Beauty Industry

The 40 Year Old Woman

She’s the customer you need to win over (sooner rather than later).

September 30, 2010

Editor-in-Chief

At What Women Want: The Consumer At Every Age,” a conference held on the closing day of HBA Global, Alisa Marie Beyer, founder and creative director of The Benchmarkting Company, zeroed in on a key customer in the beauty business: the woman in her 40s.

Calling the 40-ish woman “the best opportunity in the room,” Beyer discussed her unique needs—and why marketers need to build brand loyalty sooner rather than later.

“Women are obsessed with finding the fountain of youth and not aging as long as possible,” Beyer said. “Growing old gracefully is out. She wants youth on demand. She is literally out there trying to figure out how she can stop the clock. It is on her mind on a daily basis.”

And while that seems to be a no-brainer in 2010, this wasn’t always the case. Said Beyer, older generations of women did not have the “plethora” of tools available today to fight that battle—from Botox and plastic surgery to topical anti-aging skin care products and in-office procedures performed by dermatologists.

Still, while anti-aging is a hot category, Beyer reminded the audience that the marketplace has been sluggish of late. Acknowledging that some of it has to do with the general state of the economy, Beyer told the audience, “We are not growing as an industry….and it is because we are not innovating.”

According to Beyer, growth opportunities exist for companies that can move skin care away from generalized systems to more specific treatments. “More advanced topicals that have very specific functional benefits will be big blockbusters,” she said.

In addition, Beyer also told the audience that when it comes to skin care, it is critical to capture the consumer’s attention early. The older a consumer gets, the less likely she is to try something new, according to Beyer.

“You can barely get her to change products and the places she shops when she is in her 50s. That is why you want to capture her in 40s,” Beyer noted.