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 Recently,
I attended a marketing event where the speaker shocked me. He used
the phrases “Baby Boomers” and “50
plus women” interchangeably. It was a shock because I realized
that it’s true. The sharper truth is that baby boomers are
now more likely to be turning 60 than 40. Certainly, there are
more boomers over 50 than under it. I should know. I just became
one of them.
What’s fascinating about women our age is that, with the
passage of time, we’re not sinking into the sunset. We’ve
only become more powerful...as consumers and professionals. We
spend twice as much as our teen counterparts on fashion. We are
the gatekeepers of major purchases from cars to computers and are
poised to command 60% of the country’s wealth in the next
five years.
Many of us grew up with career and personal lives balanced on a
constant seesaw yet were unwilling to get off one side or the other,
or to settle for less than the best we could do. So, we got what
we wished for, even if it was more than we wanted. Now we’re
board members in the precarious post-Sarbanes-Oxley world, officers
of companies under stress, leaders of non-profits and architects
of our own businesses. Our marquee poster women are on a first
name basis with the world: Hillary, Condi, Oprah. We spend, we
buy, we lead, and we feel like we’re just getting started.
Yet, too often, we’re invisible to the marketers who want
our business.
 Despite the statistics, many businesses are still in denial. Whenever
companies tell me they need to connect with new customers, it’s
code for their search for younger, prettier, cooler customers (even
if they’re actually poorer, more distracted and more fickle
than the older customers they’re bored with.) The fact that
many businesses are still enamored of youth isn’t surprising.
A lot of women are, too.
No matter how beautiful or accomplished, many women still struggle
with accepting their age. I had lunch with a friend who is a leader
in the advertising business, responsible for millions of dollars
in revenue from clients.
We met in a restaurant on a sunny day in Manhattan, and she sighed. “I
just walked past one of those really big construction sites where
about 50 guys were taking a lunch break. Do you think I got one
single whistle?”
This attractive, slender, chic success story, now 50 plus, was
wistful about hardhat whistles gone by, something she used to dread.
She knows she’s successful. But it’s not enough.
Ironically, by the time a woman reaches midlife, her internal
mirror is clear with emotional confidence, yet fogged with external
static, fueled by the media’s obsession with youth.
In hundreds of interviews we’ve done at Just Ask a Woman,
many women in this generation cite 35 as their “inner age.” Smart
marketers who welcome and cater to this generation, like Procter & Gamble’s
Olay skin products, J.Jill’s new retail stores and SONY Style’s
new woman-friendly tech emporiums, are rays of hope. And they enjoy
the huge sales that women send their way.
But more often than not, women have a hard time finding themselves
in the marketer’s mirror. A 40-something friend told me that
when she sees the commercials that sing, “Maybe it’s
Maybelline,” she screams at the TV, “Maybe she’s
twelve!”
Learning to walk the talk
In my advertising career, I admit I contributed to some of these
images. Although I worked with creative teams who valiantly tried
to be more balanced in our choices, I have to confess that the
models we photographed were knockouts by any standard. For marketers
in any business, it’s fair game to ask: Are you casting women
who look like they’ve lived and who actually might have the
dollars to buy your products or are you choosing women who are
your “idealized” customer, AKA the woman your art director
wants to date? I believe the ad industry I’ve loved
is lagging behind the media where its ads live.
Looking for high ratings during daytime? Check out Ellen DeGeneres.
What makes the Desperate Housewives’ extra curricular activities
so appealing? Their ages. Okay, their good looks at that age don’t
hurt. (Another reason that women are so hard on themselves!) And
who’s about to give the Donald a run for his money? The 60
plus domestic diva herself.
Why aren’t ad agencies and marketers getting it when it
comes to the needs and aspirations of boomer women in their ads,
their stores, their products? Is it because the average age of
most ad folks is younger than 40? Is it because marketers believe
that women don’t want to see women who are too real or too
old since they aspire to a younger look? Is it just out of habit
that we always assume that the next generation of customers is
the one to build a business on?
I’d offer this thought. A great marketer or ad person is
curious and astute about customers. Period. Whoever she is, however
she looks, if she’s buying your product, your job is to know
her, love her and connect with her on her terms. While it’s
true that women do see a younger self in the mirror, they’re
becoming even prouder of whom they’ve grown to be and somehow
they manage to reconcile the conflict. (I’ve convinced myself
I’m 32 inside. That’s my story and I’m sticking
to it.)
Remember the power of her purse
Recognizing this dichotomy between acceptance of age and the optimism
of loving the future is valuable to anyone communicating to women
40 plus. How can advertising, born from aspiration, get real with
women and midlife?
Women in their 40s and 50s have a rich sense of humor and memory
and possibility. She sees herself as younger than you do...but
not so young that her wisdom doesn’t shine through. Respect
her. Talk straight to her. Remember, she’s the one with the
money. Have fun with her, too. What the heck, give her a catcall
now and then.
Mary Lou Quinlan is CEO and founder of Just Ask a Woman,
a women’s marketing consultancy in New York City.
She is the author of Just Ask a Woman, Cracking the Code
of What Women Want and How They Buy (Wiley, 2003) and a contributing
editor for MORE magazine.
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