Her Portrait

Consider all the possible combinations and you can quickly see the intricacy of marketing to women in this diverse consumer group. Her needs are layered and they’re continually evolving.

40-50 Body & Soul

Redefining Fitness

Her Portrait

Sprinting to the next staff meeting then out to a fundraiser or home to prepare dinner for the family isn’t the only way this busy woman gets her heart rate up. Having gratefully emerged from the era of army-style gym classes and five times a week studio aerobics, she’s now embracing more soulful fitness activities including Pilates, yoga, and active walking. In the spirit of her modus operandi, multi-tasking, these pursuits are not only easier on her body, but they are emotionally soothing and empowering at the same time. Stretch and meditate simultaneously? Work her heart while learning self-defense techniques? She’s in. Most importantly, she looks for situations where she can leverage a reduced schedule of classes with at-home or lunch-hour practice, on her own terms and at her own pace. Maybe it’s the “Madonna” factor, too, but between 2000 and 2004 yoga participation increased 122 percent, with the largest group of female practitioners being 45-54 years-old.

If she has children, chances are they’re no longer infants. She’s free to leave the house, getting out on her own or with friends to enjoy some fresh air. Outdoor sports challenge her muscles and give her an emotional shot of physical accomplishment. Adventure sports such as hiking and mountain biking are drawing her to the trails and boosting her sense of strength and achievement. Coming up fast as well, according to contributing author Fran Philip, Chief Merchandising Officer of L.L. Bean: snow-shoeing.

Marketing To Her

This energetic group has redefined the meaning of fitness. Talk to her about healthy activity that can take place outside of the gym and in her living room, on a mountainside trail or spa-like setting, combining spirituality and physical conditioning. Give her comfort, performance, and style. Recognize her as a serious athlete who needs innovative fitness gear, apparel, and facilities to enhance her physical accomplishments. Tailor your products to fit her body and her lifestyle, and she’ll respond with loyalty and enthusiasm.

Brands including Title 9 Sports, Nuala yoga wear and Terry Bicycles have thrived with her by creating high performance, style-savvy merchandise designed by women for women. And Curves—the women-only, fitness center—has become the world’s largest fitness center franchise almost exclusively through word-of-mouth referrals. Curves offers an on-demand 30-minute workout in a barebones, yet encouraging environment. The busy woman can stop in on her way to work, grab a half-hour during her lunch hour or whenever the moment can be seized. Capitalizing on this formula for success, Curves has expanded its franchises by 560 percent since 1999 and started an explosive movement on women-centric fitness centers.

The bottom line? Make it easy for her to fit exercise into her life—and give it a multi-tasking purpose—and you’ll capture the affection of this resourceful, fitness-oriented woman.

The Flip Side

This generation of women at this stage of their lives are exercising far more than generations at age 40+ in the past. But it’s still an uphill struggle for her to find the time and motivation. Faced with a massive to-do list, exercise quickly slips out of the picture, as today nearly 40 percent of women say they always feel rushed versus 28 percent in 1975.

40-50 Work / Money

Money Maven

Her Portrait

When it comes to managing the household finances, this woman is in control. She is also the one who brings home a good chunk of the family income. She’s more focused on her career than her mother or her grandmothers ever were, and she’s very likely to be taking night classes to finish off her undergrad or to complete a graduate degree. Her work often requires travel, and she uses business trips as a chance to rest and recharge her batteries – away from the chaos and responsibilities of home.

This woman is also far more financially savvy then her mother ever was. She learns about the stock market and upgrades her money know-how with information from books, friends, the Web, and other reliable sources such as women’s investment clubs.

Marketing To Her

Concerned about both her short and long-term well-being, she wants to learn about investment opportunities. She also knows that the statistics can be daunting. Women earn 76 cents on each dollar men earn and live an average of seven years longer, with typically higher healthcare expenses.

