Couples Can Be Cliché — Boomer Women (aka PrimeTime Women™)

Posted on | January 5, 2009 |

By Marti Barletta

Portray her as independent - couples can be cliché. Not all women 50+ have partners. Show her with a vibrant set of peers. Girlfriends will become increasingly important if she’s widowed, divorced or single. Women tend to outlive their husbands and remarry less frequently than men; friendships are key. Another group she’ll be spending more time with is her extended family. Since they are the beneficiaries of some her spending you many want to feature them as well.

Women 50+ account for 19% of the adult population and 15% of the total population. These figures should be enough to give marketers pause. But they’re only part of the story. Women will make up an ever-larger share of the surviving (and thriving) Baby Boom generation. It’s a demographic truism that as any population ages, it becomes more female. The reason is simple: On average, women live longer; their life expectancy is 7 years higher than that of men. So as Boomers grow older, women—PrimeTime Women™—will be the more prominent gender within this historically influential generation.

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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.