brands that they fell in love with decades ago. That is simply not true. In fact, research shows that these women are just as likely to switch brands as their children.

In a recent survey of Boomer women conducted by Girlpower Marketing, 64.2 percent admitted to saying goodbye to a product because they felt they were being ignored by the brand. Brands that respondents felt have done a good job speaking to them include Eileen Fisher, Dove, L’Oreal, Cadillac, Olay, Amazon, Target and Avon.

The days of Boomer women being ignored by marketers are numbered. More than any generation before, these women know their own power and won’t be marketed to in a disingenuous way. Trillions of dollars are at stake as marketers begin to discover the unexpected consumer gold mine that these women are.

Marketing to Boomer Women: Don’t Ever Call Them Senior

Marketing to Boomer Women - Even Famous Ones

Would you call this Boomer Woman senior, aging or even (gasp!) elderly?

Who Is the Boomer Woman?

Many advertisers and marketers are just beginning to awaken to the fact that the deep pockets of female Baby Boomers is where it’s at. And though they would certainly like a piece of that market share, the reality is that disproportionately few of them understand this group of women.

Baby Boomers are people born between 1946 and 1964. Boomer Women make up 19 percent of the total U.S. population. Consider these other facts:

Every fifth adult in the U.S. today is a female over 50.
Women comprise the majority of the 80 million Boomers now working their way through society and the consumer marketplace. They have established careers and money to spend on themselves, as well as the ability to influence the majority of their households’ purchasing decisions.
In the next decade, women will control two-thirds of the consumer wealth in the U.S.
Not only will Boomer women continue to earn income by working, they’ll also manage inheritance windfalls from their parents as well as their husbands, who they will outlive by 6-9 years on average.

The reality is that in today’s world, the economy definitely is largely influenced by Boomer Women.

Marketing to Boomer Women

Vibrant Nation has recently put out a book that provides an in-depth look on the subject: What Boomer Women 50+ Know, Think, Do & Buy. Following are some key findings from the book:

Boomer Women are at a fascinating time in their lives. These women are reshaping the world with adventure and luxury vacations, luxury cars, continuing education, volunteerism, politics and entrepreneurial endeavors. They’re enjoying the greatest financial stability of their lives, and they’re not afraid to spend.

Boomer Women want to hear from other Boomer Women. Peer influencers are going to have a much greater impact than a young female celebrity hawking their face cream. Many marketers are addressing that reality, with Ellen DeGeneres and others becoming the faces of brands targeting this age group.

These are not your grandmother’s 50s. Today’s Boomer Women are educated, active, and technologically-savvy. They’re online, using iPads, Flip cameras, Blackberries, Facebook and Skype. Not just passive observers, Boomer Women are quickly adopting the Internet usage patterns of younger generations and posting content themselves.

Boomer Women recognize their importance. Today’s Boomer Women feel ignored by marketers, and in turn, have decided to write them off. In a recent survey, the majority of respondents indicated that they are indignant and angry that many industries simply aren’t taking them seriously, and they’re proactively looking to give their business to those that will. They don’t demand that ads feature only women 50+, but they don’t like ads that never feature women 50+.

Trying not to look old does not mean looking young. Boomer Women are realistic – they don’t want to look like their 20-year old granddaughters, but they aspire to be the best 50 or 60 they can be. They like to hear that they can be “ageless” and look as great as they feel, rather than that they’re “still going strong” or look great “for their age.”

And, by the way, don’t call a Boomer Woman “senior” – she’ll be well into her 80s before she’s willing to take on that title.

boomer women consumers