What does this mean for the marketer? Opportunities abound if you keep her consumption patterns in mind. She wants to conduct thorough research before committing to an investment, and spends 40 percent more time than men researching a fund before investing her hard-earned dollars. Ease her time-crunch by losing the jargon and abandoning financial hype. Give her small portions of information in digestible pieces and familiar language. Suze Orman’s television program and the online site Motley Fool, have become popular with this demographic by tackling real life, familiar financial issues with a straightforward, question-and-answer format. (Again, satisfying the multi-tasking woman’s urge for one-stop shopping, Orman throws spiritual advice in for good measure.)

Keep in mind that the Trailing-Edge Boomer is doing much more than paying the bills or taking out a low-risk mutual fund. Women represent nearly half of all investors with $100,000 or more in assets worthy of investment, and more than half are financially independent.

The Flip Side

As attuned as they are to financial information, this group of women knows that they need more. According to a survey by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, seven in 10 women say they need help managing their finances. Another 76 percent of women say they have credit card debt, and 35 percent use their cards frequently and carry balances.

40-50 Home / Family

Homeowner Handywoman

Her Portrait

Her weekend is all lined up. First, she’s off to Home Depot for a Saturday morning Women’s Workshop, then it’s back home to install those nickel-plated bathroom faucets. After a fresh coat of paint, she’ll achieve that Pottery Barn perfect bath effect she’s envisioned. From magazines to TV to the Internet, she’s constantly gathering new ideas and refining her project list.

This do-it-yourself woman is hitting the toolbox to save money, but more importantly, it’s a great way to ensure things get done the way she wants them done. It feels good to hone her skills and to get comfortable with a power saw. That’s why she’s got the next three Women’s Workshops penciled on her calendar – even though she probably won’t have time to attend all of them.

Marketing To Her

Think these women are merely helping their husbands or hiring the contractor? Think again. Women are driving the entire process, eager, active participants in home remodeling. In fact, they initiate 80 percent of all home improvement purchase decisions, especially big-ticket items such as kitchen cabinets, flooring, and bathroom fixtures. Moreover, home ownership among single women has increased and women in married couples frequently control the household spending.

The Flip Side

Women have always had a grip on the hammer. The National Association of Women in Construction was founded in Fort Worth, Texas in 1953. It has 5,500 members and more than 179 chapters in 48 U.S. states and in three Canadian provinces. The news here is not so much that women are taking care of business around the house, but that marketers have recognized this and have become less fearful of losing their male customers by catering more to women in the marketplace.

40-50 Leisure/Travel

Household CTC (Corporate Travel Coordinator)

Her Portrait

With two weeks of vacation on the calendar, she’s busy planning the next family trip. As the household CFO, CEO, and CTC, this multi-tasking woman researches and coordinates a dizzying range of excursions. Increasingly, she’s doing that research online – after reloading the dishwasher, starting another load of laundry, and helping the kids with their homework. The Internet is her key resource, and she’s not alone. Of women online, 65 percent use the Web to purchase or arrange travel reservations and 71 percent utilize it to conduct their travel research.

Travel is her way of reconnecting with herself, her loved ones, and the world at large. It’s time away from the everyday routine, and a chance to “check in” and take stock of her life. Travel is truly critical to her state of mind, whether the family drives to Grandma’s house in Vermont, or they all fly together to Disneyland.

Marketing To Her

If you want influence, you’ve got to reach the family CTC. Women make the majority of travel decisions, regardless of who pays for the trip, where they go, or who’s accompanying them. In total, Boomer women generate more travel than any other age group in the U.S.

How can you attract and retain this woman’s travel dollars? Understand the amenities she’s looking for in a family trip or business travel and work with her most important decision point, whether it’s price, value, location or services. Market to her key concern and communicate with her in the process. Recognize how she arranges her travel, and make her planning experience a whole lot easier and more enjoyable.

