I was doing some research and I came across an article from Marketing Professionals by a specialist in marketing to older women.

She had previously done some research, talking to women in their 40s, 50s and 60s, examining how to market to these age groups. In this article, she looks at the success behind the Real Beauty campaign from Dove.

She argues that older women aren't interested in looking younger or looking like supermodels and are, in general, okay with their appearance. How she interprets women's reaction to the campaign is:

"... women's explosive reaction to The Campaign for Real Beauty feels more like "Finally! Someone understands!" than "Really? You think I'm pretty? Honest?""

Two reasons this caught my attention.

The first is the obvious one; Dove has put together a successful marketing campaign that has a different feel and a different message, targets older women and is presumably successful (it's certainly getting a lot of attention). Examining a campaign like that will always be worthwhile for a marketer.

The second reason, though, is that the article on Marketing Professionals is all about interpretation. The follow up campaign for "Finally! Someone understands!" would look very different from "Really? You think I'm pretty? Honest?"

Interpretation of campaign results determines what is tested in the future. Asking the right questions when interpreting data may be what sets apart good marketers from great ones.