In an interesting article posted last week on Women’s Wear Daily, we learn how the beauty industry is changing the way they advertise to older women and how brands are now focused on reaching an unattended audience— Gen X women consumers.
Read our summary below and be sure to add to the comments section below to start a discussion!
Historically, beauty brands have focused their attention and products specifically toward Millennials and Boomers. Not until recently has this market changed to include women of Generation X.
It’s no doubt that as women age, different products are needed for different reasons. Some companies are addressing these issues by focusing on these needs rather than highlighting the age group. For instance, 10 years ago you may see a beauty commercial of an older woman with her age group (50s, 60s) highlighted on the screen. Now age is just a number, more and more companies focus on what their product will do for us, regardless of age.
“Nobody is talking to these women,” said Gonzalez, found of beauty brand Better Not Younger.
Gonzalez shares her story starting a beauty company for the older group of women.
When she started, she couldn’t find any models over the age of 45 so she used her two friends instead. For her beauty campaign, Gonzalez did not use any photoshopping or touch ups and instead chose to focus on celebrating and empowering age, not erasing it.
“[Women] respond very positively to our advertising,” she said. ”They don’t want us to beat around the bush. Whenever the ad or the communication says ‘hair care for mature hair’ or ‘for women over 45,’ they get it and click on it. Our highest click-through rates are the ones that directly say what we are.”
Another brand focusing on Gen X women is Trinny Woodall, the British TV personality who launched her upscale Trinny London color cosmetics collection in October 2017.
Trinny uses social media and genuine reviews to promote her product line. She has women try out her product and post real photos of themselves on her social media pages. This helps build a community around honest, genuine products and reviews.
Another force that drives Trinny’s products? Youtube.
On YouTube, the brand’s average watch time is 14 minutes. The channel hosts videos ranging from reviews, tutorials, shopping trips, makeup buys, choosing your fragrance, the list goes on. Trinny says, “I believe it’s all in the content, telling a story. It is so little in photography.”
A few other beauty brands adding to the mix, Clarins who dropped a new skincare line with the face of 57 year old fencing champion, Claudia Maria Ferreira da Costa. Also Greek-based skincare brand, Korres created a new science-backed skincare line for women going through menopause. Through a number of focus groups, Korres identified that community was a number one importance within this age group of women. With these findings, Korres created a social media community where people can come together to share information on what they’re experiencing and discuss what works for them.
So much is changing in the women consumer product industry and how we advertise to these women. Do you think this way of advertising and these products are effective?
Would you say your consumer product business is geared toward this age group as well? How can you create a strong message and story to include the right demographic of women?
Please let us know your comments and start a discussion below!