The Flip Side

She’s still booking her travel online, but her next trip may involve room service, the latest pay-per-view movie, and a full schedule of meetings. As of 2005, women comprised 50 percent of the business travel market. Also remember, she may be traveling on business, but she constantly has her radar up for other forms of travel. She’s considering whether or not your services could cater to her family travel (60 percent of all trips with children are taken by women ages 35-54) or if your product is the perfect spot for her next girlfriend getaway.

40-50 Technology

Cyber Savvy Sophisticate

Her Portrait

When she’s not researching her next handheld, photo printer, or techno-gadget, this woman harnesses the Web to smooth the wrinkles in her busy life. She’s going online to shop, track down information, research, and to send e-mails to her friends and family.

She’s part of the most consumer-educated demographic surfing the Internet, and it’s quickly becoming her top retail destination – whether or not she actually buys merchandise from an e-commerce site. In fact, 78 percent of women say they use the Internet to research a product before hitting the cash register. For this multi-tasking maven, the web is not a toy. It’s a tool, available 24/7 to take advantage of those unpredictable free moments and a rare pocket of downtime.

Marketing To Her

Women have flocked to the Internet in huge numbers, making them, at 51.6 percent, the majority of users. Add to this the fact that the 35-45 year-old group has the largest online representation and your opportunity becomes clear. Compared to men, women have showed more growth in online activities. Think about how you can serve her cyber needs with style and simplicity, and you’ll gain a strong following with this highly-wired demographic.

The Flip Side

Boomers may be researching new products on the Web, but they tend to be newer to the Internet and spend less time online. When she does surf, it’s more likely to be a search for medical, fitness, weight loss, and spiritual information from the comfort of her home. And while women may be dominating the Internet, keep in mind that men account for 42 percent of total visitors to women’s sites. Men are also less likely than women to say a bad website would lead them to shop elsewhere.

50-60+ Body & Soul

Fitness as the Foundation of the Well-Lived Life

Her Portrait

As she blows out more candles on her (low fat, low carb) birthday cake, this woman is embracing the physical aspects of middle age and beyond with a whole new mindset. With her kids grown and more time to invest on herself, she’s focused on getting healthier, feeling stronger, and renewing her body and spirit with each passing year. In fact, 7 in 10 Boomer women feel a lot younger than their actual age, and 62 percent say they work at trying to maintain a youthful appearance.

She’s still busy, however, and in some ways—sandwiched as she is between the conflicting demands of grown children and aging parents—more in need of serenity than ever. Her medicine cabinet and make-up table are stocked with beauty and skin products that simplify, rather than complicate, her everyday routine.

Her kitchen cabinet tells a similar story. Because of her responsiveness to the benefits of health foods, she can find items that were once relegated to the specialty stores now on her favorite supermarket’s shelves. This is a one-stop shopping boon for the busy woman grabbing something fast and now healthy on the way home from work. She’ll even pay a higher price for products that are healthful, but she’s not willing to sacrifice taste in the process.

She’s also got the cash and will make the time to visit the spa, purchase alternative and allopathic health products, and enjoy the latest beauty treatments.

Marketing To Her

Embrace her passion for youthfulness and vitality, but market to her wisdom and her well-honed sense of self. No Hollywood diets or miracle creams will fly here. Develop ongoing relationships that authentically address her health and beauty maintenance concerns.

Kiehl’s has created an almost cultish following for its prestigious hair and skincare products with relationship marketing and product sampling, bare bones packaging and no advertising whatsoever. O, the Oprah magazine, and Oprah.com is another wildly successful brand for this Boomer woman. With the “live your best life” slogan, Oprah uses her multimedia channels to provide feel-good emotions, information, and insights about body and soul in a hip, interactive format.

The marketing message is clear. Focus on how your product or service helps her quest for inner wisdom, health, and beauty, and you may develop a cult-like following of your own.

