dispatches from the new world of work

Cool Friend: Brown

Mary Brown and Carol Orsborn are the coauthors of BOOM: Marketing to the Ultimate Power Consumer—the Baby Boomer Woman. At tompeters.com, we are glad to add Mary Brown to our list of Cool Friends. She spoke with us about the book, and about her work with J. Walter Thompson's BOOM: The 40+ Authority and Imago Creative, a marketing firm that she founded, the only one in the U.S. specializing in marketing to Boomer women. You can read her Cool Friends interview here.

Though she did not take part in the interview, we'd like to also introduce Carol Orsborn. She is known for her work addressing the concerns of the Baby Boom generation, and she is Senior Vice President and co-chair of Fleishman-Hillard's FH Boom. Carol also operates an online life mastery resource center for women: www.TheSilverPearl.com.

Cathy Mosca posted this on 01/30/07.

Comments

Carol, Mary and Mary Furlong have all been researching, writing and speaking about how to attract, delight and serve us boomers - great reinforcement, when people of this calibre are paying attention to this large and lucrative market. It is interesting to watching which companies are actually trying to cater to us.

Posted by Kare Anderson at January 31, 2007 10:50 AM

Although I enjoyed the interview, I found the lack of juicy new information or "facts" surprising. (Most marketers know about the right hand rings, etc.) I was looking for one new tidbit that I could justify buying the book for.

I'm certain that book is crammed full of them. Disappointed that she didn't give us a teaser.

Posted by K at February 3, 2007 3:56 PM

I had an experience recently that made me want to mail a copy of BOOM! to the CEO. Bare Escentuals has been in business since 1976. I started buying soaps, bath gel, lotions, etc. at their original store -- an old building in Los Gatos, CA -- in about 1979, and always liked their products. Over the years they expanded, moved their corporate offices to San Francisco, and modified their product line a number of times.

I hadn't been in their stores for a couple of years (long, tedious story connected with family health). Recently I went back, and was shocked to discover that most of the products I liked best were no longer in evidence. When I wrote to the corporate offices, they said that they'd decided that -- because their natural makeup line has been so successful -- they were going to phase out the non-best-sellers. So they now have a very limited line of bath and body products, and they're focusing on makeup and "anti-aging" skin care.

Now, I realize that the Long Tail doesn't work with products that have high production costs and a relatively short shelf life. But the current product line seems designed to appeal to either (1) young women who habitually wear makeup and fragrance, or (2) women in their 40's who are starting to worry about wrinkles -- not to 60-plus-year-olds like myself who don't mind showing our age, but still enjoy sensual products.

I think that Bare Escentuals is making a big mistake by focusing on a younger demographic. They've lost one faithful 30-year customer (me) who used to spend a lot of money in their stores, and I suspect that I'm not the only one.

Posted by Paula at February 5, 2007 5:39 PM