Executive Summary
Ironically, the generation that first created the teenager as a social concept is now in its 50s and 60s and the first generation of so-called 'rock chicks' and the first 1960s supermodels, including Jean Shrimpton and Twiggy, are all at or close to state retirement age. Furthermore, Madonna, at age 45, and Blondie's Debbie Harry have also now entered the scope of this report. However, when most marketers think of older women they do not see glamorous social rebels, they see frumpy middle-aged women or little old ladies.
It is this `baby boom' generation, the first to kick against the social mores laid down by their parents and grandparents, that is refusing to age in the same way as the generation that went before them. This generation is embracing age-defying treatments such as hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and cosmetic procedures that help them both feel and look younger.
Refusing to 'grow old gracefully', today's older woman is helping to fuel the growth in the cosmetics, diet and exercise markets. However, it is also this generation which left behind the legacy of youth worship seen today in the volumes of products and services aimed primarily at 16 to 35 year-olds, the advertising campaigns which demand ever-younger models and the rejection of women over the age of 45 as attractive or even employable by companies with agendas that insist on recruitment of the youngest and the brightest.
However, it is not all doom and gloom for the older woman. Those who have not yet reached pensionable age are more likely than their mothers and grandmothers to belong to some kind of pension scheme and are less likely to live in the same kind of poverty as many of today's older pensioners.
Key Note expects that there will be a rise in the pensions market driven by an increasing emphasis by the Government on the need to provide for one's retirement, as well as by the Government's planned rise in the state pension age for women. However, much work is needed to overturn the negative impact that the fall in the stock market in the early 2000s had on the pensions industry and to restore consumer confidence.
The younger end of the 45 to 70-plus age spectrum has more technical know-how than the older end and this technical proficiency will help them stay connected with the world around them and with their friends and families. Much of the isolation felt by women in their 70s and 80s today is as a result of their missing out on the technical revolution. It is only within the past 20 years that PCs have replaced electronic typewriters, and only within the past decade or so that e-mail has become available to anyone with an Internet connection, and the wireless revolution is still pushing boundaries of voice and picture communications.
This Key Note Market Assessment report of women over the age of 45 follows on from that published in 2000 and discusses the older woman in a broader social and global context.
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