View From the Trenches: Marketing to the Baby Boomer Woman

Search “Boomer Women Marketing” on Google.com or Ask.com and you will tap into a lot of experts in the field. Many are very credentialed or cite those who are or studies that legitimize insights, input and opinion in general. 

The view from the trenches, in part, legitimizes these experts, but in the real world, mine in particular, marketing to Boomer women has been the key to the international success of a small, off-Broadway show – Menopause The Musical®. This show has launched everything from a foundation and wine club to a magazine specifically targeted to the show attendees, mainly women 45-65.

It is easy marketing to this audience…I AM this audience, being 58-years old, I am, in essence, “selling” to myself.  Moreover from 15 years of running an advertising agency, I learned the knack of setting aside my own ego and viewing the audience as the people to whom I must listen…for they tell me into what they invest their time, energy and money.  The top 10 concepts this group is the most vocal about are basic to advertising when dealing with a core group of people at a life stage as opposed to an age:

1. Don’t “sell me” on something about which I know very little; educate me so that I can see the value in what you offer. For years, women have visited their trusted doctors to deal with the symptoms of menopause. He writes a prescription; she heads to the neighborhood drugstore to hopefully buy relief. Now we are barraged by ads for compounding pharmacies and natural hormones, and the larger percentage of us does not have a clue as to exactly what compounding is or what it does. Tell us what you do differently from my neighborhood Walgreen’s pharmacy.  Otherwise it is just a confounding pharmacy.


2. Allow me the opportunity to “choose” with a valid point of comparison.  Let’s face it, Boomer women are the first generation who made the concept of “choice” intrinsic to our existence; we chose to take birth control pills; chose to enter the workforce when it was not about income; chose to reproduce…or not.  As the person who overwhelmingly holds the seat of Purchasing Agent for any household, the Boomer woman…who earns at least 50 percent of the income source for that home – will make the bigger purchases based on comparison.  The car offering the most gas mileage or that is environmentally friendly will be selected over the sleek lines of an SUV.  Show me sound comparisons; don’t show me styles!


3. Talk to me through my community…the group of people who create the core of my day-to-day existence. Find me; create “word-of-mouth.”  I will believe my neighbor…and often my neighborhood newspaper…more often than I will believe commercial messages shouted at me in the middle of “Oprah.”  Unless, of course, Oprah IS my community, and if you can get her to mention it, I will buy it.  Boomer women invest themselves in developing relationships as a personal survival network.  Stepping outside of the usual advertising box and talking to her through that community is a key to successful sales.


4. If you are talking to me through a spokesperson, give me someone to whom I can relate. Someone who I perceive as believable. Someone who talks to me without the Hollywood affectations. Select an actor/actress who has played solid roles, who is believable and actually creates a relationship with me as a consumer of the product she is selling.  Case in point is the success of Sally Field as the spokesperson for a bone health drug.


5. Understand that I may not want to look/dress/drive younger. I want to live longer, celebrate life, and be healthier. Most of us who look in the mirror and see our mothers have earned every wrinkle there.  Choose to honor my age, not convince me that I have lived the last 10- or 20-years in vain.  Respect my age in your choice of words and music.


6. Make me laugh…at situations, at myself. If I can laugh, I can relate; I know that I am not alone and perhaps can benefit in sharing at what others are laughing about.  Somewhere among worldwide war, poverty, starvation and all the other strife that is showcased on television, I need a reason to smile.  Make me laugh because our world is making me cry.  Laughter is another facet of community. Who didn’t smile at the California Raisins as they boogied across the screen? And who didn’t buy them?


7. Give me a reason to celebrate who I am as I am. Let’s face it; more of us Boomer women are a size 14 than a size 4.  Give me permission to celebrate all of me…not just the thinner person inside wanting to get out! 


8. Feed my spirit! Bring me joy!  Sell to the part of me that knows that there is something greater than the color of a lipstick. Let me know that the colors of my life truly matter.


9. Give me bottom-line, dollar-and-cents value…because it will be the final determinant as to whether or not your product makes it through the noisy, crowded world of my mind. There is a reason why Boomer women – Boomers in general - are the most affluent generation walking the face of the earth.  We understand the value of longevity and the depth of what money can truly buy.  Although we readily try what is new and improved, if the perceived value is not in the mix, we will stick with the tried and true.


10. Finally, take out the earplugs. Listen to me. I will tell you what I want to buy and how I want to support you. Don’t make decisions for me, because you with your four-year college marketing degree have no clue who I am and what I want. Ask me. I will tell you.

Jeanie Linders is the writer/producer of the international hit show Menopause The Musical® and the publisher of me* Magazine (*My Entertainment, My Empowerment), founded for the 40+ age demographic that created the phenomenal success of her show.

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