Olay brand seizes the opportunity provided by ageless beauty

Marketers at the company say a survey they recently carried out amongst Olay brand consumers confirms the general trend towards less of an emphasis on the chronological aging process and more stress on the ageless beauty concept.

The headline in the accompanying press statement concerning the survey results gives an indication of just how seriously the company is taking the data:  “Olay Commits to Ushering in Ageless Era”.

New advertising campaign​

This underlines a new advertising campaign for the brand that stresses the concept, while also stressing the scientific advances incorporated into Olay skin care formulations.

The Olay marketing team says that the global survey included 6,800 women in 11 countries and was designed to discover women’s attitudes to aging and whether or not they are flying in the face of conventional ‘age appropriate’ rules.

Here are the principle three findings from the survey results:

• The majority of US respondents (66%) report that over the last five to ten years, women look better than ever, and it’s difficult to tell a woman’s true age
• Three-quarters of US women believe that a combination of genetics and lifestyle influences the way their skin ages most
• Another three quarters agree that physical appearance is more likely to give away a woman’s age than the way she behaves, and the majority of women surveyed indicated that the best compliment they could receive is “I would have never guessed your age”

P&G says that it has also drawn from the OlayMulti-decade and Ethnicity study, which assessed the expression of 20,000 unique genes from more than 300 countries in four ethnicities, across six decades of life.

This study revealed that in each decade there are 'aging tipping points', while also identifying a group of women known as ‘exceptional skin agers’, with biological and lifestyle patterns that leave them with skin that makes them look much younger.

“Discoveries like this put Olay in the best position to fuel the new ageless era,” ​said Alex Keith, President of Global Skin & Personal Care at Procter & Gamble. “Our experts know skin better than anyone else and we know how to formulate the most effective ingredients into skincare products that deliver real, visible results.”​

What the market researchers have to say:​

Market research company LS:N has been stressing the ageless beauty concept by highlighting the fact that it is the baby boomer generation, those born between 1946 and 1964, that are the ones calling the shots, thanks to unprecedented spending power and the fact that this generation is also socially liberated.

This group is currently accountable for the biggest demographic shift in developed markets, and this is even more pronounced in the 60+ age group.

Getting the strategy right ​

So what’s the best strategy for targeting this increasingly important demography? LS:N believes that these are a few of the most important points:

• Get savvy with older consumers as youth is not the only growth opportunity
• Focus on being less generational – flat agers
• Be fun and focus on individuality
• Be empathetic and social
• Feature people aged 60+ in marketing campaigns