Mereja

Author: Morra Aarons-Mele

  • Yes, Marketers, There Is Life After Mommyblogging

    “We buy stuff too.” That’s the rallying cry I’ve heard from widely read female bloggers over age 49, who are frustrated that a well-established cadre of younger women with young children — known as “mommybloggers” — garner extensive promotional contracts with major brand advertisers, while Boomer-aged women online are often ignored.

    What marketers seem to be missing is that Boomer women are actually outspending younger generations online — and not on the products that might come to mind when you picture the 50+ set. Boomers averaged $650 spent online vs. Gen X at $581 and Gen Y at $429, according to Forrester Research. They are buying beauty products, electronics, experiences, vacations, and health products.

    To make sense of the confluence of disposable income and increasing online time among this generation and what it means for marketers, I’ve drawn on my own experience and the rise of the mommyblogger.

    I began working in digital marketing to women when I was 22. Back then we had message boards to share the woes and joys of life, not Facebook or blogs. Along the way, I’ve marketed everything from makeup to presidential candidates, but the bulk of my work has concentrated on reaching mothers of young children, that sweet demographic of women 25-45 with kids at home and lots and lots of consumer goods to purchase. In 2008, Bryan McCleary, director of external relations for P&G, endorsed a mom-centric marketing worldview when he said, “It’s official: Mom bloggers are the new influencers.” In 2013, the world of “influencer marketing” is a crucial element of the marketing mix. Increasingly, we don’t make purchasing decisions based on impersonal Consumer Reports or television commercials; we turn instead to our trusted web of friends and confidants online for their knowledge and experiences.

    Marketers seem to have missed — or ignored — the arrival of Boomers online. Perhaps their entree into the digital world was quieter and more gradual than their younger counterparts. Perhaps this generation is different than any other generation we’ve seen come of age, in terms of their disposable income and longer life expectancy. They just don’t fit into the traditional marketing bucket reserved for 50-65 year olds — they are more active, more vibrant, and healthier, than any generation that has come before. Perhaps there’s just not a convenient way to talk about this demographic — “mommyblogger” is a convenient brand identity that immediately helps people understand what they do and who they are. While some bloggers in the older demographic use “Boomer” and some use “midlife,” neither term is quite comfortable. Chloe Jeffreys of GenerationFabulous.com says that midlife bloggers don’t particularly care for the term “midlife”: “I fought until I was 51 and then I realized I’m probably not going to live past 102!” Though these women might not know quite sure how to label themselves and their experiences, their might online is not lessened, and marketers need to understand that.

    “The ad model hasn’t shifted from targeting 18-49 year olds, but the next time you walk into an Apple store, take a look at who’s there,” says Anne Marie Kovacs of the BoomBox Network. Chances are, it’s men and women over 45. Apart from the fact that those between the ages of 50 and 65 spend twice the amount of money on healthcare than the 18 to 25 year-old set and three times as much money on housing, 50 to 65 year-olds also spend an amazing 78% more money on shopping. Simply put, marketers should follow the money.

    What do these women want marketers to know? They want marketers to better help women age well; it’s about looks, finance, dreams, work, parents, and kids.

    I’ve heard from many of these bloggers that the elder caregiving explosion is a popular marketing message to boomers online, often as proxies for their elderly parents, who are not net savvy. Informal, unpaid caregivers contributed $450 billion in help to older adults — and two out of three say caregiving has impacted their work. There is obviously a huge market opportunity to provide a variety of services to these caregivers. AARP reports “42 percent of U.S. workers have provided care for an aging relative or friend in the past five years. About half (49 percent) of the workforce expects to be providing eldercare in the coming five years.” Most of these caregivers are midlife women.

    Caregiving is a huge impact on midlife women, but it’s just one element of a whole life. Just as mommybloggers write about everything on their blogs, midlife bloggers aren’t beholden to only talking about the sandwich generation.

    Think about beauty and fashion. One of my favorite new blogs, Une Femme De Certain Age, highlights great fashion and looks for the second half of your life: in her eyes, a footloose life spent traveling and exploring. Barbara Grufferman writes The Best of Everything After 50, talking to Boomer women about health, style, finance, sex, and design. Sound like other blogs you’ve read authored by women in their 20s and 30s?

    Then there’s food. On her blog, A Boomer’s Life After 50, Judi Freedman covers everything from heart health to cooking, to dealing with raising adult children and the recent loss of her mom. Hers is an authoritative voice, one well worth the attention of a brand marketer.

    Work, personal finance and entrepreneurship is a huge focus. Darryle Pollack, 63, a former TV journalist turned blogger is launching The WHOA network, a video network that helps women honor their age, says, “at this point in life it’s almost shocking to realize how much energy and drive I have. All the women I know: even if they haven’t worked before, they’re working now, and they’re using digital media to find that path. Traditionally, women who are past childbearing age sort of faded into the woodwork and that is SO not happening now.”

    All women who use social media to connect want the same thing: a community of friends where they can talk openly about their opinions, hopes, and dreams as those things apply to them. And they want to be recognized for the value they bring to these conversations.

    From my vantage point as a Gen Xer, I’m thrilled at the increasing breadth of women’s voices online. Even the original cadre of “mommybloggers” have reached an age where their kids are older, and their lives and blog content are expanding too. Gen Xers may just find themselves in a similar position as they approach 50.

