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An excerpt from Catharine Arnston's forthcoming book " Wellness - The Luxury Good of the 21st Century" is noted below.
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Book excerpt fronm "Wellness - The Luxury Good of the 21st Century" (2009 ©) To be published 2010
It should come as no surprise to anyone who has watched the baby boomers transform other industries, that with the majority of boomers now over the age of 50, their reluctance to lose their vitality, health and youthfulness is fueling the growth in spiritual health/wellness. Good health has quickly become the “luxury good” and status symbol of the 21st century - more sought after than the latest “Birken” handbag. The days when the terms “holistic” or “healing” were associated with beatnik, bead-swinging, long-hair eccentrics are long over. Even the Gen X and Gen Y crowd are embracing wellness and holistic health as part of their lifestyle mantra that stresses balance. They want no part of the stress, ambition and angst experienced by their predecessors or parents and reject outright anything that doesn’t give them choice and make them feel good. Thus while holistic wellness may not yet have hit the mainstream, it is right on schedule to get there very soon and is shaping up to be the hottest consumer market segment of the 21st century. To get a sense of the enormity of what is yet to come, one only has to look at how a very small sub-segment (yoga) recently hit the mainstream and in doing so, spawned not only new market segments but also new companies (such as LuLu Lemon whose hip yoga wear is a retail phenomena). Perhaps due to its grass roots beginnings - that emphasized affordable, low-key hands-on solutions, most healing/wellness products did not enter the market at the high end. Instead, they have been marketed, packaged and distributed using low key, grassroots approaches. However, after four decades of grassroots marketing and healing education, we are now at a point where the average American consumer is either well informed about holistic wellness or at least open to it. The holistic market is now trending to be so significant that it has finally caught the attention of a handful of visionary consumer companies who are jumping on board with their branding savvy and marketing strength. Their presence is sure to invigorate the holistic market further – but the high end/luxury segment still holds the greatest untapped potential having been ignored up until now (with the exception of Whole Foods, who are the leaders in high end grocery retailing).
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