Why Wellness Brands Keep Ignoring Women Over 50
willda design studio rethinking
brand strategy
The most overlooked customer in wellness might be the woman with the most time, money and curiosity for it.
My grandmother is in her eighties. She does her stretches, she’s particular about her skincare, she loves a good wellness ritual and not one bit of it is about antiaging. She does it because it’s fun, and because it makes her feel good. My mum’s the same. I get to watch both of them move through the world with more curiosity, and frankly more money to spend, than most people half their age.
And here’s the thing they’ll both tell you, in one way or another: almost none of it seems to be made for them.
That stuck with me. Because from a pure business point of view, it makes no sense at all.
Follow the money
Populations across Europe and North America are ageing. There are fewer young people than there used to be, and as a group they carry less wealth and more debt. Meanwhile, the audience with real disposable income is the one almost nobody’s positioning themselves for.
Here’s how lopsided it is: Forbes and AARP put women over 50 at more than $15 trillion in purchasing power, steering around 95% of household buying decisions and a 27% share of all consumer spending (more than the men their age). They’re the fastest-growing segment in beauty. Many are open to trying new brands, and happy to pay more for quality.
And what do they get back? By some estimates, less than 5% of advertising spend is aimed at them while more than 90% say they feel ignored or misunderstood by marketers. McKinsey has called ageism “the last accepted bias” in the business.
And when brands do talk to her, look at how
When a brand does turn to the older woman, the tone drops through the floor. It’s all about slowing the ageing, fixing the aches, correcting, reducing, “anti”-everything. Which is the exact opposite of why my grandmother is in that yoga class. She isn’t there to claw back her thirties. She’s there because it feels good to move her body. But the marketing communication assumes the only thing she could possibly want is to look younger.
She gets spoken to like a problem to be managed. Like the interesting part of her life is behind her, and her personality left with it. In reality she’s curious, funny, stylish, still becoming someone.
I don’t have this fully figured out yet but I know a gap when I see one
Let me be honest here: I don’t have a tidy, finished answer for exactly how you build this brand. I’m still watching, still learning from the women. What does it look like to make a wellness space that a sixty-year-old walks into and thinks "oh, this is for me"? I’m not sure anyone’s nailed it yet.
But I know a wide-open gap when I see one. An enormous, curious, well-resourced audience that keeps being told, in a hundred small ways, that these rooms aren’t for them. That’s a failure of imagination and a huge opportunity.
My point isn’t “go chase older women”
I’m not saying pivot your whole brand to women over 60. She might not be your audience at all.
The point is what she represents: a huge, powerful group overlooked because everyone defaulted to the same shiny, obvious, younger customer instead of choosing an audience on purpose.
At Willda, finding that audience is where every project starts. In our strategy sessions we work out who your brand is really for (the people with the most potential to become high value customers) then map how to speak to them, nurture them, and show up as a brand they feel instantly at home in.
Sometimes that’s the obvious customer. Often, it’s the one everyone else forgot to look at.
Not sure who your real audience is? That's exactly what we define together.