Bringing mind, body and spirit together
Published: Saturday, September 01, 2001
Each market research group, trade organization and website, it seems, defines the Personal Development category differently. In creating a LOHAS Personal Development category, we too have established our own parameters of what we believe should be included.
First and foremost are industries that best fit with the Cultural Creative profile—the core LOHAS consumer group. Parts of the $64 billion sports and recreation market, for example, play harmoniously with the Cultural Creative profile—while others, such as team-sports uniforms for students, hardly can be claimed as Cultural Creative expenditures. Similarly, the $36 billion weight-loss industry is excluded from our dollar totals.
The total figure for this category in 2001 is three-fold more than what was reported in 1999, but this dramatic increase is not simply due to additional volume of sales but rather to a deeper understanding of the overall LOHAS marketplace. As the LOHAS concept matures, the segments that comprise the market are honed, defined and broadened. For example, in 1999 a token $1 figure was given for the Personal Development category “Equipment, Tools and Clothing,” because, while the category needed to be included, Natural Business Communications was unsure what portion of this tremendous market would be pertinent to the LOHAS consumer. Today, we believe that of the $61.2 billion total sports and recreation market, $10 billion can be allotted for the LOHAS category. That figure is 24 percent of the total, reflecting the percentage of Cultural Creatives in the overall U.S. population.
Redefining the Category
The LOHAS marketplace is a work in progress. As such, we continue to uncover industries spawned by the demand for products that speak to holistic living. For example, “angel” retail stores are a relatively new market phenomenon that inventory angel-related products such as books, statues, divination tools and gifts. This market alone is estimated at $2 billion nationwide. Ongoing research has led to a redefining of the LOHAS Personal Development segment, which is now divided into three major divisions: Mind, Body and Spirit. The new divisions and dollar totals for each will be further analyzed and segmented in the upcoming “Natural Business LOHAS Report 2001: A Study of the Market for 'Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability,'” due for release in early 2002.
For the 2001 report, the LOHAS Personal Development segment is newly categorized as follows:
Connection Between Categories
The key to the LOHAS Personal Development category is the connection between its three subcategories. One important trait of the LOHAS consumer is the perception that the three elements of mind, body and spirit must be in balance in order to have a healthy life. A glance at USA Today's best-selling books list tells an interesting story. No. 1 on the list during the week of July 1 was The Prayer of Jabez: Breaking Through to the Blessed Life by Bruce Wilkinson (Multnomah Publishers). The controversial book instructs readers in prayer that will enable them to obtain the abundance they desire, whether it be a new car or a greater understanding. Thirteen of the top 150 titles—the majority of the nonfiction on the list—are guides to finding greater happiness. According to Publishers Weekly, 10 of the 15 top-selling books for 2000 are inspirational books dedicated to the topic of finding greater happiness and fulfillment.
According to a report by the Education Statistics Service Institute of the U.S. Department of Education, of the six types of adult educational activities—English as a second language, adult basic education, credential programs, aprenticeship programs, work-related courses and personal development courses—respondents were by far most likely to participate in personal development and work-related courses. The report describes personal development courses as educational activities that have an instructor and are not included in the other categories described above. Examples include courses related to health, hobbies or sport lessons, foreign languages, dance or music, and Bible study.
If dollar figures are any indication, improving oneself to find greater fulfillment is a serious pursuit in the U.S. Americans spend an average of $103 billion a year on self-improvement, whether it is in the area of relationships, career, confidence, leadership or the pursuit of knowledge for personal satisfaction in the form of adult education courses.
The search for personal development may benefit not only the individual but the planet as well. A study by the European Council for an Energy Efficient Economy entitled “Are There Different Routes Leading to Sustainable Consumption?” investigates the conditions under which the evolution of consumption starts to follow sustainable trajectories. “Ongoing individualization” and “the search for personal development” are among the three principal trends identified as key factors influencing household expenditures and energy use.
The marketplace for personal development no doubt intersects with the New Age marketplace, figured at $44 billion and comprising more than 40 million Americans who are buying products and services such as aromatherapy, astrology, crystal energy, Eastern philosophy, natural health, psychics' advice and more.
Fitness Incorporates Mind Exercises
The drive for fitness and relaxation springs from an aging population's concern with staying healthier longer and finding balance and quality of life within slivers of typically splintered personal time.
Fitness trends come and go. It's anybody's guess how many stationary bikes and stairclimbing machines have become clothes hangers instead of fitness machines, yet the fitness industry is healthy and vibrant. Martial arts such as Tae-Bo and Eastern systems such as yoga are a strong niche in the home video market, as well as in health clubs. The current trend is activity that calls for a unification of mind, body and spirit, as opposed to a mindless ride on the rowing machine. “Mind-body exercises are the rage,” says Sally Clasen in her article “Focus on Fitness” (Winter 1999) in the health magazine, Vigor. Even the old stand-by, the stationary cycle, has been revamped to include more mental challenges.
Health clubs are an $11.6 billion industry, according to the International Health, Racquet & Sportsclub Association (IHRSA). The spa industry, particularly the natural spa and in-home spa segments, is booming and estimated at 5,689 locations worth $5.3 billion in the U.S., according to a study by PriceWaterhouseCoopers LLP for the International Spa Association. A survey by that association showed that 69 percent of resort spa goers have household incomes of less than $75,000, proof that spas are not just the pastime of the idle rich. With more spas turning to natural and organic products, including aromatherapy and body products infused with vitamins and herbs, there is a strong intersection with the LOHAS category of Healthy Lifestyles. “The Spa Market” website, www.Happi.com, reports that during the first half of 1999, sales of aromatherapy and body products reached $41 million, according to a study by NPD BeautyTrends of Port Washington, N.Y.
Religious Values Endure
New research out of the University of Michigan takes exception to the notion that the industrialized world is pushing religion to the side. The May 2000 issue of ReligionWatch, a newsletter on religious trends, reports that a study appearing in the American Sociological Review (February) uses data from the World Values Survey, embracing 65 nations and 75 percent of the world's population, to show that religious values endure despite industrialization and the other secular forces. Professors Ronald Inglehart and Wayne E. Baker found that religious values have not been replaced but, on the contrary, show evidence of growing stronger across the planet. The scholars state that these values remain alive because they provide a sense of security in a rapidly changing universe and add that “spiritual concerns will probably be part of the human outlook” in the future, according to ReligionWatch.
In another trend, also reported in ReligionWatch (March 2000), a poll commissioned by the magazine Spirituality & Health found that “religion and spirituality are compatible and connected for most Americans.” The survey found that more than half (59 percent) describe themselves as both religious and spiritual. The poll examined what people consider to be spiritual activity. Eighty percent said that parenting was a spiritual activity. “A walk in the forest was considered spiritual by 67 percent, while 52 percent of adults viewed sex as a spiritual activity, with men more likely to take this view than women,” the article states.
In focusing on the connection between mind, body and spirit, the Personal Development category captures that part of people's lives where the search for health goes beyond diet and preventive medicine to finding a deeper spiritual meaning to life, to bringing balance to the components that make us human, including work, play and worship. From classes in journaling to joining a Wiccan coven for worship, Americans are finding that a healthy life means a whole and holistic lifestyle.