Boomer Women: Great Target Market for Your Business
Published September 22, 2009 | 
DMM: Whose your target market? Are you marketing to one of the largest audiences in America with more disposable income than any other demographic group? It’s baby boomers. The people who are the best “fit” for my products and services are generally women business owners age 40-65. Much to the chagrin of some Gen Y and Gen X folks – we aren’t going away any time soon.
Okay, some of us wear mom jeans and still wear a wrist watch. We are still care about buying products and services. The short article below from Entrepreneur Magazine will give you a little more of an idea of the power of marketing to boomers
A baby boomer turns 50 every 7 seconds–joining a population segment that will grow by 25 percent in the next decade while other segments remain flat.
Matt Thornhill, founder of consulting firm The Boomer Project, which helps businesses reach adults born between 1946 and 1964, says it’s time for marketers to recalibrate their thinking about marketing to older adults. Boomers are a dynamic group that’s much more open to new experiences and brands than previous generations of older adults have been. Stephanie Lakhani found that to be true at her upscale Breathe Wellness Spasin Boise, Idaho. Catering primarily to boomers, the two spas bring in about $1.2 million per year. She says boomers are an excellent target, with disposable income and a tendency to refer business. “They expect perfect service,” says Lakhani, 35, who adds, “They tend to travel and buy in groups, so giving them an incentive to refer a friend in the form of an upgrade or a thank you [gesture] works very well. They are also very responsive to direct mail.”
Thornhill adds that marketers should target boomers by what they’re doing instead of how old they are. “Boomers are living such cyclical lives. In their 40s or 50s, they could be going back to college, be empty nesters or be married a second time and raising a young family,” he explains. “You wouldn’t sell the same vacation package to all these people. So pick the lifestyle segment you’re targeting, and focus on that.”
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boomer, business, Denise Michaels, home-based, marketing, targeting, testosterone-free, woman4 Responses to Boomer Women: Great Target Market for Your Business
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Hi,
My publicist found you and sent me a link to this article. It’s so on-point. It’s time marketeers stop treating us like we’re all one big demographic! I subscribe to Matt Thronhill’s Boomer Project and he’s such a great mouthpiece for us.
I publish The Flashionista Report. It’s a nod to our fleeting (sometimes annoying) ‘flashes’ (of brilliance!) and a voice for interpreting popular culture and inspiring new ways of living, thinking, loving, and shopping. I launched in March 2009 and right now it’s a free bi-weekly e-mail.
My background is in the fashion industry and I launched in response to a lack of interesting content for the self-aware, style-conscious, female boomer demographic. I’ve always felt that the fashion industry is laser focused on youth; as much as they say otherwise. The fashion and lifestyle news I was receiving in my own inbox seemed largely irrelevant to my age and interests. The Flashionista Report delivers fresh and appealing content to women 45 and older.
If we don’t remain relevant we end up the opposite. Irrelevance would be an unfortunate position for such a significant generation.
Just wanted you to know about us.
“Style is more than the clothes on our backs. It’s who we are and how we live our lives and it should be the best we can fashion for ourselves.” Mary Marino
Thanks so much for taking the time to share your thoughts and tell my readers a little about The Flashionista Report.
I like looking reasonably fashionable. I’ve never been a slave to fashion and have always had my own idea about it that works best for my body, my lifestyle and my preferences. I wore my interpretation of a “classic” look back in the 70s in high school and college when classic wasn’t cool.
I feel verything about the the fashion industry is so youth driven that – I’m only speaking for myself here – I’ve reached a point where it doesn’t appeal to me. Or, at least the way its presented doesn’t appeal.
The emphasis on impossibly thin, almost prepubescent bodies. The notion that you’re supposed to change your wardrobe every year. It’s like a bunch of bratty teenagers deciding we’re in – and everyone else is hopelessly out. It’s so exclusionary many women reach a point where we throw up our hands and say, “I want to look current. I don’t want to dress like I’m in a time warp. However, there’s more to life than feeling incessantly inadequate. I’m past all that teenage angst.”
I have a business, my health, a wonderful marriage and 3 adorable grandkids. I keep up with what’s happening in the world. Who has time for an industry that seems to simply roll it’s eyeballs in collective disgust at anyone over a size six, less than 5’8″ in height and over age 30?
Right now I think the craziest thing in fashion – and you see it all over the pages of magazines and on the celebrities – is the towering Gladiator shoes with a dozen or so straps and buckles on teetering heels and platforms. I’m not gonna buy a pair. I’ll keep wearing my pointy heels until I see something I like better. Also, something that doesn’t make me tower over my husband whose only four inches taller than me.
When fashion can be accessible and presented in a way that includes all women – no matter what height, size or age – then women will absolutely flock to find out more and have fun with it..
I understand what the industry is doing, in fact I heard a radio interview recently with a make up artist (can’t remember the name). He was talking about eye shadow, and said that the same basic colors are what sells season after season and those are taupe, beige, and brown. But, they need to generate excitement season after season and how do you do that if you always make the same thing. The same goes for clothing.
There’s nothing wrong with finding what works for you and sticking with it. The important thing is not to look dated.
The whole shoe scene today is enough to send a shoe lover like myself into a steep (heeled) depression.
But, I have other fish to fry these days! so much more fun…
my grandfather is also a baby boomer and he is also a war veteran”",