By Faye Brookman
Move over Gen Z and forget Gen Alpha. There are big bucks in marketing to mature consumers who have been overlooked in the middle of all the noise about younger consumers.
Be warned—it is a tricky balance to hit the mark with these consumers who say they feel like they are still 30. Marketing materials with geriatric-looking faces often turn older customers off. The secret is to promote products for needs-based solutions with images where they can seem themselves.
Bobbi Brown’s Jones Road is a perfect case in point. Her products such as Miracle Balm resonate with consumers across the age spectrum. The brand found uncovered TikTok posts didn’t only reach the social site’s youthful sweet spot, but women over 50.
At the other end of the spectrum efforts such as Revlon’s Vital Radiance that was marketed to older women in hit roadblocks because women didn’t see themselves in the campaigns. It was perhaps a brand that was ahead of its time back in 2006.
The older American cohort has money to spend, too. That helps explain why brands like Westman Atelier and Kate Somerville score high with this consumer segment.
It is not a market segment to be ignored. Women who are over 50 represent the combined spending power of more than $15 trillion, according to Forbes estimates. Older consumers have the bucks, too, and represent the largest demographic with incomes exceeding $100,000, per AARP.
The Harvard Business Review estimates only 5% to 10% of marketing budgets are allocated to 50-plus consumers. Add to the lack of funding for BIPOC brands, as well, and there is an underserved population. Girlpower Marketing research said more than 90% of Baby Boomer women feel ignored and misunderstood by marketers. That’s a big change for a cohort that was all the buzz in the 1990s.
There is a lot of chatter about products dealing with lifecycles, especially menopause. In a recent CEW event Walmart’s Creighton Kiper, merchandising vice president of beauty, alluded to plans to stock products for aging shoppers.
Baby Boomers want to age gracefully and elegantly, he said. “The stigma of aging is something we have to think differently about,” he said. “There are people who are underserved. Fifty-five plus is a precious customer and one we are working actively for,” he said.
Products associated with menopause could be a good starting point.
One billion people are expected to be experiencing menopause in 2025.
From a business opportunity, Grand View Research pegs the global market for menopausal products hitting $24.4 billion by 2030. As retailers seek to fuse wellness and beauty, products for life stages can be a way to build their stores into destinations for everything including ingestibles, hair care, makeup and skin care.
ABOUT FAYE BROOKMAN
Faye Brookman has reported on the beauty and personal care industry for more than 35 years. 
She contributes to beauty industry publications including Women’s Wear Daily and CEW Beauty News. Her articles have also appeared in USA Today, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post. She also is a frequent moderator for discussions of the beauty business and retail industry.
A graduate of Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, Brookman resides in Skillman, N.J.
Categorized in: Trends/Insights