Midlife Marketing

5 minute read

I saw an ad this week that stopped me in my tracks. I’m as cynical as you get and know when I’m being targeted, or my heartstrings are being deliberately pulled on, but this hit different and I haven’t stopped thinking about it.

It was a car ad. Not something I would usually pay much heed to and one from New Zealand, so not really for my eyes. It featured a woman. Not a woman with a man, or a young woman with a papa or a woman with kids in the back. Just a woman. On her own.

Shocking that this should be a thing but it’s not even the most startling bit. She was probably 50ish, with grey hair. But she wasn’t a granny either. You could tell from her clothes that she was successful, just back from a day at work and she was stylish, and attractive.

The ad went on a journey with her and through it she was vibrant and sexy and fun and alive and driving a nice car and spending her own money. You know, like we do all the time, but never see in advertising.

I can’t stop thinking about a car ad that featured a woman. I was moved by it. That’s how little women in their midlife are marketed to.

Academics have found growing evidence that adult happiness is U-shaped. You’re at your happiest at 18 and again at 80 and in between you’re either on the way down the curve or climbing back up it. During your mid to late 30s and into your 40s you’re sliding towards the base of that U and as your 40s turn to 50 you’re reaching upwards again.

There are a number of reasons for this; work, debt, family life, and expectations, and this is seen mostly in Western countries.

But I can’t help wondering if hitting the bottom of the U curve in your late 40s has to do with messaging. Life is over, you’re past it, you’re just too old to have new dreams and ambitions. It’s a very Western way of looking at life and one that seems obviously demoralising.

Fashion is targeted at the young – even though they may not have the money to spend on it. New cars are for men in their 30s, even though we know that they are often crippled by the need to save for a mortgage or pay extortionate rent and older consumers buy far more cars than younger ones anyway. Holidays, unless they’re Scandinavian barge cruises, are marketed to the young and vibrant.

Why wouldn’t we be depressed in our 40s. We’re being told that life is over, just as we felt we were getting started.

But the marketing industry has cottoned onto this, albeit pretty slowly, and are coming around to the fact that they have been actively ignoring an entire demographic with cash to spend.

Consumers are fighting back too. A UK study conducted by Gransnet and Mumsnet showed that 78% of those aged 50 or over felt under-represented or misrepresented by advertising, with 49% saying they actively avoid brands who ignore them. Plus 69% suggest they would be more receptive to brands if their advertising represented over-50s more accurately.

Brands that are ignoring the midlife demographic or are targeting them incorrectly are actively irritating their consumers. Age is now too blunt an instrument for targeting and deciding to sell walk-in baths to everyone over 50 on social media feels like outdated marketing from the last century.

Pissing off that demographic is a stupid move given that they have far greater spending power than younger consumers.

The times they have a changed and because salaries, rent, mortgages and opportunities are sadly harder for those in their 30s, brands should now be obsessively marketing to those in their 40s and 50s with money to spend.

Tides are turning and I recently received two press releases targeted specifically at women in their midlife. The first was for a face cream that would help with peri-menopausal and menopausal skin and the second was for a holiday company for luxury travel with photos of people clearly over 40 and yet managing to have a nice time!

I’m happy to see a change, I’m happy to be marketed to. Aggressively come for my money if you’re going to use models that are obviously in the prime of their lives and not wearing a comfortable shoe. Show me that you think I still have a life worth living and I’ll give you all my money. I want sexy, fun beach holidays, I want beautiful clothes, I want a perfume ad featuring a 50-year-old woman who’s buying her own fragrance, I want a champagne brand to show six 48-year-old women popping corks and having the time of their lives.

And most of all, because of that New Zealand car ad, I want a Hyundai Kona Series II. I also want to live there, because now I know they have excellent marketers AND Jacinda Ardern, which doesn’t seem fair.

Jennifer Stevens, September 2021