Women Over 40: A marketing opportunity

Do you market to women over 40? If you don’t, you are not alone. They are an ignored group that is dramatically underserved by advertisers. 

If that surprises you, read an interesting article in the New York Times entitled “Readers Over 40 Lure Fewer Ads.” The piece was about a magazine, More, that is designed for women 40 and up. In fact its average reader is 51. It seems that “[t]he average More reader makes about $93,000 [per year], around $30,000 more than the average for Vogue, Allure or Harper’s Bazaar, according to Mediamark Research and Intelligence. But More has hardly a luxury ad in it.”

The article goes on to report that: “[T]he younger women’s magazines are filled with ads for designer clothes, fragrances and expensive accessories, the ads in More suggest that when rich women hit 40, they yearn for cheap processed foods. The July/August issue’s ads included Crystal Light, Pringles, Coffee-Mate, packaged meals from Oscar Mayer, Bertolli, Tyson and Marie Callender’s, and two liquor ads — for wines under $10. Oh, and Friskies.”

What an opportunity for a toy company. We know that grandparents control 70% of the nation’s wealth and we know that they make 25% of all toy purchases. Yet, how many toy manufacturers actually advertise to that wealthy group of consumers? Not many.  Maybe it’s time to advertise in magazines like More and, by doing so, market to women over 40, some of the biggest spenders and influencers in the country.