    The fullness of a woman’s life demands a 360-degree view from marketers; her interests cannot be contained to a narrow lens or a defined age group.

  • Compromise Is Not a Dirty Word

    You’re successful, ambitious, and full of big plans. You’re on a quest for greatness. But could dreaming smaller help you reach your goals?

    My friend Whitney Johnson’s popular pieces on these pages encourage us to dream, to disrupt our thinking, to dare to do great things. But what I take from Whitney’s writing is truly a practical nudge: “Inside of the something you can’t have, there is often the makings of something you can achieve.”

    Necessity really is the mother of invention; like many, I took an involuntary course in compromise at work when I found myself with two toddlers, a husband with three jobs, and a small business that would not, no matter how hard I wished it, grow magically by itself. Over the past couple years I’ve observed several brilliant women and men manage both life’s demands and the big dreams they have as entrepreneurs or corporate players. You know, the kind of people who are very successful but still manage to meet the school bus most days (yes, they do exist). I’ve been inspired by people who consciously live what they call a “Third Path,” where men and women prioritize work and home time equally, even if that means both mom and dad work four days a week. These leaders have figured out to maximize their time, their social networks, and their skills, but they may not do it from 9 to 6. They have found what Cali Yost calls their “work-life fit,” often because they simply had no other choice.

    You think compromise is a negative word, but life demands adaptation: a toddler needs you at home, or you’re in grad school while working full time, or you have a sick parent, or you need to keep your day job even though you don’t like it. Compromise connotes less than the best, and indeed when you’re compromising you may not be achieving your full potential. But you will get things done, and in doing so you will learn skills and tactics that prepare you for success.

    Compromise, like negotiation, is an art, and an important one. It’s not something they often teach in business school, and it’s never going to be on the cover of Forbes. Instead we read of great leaders’ relentless drive for perfection. Never stop; never settle.

    I’m very lucky, because I truly have my dream job. I’m very proud of what I’ve built, but I recognize that I built it out of compromise. A freelance project as a digital consultant turned into my life’s work mobilizing women online. Once the work started to gain traction, I dreamed of making it big, of creating an empire in women’s new media. Still, mine is a small business, and it probably will remain so — because I make many trade offs in order to run it. That’s not to say we don’t have an impact, but small isn’t sexy in the entrepreneurial world. Women in fact are often dismissed as entrepreneurs because our businesses are “small”: from banks and credit card companies who won’t extend credit to women-owned businesses to those who exhort us to think bigger so we can get more venture capital, you’ll hear time and time again that while women start small businesses at a very high rate, these businesses remain small. As if that’s always a bad thing.

    In year three of my company, I’ve accepted there is simply no way for me to be the hands-on mother I want to be, and to build a company that scales quickly. What I can say is that I’m fortunate enough to be able to pay the bills, work with incredible clients and grow the company — slowly. I do miss high-level meetings and important industry networking events, and sometimes, clients need me and I can’t be there. I also miss my children’s milestones. But the truth is, I don’t miss either that often. My mentors have taught me to judge keenly which events are worth the price of childcare, so to speak. I can only travel in limited doses, so I’ve learned how to plan my trips to exact the most value from my time. I’ve learned from my friend Christine the “no fester” rule: don’t churn your time with unnecessary meetings or emails, and minimize drama, because drama is very time consuming.

    The bloggers and social media influencers I work with have shown that you can carry great influence and credibility no matter where you are. Friends at big companies like Deloitte and IBM work from home full time, and while they may not make partner this year, they are still on the track, if that’s what they want. It will take longer to achieve. Sheryl Sandberg famously said, “If you’re offered a seat on a rocket ship, don’t ask what seat. Just get on.” But it’s also possible to cruise for a while until you’re ready to accelerate.

    I’m not glossing over the issues. Highly skilled women have a net eight percent reduction in pay during the first five years after giving birth. Women who step back from promotion in their thirties and forties may sacrifice the leaps in pay and status they’ve worked so hard to achieve. But by making certain trade-offs, you can stay in the game, and if you’re in the game it’s a lot easier to win it — eventually.

    And yet we live in such an extreme culture. Arguments about feminism portray a world of binary choices, where working mothers either work overtime or quit to stay home full time- when many choose to work somewhere in between. Our very image of an entrepreneur is someone who works 24-7. 71% of workers — of both genders — report feeling disengaged from their jobs and 60% of full-time working mothers would prefer to be part time. Most dreamers who take the small business leap compromise financial security and a big paycheck; the average small business owner takes home $34,392 to $75,076 a year in her first ten years in business.

    Compromise has its limits, and we all have our own set of “non-negotiables.” Consider my friend Naama’s story: “About 3 years ago my husband and I jointly decided that he was going to start a tech business and I would be responsible for keeping the lights on, the family intact, and our benefits.” Naama is now about to launch her business as well, despite making big sacrifices. She says, “I have come to realize that there are things you should and shouldn’t compromise. For me, staying in a big corporate job just because it was responsible was more than I could deal with and I realized I’d rather compromise on savings, exercise and a social life.”

    Spending more time with my kids right now is worth the corresponding diminution of my dream to become a media mogul. That’s my choice.

    The rigor lies in creating a compromised vision of your dream, knowing that compromise is often necessary to accommodate competing needs in life. But it’s OK to sometimes make your dreams and your career a little smaller in order to have the whole, long life you want and need.

    And my business may be small now, but in ten years, maybe it won’t be.