A Changing World of the Female Target Audience

Women 35-54 Earn More, Save More, and Shop More than Younger Women

Women 35 to 54 earn more, save more, shop more, and outnumber their 18-34 year old counterparts, 27.9 million to 21.4 million in the 87 markets surveyed by The Media Audit.

"Advertisers are beginning to discover the enormous market value of women 35 to 54," says Bob Jordan president of International Demographics, Inc., a market research firm that produces The Media Audit. In the 87 metropolitan markets surveyed by The Media Audit, the total adult population is 137.4 million. Only adults (age 18 +) are included in the survey.

Income & Wealth Differences
When the 87 markets are considered collectively, 63.9 percent of women 18-34 have annual incomes of $35,000 or more. That compares with 78.5 percent among those women 35-54. Forty-percent of the younger set and 51.9 percent of the older set have annual household incomes of $50,000 or more. Twenty-one percent of the 18-34 year olds have household incomes of $75,000 or more, compared to 31.9 percent among the 35-54 age group. When incomes reach $100,000, the older group surpasses the younger group, 18.2 percent to 9.9 percent. And beyond $150,000 the older group is 7.1 percent compared to 3.3 percent.

The 35-54 years olds have also been more successful at acquiring wealth. More than 20 percent of the older group has liquid assets of $100,000 or more while just 8.9 percent of the younger group has reached that plateau. With liquid assets of $250,000 or more, the older group leads the younger group 7.1 to 1.9.

Boomers Fueling Growth
The 35-54 year-old group is being fueled by the 76 million baby boomers that were born between 1946 and 1964 (NYT-10/28/05). Today, the youngest boomers would be 42 and the oldest 60 and it's reasonable to assume that half of them are women. "Collectively," says Jordan, "the baby boomers had unprecedented access to affluence and education and many of them took advantage of those opportunities. As a result they raise the level of education and affluence of every age group they move through."

Slightly more than 41 percent of the 35-54 year olds have two-income households compared to 23.5 percent of the younger group.

Even shopping the 35-54 year olds surpass their younger sisters. With the Internet, 15.1 percent of the 18-34 year olds made 12 or more purchases during the past year. Eighteen percent of the older group did the same. Fifty-five percent of the 35-54 year olds purchased men's clothing during the past 4 weeks compared to 51.3 percent of the younger group.  "In some shopping categories," says Jordan, "the older group represents a much stronger market for advertisers. More than 59 percent of the older group reported shopping in a hardware/lumber/building supply store during the previous 4 weeks. That compares to 37.3 percent among the younger women."                                                  

“Article Truncated” (Source: The Media Audit, 1/24/06)