Commentary

Mirror, Mirror: Why Beauty Brands Are #1 Online

When we launched a website for Boomers in 2009, a surprising number of brands and agency people used to ask, “Are Boomers really using the Internet?” While the undeniable online activity of real people over 45 have silenced those concerns, a lot of other questions remain about how this online activity is related to their actual behavior as consumers.  

In a recent survey on our site, more than 700 respondents (almost all women aged 45-65) told us they are using the Internet just like younger consumers to evaluate all kinds of purchases. But beauty brands are doing a better job than anyone else at engaging them with online content and activity. 

Beauty Brands Do Better Online 

When we asked these women what types of brands they had visited in the previous month, beauty (and health) brands came in first. Seventy-eight percent of Boomer women said they had visited a beauty or health website in the last 30 days. In comparison, 54% visited websites for household product brands, and 44% had visited website for food/beverage brands.  

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The same result held true for social media. When we asked what companies/brands that women follow on Facebook and Twitter, 28% named health/beauty brands.  Only 19% named household product brands, and 16% named food/beverage brands.

Why Beauty Brands Get More “Likes”

Why are health and beauty brands doing such a better job than anyone else engaging women online?  Why are they capturing more than 50% more “follows,” “likes,” and website visits than other kinds of brands?

I’ve written before here about what makes cosmetics and beauty products different for women over 45. In a survey we conducted last year, women told us that their beauty needs change more dramatically in midlife than at any other stage. They are actively seeking new solutions and new information. What motivates them to try new beauty products is not imagery but (in order of reliance) scientific data on the efficacy of products and detailed consumer information. This is exactly the kind of information you can get online, and the kind of information that websites and social media serve well.  

Even a brand that does this job better than others – Olay Regenerist – could do even better, and no leading beauty brand in this space uses the unlimited space of its websites to serve this advantage. Many fail to use it at all.

This year’s survey confirms that most women will research beauty products online before buying them; they are also more likely to do so for beauty products than any other purchase. Sixty-three percent of respondents told us that they will research beauty products online before purchasing them; only medical products, home/garden products and fashion came close to the same results.

If you are marketing beauty products to women 45+ and aren’t investing fully in the Internet and social media, you are making a big mistake. These women will consume all the information you can provide, and can almost be guaranteed to engage with your brand via social media (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc.) if you are there.

And if you aren’t a beauty brand? In order to match the visits and general stickiness that beauty brands generate with women 45+, you should follow their lead: Offer as much information about your products as possible. Make your social media presence informative and value-added. Like their daughters, these women don’t have time to waste, but will invest time in online research and engagement if you give them the content to support it.

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