Boomer Women (aka PrimeTime Women™) 101

Posted on | October 27, 2008 |

by Marti Barletta

Women 50+ represent a market force to be reckoned with.  I refer to them as PrimeTime Women™ for a couple of reasons.  Why?  They are in their prime — this is the healthiest, wealthiest, most influential generation of women in history. Terms like mature (overripe), middle-aged (frumpy) and senior (out to pasture) just don’t convey their vitality and potential.

These women should be the primary marketing target for a host of industries including travel, autos, real estate, finance services, technology and home improvement. Yet they are all too often ignored by marketers who retain an outdated obsession with youth.  When the audience at was polled at a marketing conference held just this week only two (out of over 200!) attendees said that they were addressing the 50+ market.  It’s a bit short sighted when you put two and two together and see that Boomers (the marketers pig in a python) are now PrimeTimers.

Boomer women are a different breed from previous generations of older women. They have been wage earners and have had a far-greater-than-equal share in household consumer decision-making. As confident breadwinners and “chief purchasing officers” both in the home and in the workplace, they enter their prime years with a degree of market clout that previously belonged almost exclusively to older men.  Boomer women are the first female cohort in history to have these characteristics.

Do you need to marketing to them differently?  You betcha!

Marti Barletta is the Founder of think tank The TrendSight Group -  helping organizations get smart about marketing to women.  Marti is the author of Marketing to Women, co-author of Trends with Tom Peters.  Marti’s new book, PrimeTime Women™: How to Win the Hearts, Minds and Business of Boomer Big Spenders, breaks the story on the unprecedented buying power of women in their prime (ages 50-70) and why this “silver bullet” segment is the prime source of business growth for the next two decades.

Comments