The Flip Side

“Embrace yourself, not your age” may be this woman’s mantra, but she’s still struggling with the changes she sees in the mirror, and with the physical side of aging. While 61 percent of women believe that older women can be more attractive than younger ones, 48 percent think they looked their best in their 20’s. In the last five years, the number of Americans undergoing plastic surgery has increased by a whopping 1,125 percent. (Statistics don’t lie—but recalling Cheryl Tieg’s comment to Katie Couric on The Today Show: “I think the days of plastic surgery, pulling everything back, getting rid of every single line and wrinkle, are over.” (For more on the nature of this conversation that is taking place among Baby Boomer, see Chapter Four.)

50-60+ Work / Money

Switching Gears

Her Portrait

This woman is in her peak earning years, thanks to solid work experience and her focus on education. She’s got an undergraduate and maybe even a Masters degree, and has consistently leveraged her “down time” to attend conferences and seminars that enhance her career – not to mention her personal development. She’s made real progress within the corporate structure, but now she’s at a crossroads. What’s ahead?

This highly driven woman refined her skills in the corporate womb, but now she’s ready for an entrepreneurial opportunity and the challenge of starting her own business. Running the show would give her the flexibility to dedicate more time to her extended family, her community, and herself. And time is a key consideration. Starting her business will still require a major time investment, but it’s a way to explore her personal passions and test her limits – opportunities that her previous career may no longer offer.

Marketing To Her

Smart companies will tailor their business products and services to accommodate this busy, entrepreneurial woman. Remember that while she may be switching gears, she’s hardly a novice.

KeyBank has capitalized on the growth of women-owned business by launching “Key4Women,” a nationwide program, offering access to customized resources, online tools, and account and service suggestions. With a promise to “help your business grow,” Key has reinforced its commitment to female entrepreneurs by co-sponsoring a study of $1 million+ female business success stories, conducted by the Center for Women’s Business Research. (For more about KeyBank’s innovative programming, see Chapter Four.)

Understand the major differences between women and men in entrepreneurial roles and you can reach your share of this lucrative market. The number of women-owned businesses is growing at twice the rate of all U.S. firms. In addition, women are more likely than men to rely on the Internet for its ability to open up new business opportunities and to enhance time flexibility. Provide adaptable delivery options and great online service. Real Estate guru Barbara Corcoran holds phone seminars, allowing time-starved women to call in at their convenience.

The Flip Side

Not everyone is ready to strike out as an entrepreneur or to abandon her role in the corporate fold. Women not only comprise 46.6 percent of the U.S. labor force, but women 50+ account for more than 22 percent of the female workforce. In addition, 68 percent of women aged 50-59 are currently in the labor force, and 22 percent of these working women over 50 never plan to retire.

50-60+ Home / Family

Ultimate Caregiver

Her Portrait

She’s just as interested in getting the house just right—but having moved out of the big family home to the cozy condo, there’s less house to fix.
Family members may no longer be living at home, but she’s added her own childrens’ significant others, their children and an even larger network of relationships into the fabric of her life. From hunting down the perfect birthday card to providing around-the-clock care during flu season, this woman is selfless and nurturing. She’s a dedicated mother (even though her children are grown), sister, daughter, cousin, aunt, friend and neighbor. She sees herself as the primary caretaker, even for the family pet.

She moves through the world with her friends and family in mind – from picking up an extra copy of that great cooking magazine for her sister, to finding a later Pilates class so she can attend her grandson’s soccer game. For 96 percent of women, having a healthy family rates among their top priority, and two-thirds of women put time with family and friends ahead of their personal health care.

But just when she’s figured out how to juggle all her social roles and responsibilities, caring for an aging parent can further complicate her life. Faced head-on with the failing health of elder relations (or family members), she realizes that she needs to plan for her future and avoid becoming a burden to her own children.

