I need your help today with the Midlifechic reader survey 2020. You see next week I’m going down to London for my annual retailer meetings where I sit down and update them on what it’s like to be a midlifer in 2020. Our survey results have become quite highly regarded and I’m now asked in advance if I’ll be bringing them along.

Since I started blogging in 2014, I’ve seen a big change in the way that brands and retailers view us as a demographic. In one of my first ever retail collaborations I was asked not to use over40 hashtags on a sponsored Instagram post because ‘it was rather offputting.’ That wouldn’t happen now and we’re increasingly seeing mainstream brands such as Boden, Whistles and M&S using older women with ageing faces and bodies in their collateral. I believe that voices like ours (and the potential spend behind those voices) are making a difference. However there’s still some way to go so we need to keep the pressure up. Ageing is one of the last remaining socially acceptable prejudices and we have to stamp it out.

So this time, in addition to feedback about how it feels to be a midlifer in 2020, I’m looking for insight into your thoughts about retailers and sustainability. Please answer honestly, this is completely anonymous so don’t give the answers that you think you should (something we all have a tendency to do with surveys), I need to have accurate information.

As it will be Midlifechic’s sixth birthday next week I’m also asking a few questions about the blog and your answers will help me to take it through the year to come. It’s quite hard at times to come up with new things to talk about so you’ll help me to direct my energy in the right way if you answer as fully as you can. I promise that I read every single response you give however long it is and compile all kinds of notes and charts from what you tell me. Oddly as someone who isn’t keen on maths, I can spend hours analysing statistics.

So that’s what I do with your answers. I collate the data and use it to help me decide which direction to take with Midlifechic – what to write about and what to leave out. I also use it when I’m working with retailers. It helps me to bring our sometimes overlooked segment of proactive, intelligent midlife women to life, especially when I’m working with younger marketers.

As this has a lot of questions about UK retail I’m going to ask readers from other countries to abstain this time. I’ll be doing a global survey on attitudes soon so please wait for that one. Surveys like this are expensive to run so I’ve had to cap the response numbers at 3,000 and I’m sorry if you don’t have a chance to answer but I need to work quickly to have it all ready for next week.

As I’ve said, your answers are completely anonymous, I have no way of knowing who said what unless you decide to say who you are in the final piece of open feedback. It shouldn’t take more than four minutes to complete and I promise that I think about carefully about every single response. Thank you for helping me by taking part – between us we’re helping to change the face of British retail.

Open the Midlifechic Reader Survey 2020 here

please only take part if you are based in the UK

Disclosure: Midlifechic reader survey 2020 is not a sponsored post. No part of the survey has been commissioned by a specific retailer. All responses are anonymous.

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