For years now, after realizing that there is scope in targeting the actual ‘moms’ of the world than the perfect model as the façade of the ordinary women, marketing groups have over abused this category of women with a typical image of a middle aged mom with a hatchback or station wagon driving her 2.5 kids to soccer games.
Although this paid them off in big numbers, they still missed out the bigger picture here. The richest and most profitable target market of the present and that of the foreseeable future is undoubtedly the Boomer Women. If you are wondering about the truth in this statement then perhaps the fact that this sector controls the major share of the country’s discretionary income and that it possesses most of the nation’s wealth, should be able to convince you that it is indeed the richest market.1
The Boomer Women turning 50 this year make up the youngest lot of the Boomer Women Generation. What marketers should realize is that within the next couple of decades or so there will be a sizeable increase in this group and consequentially a decline in the strength of women younger to them will be seen in this period – the women, mentioned above, who are the usual target of marketing campaigns recently.
Boomer Women – ‘Grandmotherly’ or Not!
The generation of women, who were born between 1946 and 1964 or the post WWII era, are commonly referred to as the ‘Boomer Women.’ In fact the whole generation of babies born in that period was known as the Boomer Generation. People returning from the war were facilitated to have a home and build up families and this consequently led to the Baby Boom.
Today these 40 million Boomer Women are in a position to significantly influence the present economy of the state. In fact...
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...ine in the spending of this group has been seen between the years 2001 and 2010.
The consumers belonging to 49 – 67 year old age group, however, increased by a whole lot of 16 million now reaching a new figure of 78 million. And their average annual spending is recorded around $2.3 trillion. These baby boomers have even outpaced the 18 to 39 year old individuals by 53%. According to a survey, by the year 2015, people who are aged 50 years or above will constitute almost half the population of the United States.
As stated in Marketing to Women: How to Understand, Reach and Increase Your Share of the World’s Largest Market Segment, by Marti Barletta, the American women make up the chunk of the money spenders and out of these it is the Boomer Women having the most money to spend. So what should be your natural target market in women – the Boomer Women…. Of course.
This phenomenon suggests that all women are required to remain loyal wives and stay at home mothers who aspire to achieve perfection. In “Mirrors of Masculinity: Representation and Identity in Advertising Images,” Jonathon E. Schroeder and Detlev Zwick claim that “highly abstract connections are made between the models, a lifestyle, and the brand” resulting in a need to associate these products with a specific way of living (25). Instead of simply displaying these luxurious bracelets and handbags, the ad creates an elegant environment through the incorporation of sophisticated items. The women are dressed elegantly in dresses and blouses, adding a conservative element to the ad. The ad presents a rather stereotypical image of the very successful heads-of-household type mothers who have brunch with other elite women in an exclusive circle. Everything from the merchandise they sport to the champagne glasses down to the neatly manicured fingernails provides insight into the class of women presented in this ad. The body language of the women strips the image of the reality element and instead appears to be staged or frozen in time. This directly contributes to the concept of the gendered American dream that urges women to put up a picture-perfect image for the world to see. Instead of embracing individual struggle and realities, the American dream encourages women to live out a fabricated
Swanson, D., and Johnston, D. "A Content Analysis of Motherhood Ideologies and Myths in Magazines." Invisible Mothers. New York: Plenum Publishing Corporation, 2003. 21-31.
As early as the nineteen fifties women were identified and targeted as a market. In a consumer culture the most important things are consumers. Advertisers convinced homemakers that in order to be a “good” wife and mother you must have their products and appliances to keep a clean and perfect home. The irony of this ploy is that consumers must have money to buy, and so trying to improve their quality as homemakers, off into the workforce women went. This paradox left women ...
In Canada, over 400,000 babies were born annually from 1945 to 1965, which increased Canada’s population rate by 20% (“Canadian”). This period in Canadian history occurred after the Second World War when millions of men returned home to their families or immigrated to other countries with their war brides. Some ended up settling in Canada which dramatically increased the birth rate; their experience and survival of the war caused them to realize how important life is, instigating them to have as many children as they can support bringing about the group of people now referred to as the Baby Boom Generation. The baby boom generation significantly impacted Canada as it helped the young country to recover from the devastating Great Depression. Indeed, the baby boom generation had a positive contribution to Canadian society during the 1950s because it changed the face of Canada in the international stage, increased the Canadian living standard, and established and developed the suburban areas.
During WWII, women took over the work force, and had such inspirations as Rosie the Riveter. This created a generation of women who wanted more out of life than birthing children, and keeping a nice home for their husband. The end of the war, however, brought with it a decrease of working women. In the 1950’s the rate of working women had slightly rebounded to 29% following the post-war decrease in 1945. These women were well rounded, working outside the home, and still having dinner on the table by 5PM.
