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...
... middle of paper ...
...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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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 ...
baby boom population, believed to be the healthiest and wealthiest cohort of older adults to
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
population of approximately 315,000,000 people. By 2050, 80 million baby boomers will potentially be on Medicare and Social Security. This will have a meaningful impact on the health care system and taxes owing for the retirees. The economy will be further positioned negatively as a result of fewer people working to support the staggering numbers of baby boomers. In 1935, Social security was implemented and the life expectancy at age 65 was 12.5 years. In 2012 this expectancy is now 19.15 years. Consequently, the compounded result of the baby boomers will cause many in congress to look for alterative ways to pay for the boomers rather then pass it onto the younger generations to foot the bill. Subsequently, the boomers will add 3% to the GDP every year after 2020, which may be circumvented through taxation increases. The end result will cause higher inflation or taxes or both that will overload an already broken economy (Mellor & Rehr
responsibilities and facing the prospect of growing old. Yet more than 70 percent consider themselves to be "young at heart." Their attachment to youth culture impacts the way boomers interact with products and services. Unlike previous generations, babyboomers are closing the generation gap, "tuning in" to their kids, listening to their kind of
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.
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.
Many marketers still do not understand the importance of gender marketing which has lead to loss of sale. The basic reason of this concept gaining importance is ‘the changing role of women’. A woman today is not just a homemaker.