#Selfcare – The $10B industry Millennials made by accident
July 28, 2017
“I’m going to take a ‘me’ day”. As most employers and Boomer parents might of noticed, their Millennial interns and children have taken up the mantel of “self-health” with a fervour often reserved for Apple users and those charity canvassers we avoid eye contact with on street corners. In one day on Twitter, the self-care hashtag has been used, shared, and liked over 2 million times (Keyhole Stats). Corporations and celebrities alike have cashed in on the craze, creating their own #selfcare packages, tips and programs representing a $10 billion industry in the US alone. Millennials also put their money where their organic, gluten-free, no GMO mouths are and spend nearly twice as much as Boomers do on self-care products and services, $295/month vs. ($152/month) respectively.
Why so popular among our Millennial population? Well, in a recent study conducted by Abacus Data we found that 85% of Millennials check social media at least once a day. Of that, more than half check it frequently throughout the day. Additionally, Millennials are more ‘herd-driven’ than other generations. Millennials were 65% more likely than other generations to participate in an activity when their peers were also participating. Furthermore, Millennials feel obligated to share a portion of their lives with the world. Combining the time they spend online in their social networks alongside their compulsion to share, and considering how influential the opinions of their peers are, Millennials have created a self-fulfilling cycle where they see their peers sharing self-care icons, are influenced, then feel a need to share their self-care experience with their peer networks. This is of course underlined by a genuine desire to be healthy but it has also inadvertently ballooned to this $10 billion industry.
The Millennial fascination of ‘living a good life’ comes from a desire to live their lives differently than their parents, said Gracy Obuchowicz, a self-care mentor and coach from Washington, D.C., in an interview with NPR. They appreciate what their parents have done for them but “are not willing to go about life the same way”.
As comparing ourselves to our parents is a lifelong pursuit, you can count that this craze is not going away anytime soon.
Would you like to know more about Millennials as a consumer? Contact us to discover a full range of research and analytical services. Don’t for get to ask about our Millennial Audit, just one tool we use to make you competitive in the Millennial Marketplace.