We here at More feel it is time to change the representation of older women in the world of advertising, starting first with our own publication. In order to find answers to the problem of women over 40 lacking a voice and presence in magazine advertisements, we have enlisted the help of several advertising agencies. Each company was asked to devise a unique plan of action to better included mature women in our ads. The following three advertising agencies—GSD&M, Kaplan Thaler, and Dimassimo—have been selected because their individual approaches to our dilemmas were most successful in their accurate portrayal of older women. So read on and discover how these creative advertisers were able to not only solve our advertising problem, but also how they were able to expand and diversify our world of advertising by including people that look and think like you.
In the 1960’s women were still seen as trophies and were beginning to be accepted into the work industry. They were still homemakers, raised the family, and made sure their husbands were happy. That was the social norms for women during that time period. They were not held to high work expectations like men were. But something amazing happened that would change women 's lives for centuries; it was the 1970’s. The 60’s put the equality movement in motion but 70’s was a time of reform where women were finally able to control their own paths. Not only was the 70’s a historical marker for the fiftieth anniversary for women suffrage, it was also a marker for the drastic change of different social norms, the changes of the American Dream, and the
The model of an “executive woman” had mass appeal thus was so successful in France. However, as clearly shown later on in the market studies done in 1995, the market segments that attracted Plenitude the most was the “stressed out” and “age focused” segments which only made up 40% of the market. Also, the acceptor/rejector studies indicated that consumers perceived that Plenitude was specifically targeting older women.
In conclusion, we can see how everything presented in an advertisement can actually have an impact in the people. Although the company’s target was to sell their product, their way of transmitting the message to the people also fortifies the stereotype. Thus, the media today does abuse the power of stereotyping in order to gain a favorable reputation. Everything they present in the ad, from symbolism to the lifestyle of the characters, race, age and gender, has an effect on strengthening the stereotype. In this case, women are perceived as emotionally drained, weak and incapable, although now a days that characterization is trying to be broken because women are much more than that and can actually get to achieve greater things.
Nearly 3.7 million American babies born in 1982 were the first members of the new Generation Y, or more affectionately known as millenials (Thompson, par. 1). Many things play into whether a generation is considered to be faring ‘better’ than another one; job opportunities, the state of the environment, whether the U.S. is at peace or at war, income vs. living expenses, the general happiness of the people, and the list goes on. Millenials are part of a special generation because for decades, “The American Dream” has included the belief that the future generation will fare better than the present one; however, millenials are not projected to fare better than the present generation X for many reasons.
Aging Boomers and Silent Generation women are at a powerful crossroads in life. For so long, their lives were defined by taking care of others. Now that they have grown children who have their own children, they are confronted with designing their own next chapter and thoughtfully evaluating how they want to move forward. They want new adventures: big ones and great big little ones.
The baby boom generation, as described by Reich, will live longer than past generations due to the improvements in health sustaining drugs (Jacobus). This will create more opportunities in health care, but this baby boom generation will have mostly used all their money by that point in their lives. They will have to rely on social security. This generation will need others to help pay for their medical care which will fall upon the family members. This will result in more jobs for younger adults, but also more things to pay for. In-person services income mainly relies on whom they serve. Reich gives an example in his essay describing how a waitress in a small town may not make as much as a waitress surrounded by moguls and superstars. The income is based on the local economy and the perception of
It is estimated that 8.4 trillion dollars will be inherited by the baby boomers that will in turn be passed down to their children. There will also be more pharmaceutical companies investing in Alzheimer’s, other forms of dementia, heart issues, hearing, vision problems, and cancer. The cost of the funeral industry will increase as more and more baby boomers die creating an industry boom. The housing industry will be affected as more baby boomers down size to condos or retirement homes. This will positively affect the market in real estate (Leslie & Edleman 167). The changes in demographics of the baby boomers may affect the economy in a positive way depending on the
They were also married off, in both societies, to secure political alliances. (.yahoo) In North America, the portrayal of women in advertising is due to the history and continuous low status of women. Women are used as objects in more advertisements, especially alcohol and beer campaigns because obviously it gets the attention of the targeted audience. The evolution of women in advertising, has come a long way from the past where the traditional stereotype of women was exposed by the advertiser’s image of women in the 1950’s.
Across the United States, the number of ageing baby boomers is increasing significantly. The demographics indicate the need to improve the approaches placed to provide services and resources for this increasing population group. With forecast showing a significant annual increase of the ageing population, current strategies need to be changed and developed to cope with challenges that may arise in future.