Marketing To Her

Help strengthen her connections with loved ones and streamline her multiple social roles. If she’s caring for aging parents or extended family with special needs, she’ll hunt relentlessly for anything that can boost their quality of life or that will make her a more effective caregiver. By the way, forget about marketing incontinence products, medical alert systems, and the like to her ailing parents, so frequently appealed to directly by advertisers as the logical consumer of these products. Instead, target the Baby Boomer woman with the information she needs to provide her parents with products and services that will make all of their lives easier. In this case, she’s the real consumer. (And while she won’t be likely to admit it, she’s watching everything you do as she makes mental notes about who will be the marketplace players in her own unfolding future.)

The Flip Side

Boomers had fewer children than their parents, leaving a shortage of adult children to act as caregivers when the time arrives. Marketers who have solutions to this issue, such as developers of co-operative housing developments designed specifically for single Boomer women in their , and up, will find a receptive audience for their products.

50-60+ Leisure / Travel

Indiana Jane

Her Portrait

She still regales her family with stories of backpacking through Europe on pocket change, or if she didn’t actually get there, she’s still dreaming of buying a Eurail pass, albeit probably in first class, and hitting the road. Now that the kids are becoming self-sufficient, this woman has the time and money to satisfy her wanderlust. As a Baby Boomer, she spends more on her travel than any other age group, averaging $491 per trip excluding transportation to her destination. She’s also often likely to travel solo or with her girlfriends than with a spouse.

For this woman, travel is all about adventure and learning. She wants both a physical and a spiritual journey. What fits the bill? A week-long cooking class in Venice, botanical and wildlife painting in exotic locales, an all-female cycling tour through New England, or a yoga retreat in Costa Rica? As the number of women-only tour operators has grown by 230 percent in the last six years, she’s finding more companies that understand her twin desires for sightseeing and self-understanding.

Marketing To Her

Travel and outdoor magazines may feature glossy photos of fit twixters climbing peaks and fording streams, but the average adventure traveler is a 47 year-old woman.

Indiana Jane is ready to spend money on travel if she’ll get a truly authentic experience in return. Give her comprehensive, detailed travel information, virtual tours, related resources, educational tie-ins, and testimonials that take her there ahead of time and give her a vivid sense of what she’s going to see and do. Satisfy both her adventurous and her practical sides. Highlight learning and the environmental, rejuvenating, or cultural benefits of the locale. Give her value for her dollar, and provide a unique, memorable, and restful experience that sends her home with more than just tan lines and a suitcase full of souvenirs.

The Flip Side

This woman is seeking adventure, but she’s also up for some serious R&R, as women comprise 71 percent of spa goers But don’t assume she’s heading to a romantic dinner after that seaweed scrub and Shiatsu massage. Thirty-one percent of trips taken by Baby Boomer households include at least one child or grandchild. They’ll want to know that the facility they’re booking has both a waterslide and a spa.

50-60+ Technology

Digital Diva

Her Portrait

With the kids edging their way out of the family nest—and with her discretionary income on the rise—this woman is the “sleeping giant” in e-commerce. She’s using the Internet at home and at work – where she’s making travel arrangements, doing research and scanning the latest headlines from her office.

While she may be surfing, she’s certainly not playing. Novelty is not a factor here. Instead, a full 83 percent of women say they use the Internet to save time, and another 55 percent go online to save money. She’s using the Internet even more heavily than the wired moms in her neighborhood, and she gives her credit card a workout by spending more at her favorite online stores.

Marketing To Her

Talk about growth potential. Boomer women were raised on catalog shopping, and now there’s a whole new world of digital choices at their fingertips. In 2003, women comprised 63 percent of online shoppers and accounted for $46 million of online buying. This group is ready to spend, but you’ve got to keep it simple. Don’t waste her time with pop-ups, complicated navigation or fussy design.

The Flip Side

This woman may be the sleeping giant of e-commerce, but she’s already embraced technology in her daily life. The hottest tech items for women over 40 are cell phones, digital cameras, DVD players, and computers. Forty-seven percent of women in this age group said they recently bought or will soon buy a wireless phone, 45 percent said they just purchased a digital camera or will soon buy one, and a DVD player was named a recent or near-future purchase for 42 percent.