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Q: Amount spent on self-help ( Answered 5 out of 5 stars,   1 Comment )
Question  
Subject: Amount spent on self-help
Category: Reference, Education and News
Asked by: chrisriche-ga
List Price: $10.00
Posted: 28 Nov 2006 06:15 PST
Expires: 28 Dec 2006 06:15 PST
Question ID: 786161
I'd like to know the amount spent annually in the U.S. and, if
available, globally, on self-help books,
programs, and seminars and how that has trended over the last 30 or so
years.
Answer  
Subject: Re: Amount spent on self-help
Answered By: bobbie7-ga on 28 Nov 2006 13:35 PST
Rated:5 out of 5 stars
 
Hello chrisriche,


2005

According to a Marketdata Enterprises market report, the U.S.
self-improvement market is worth $9.6 Billion. Personal coaching &
infomercials do best.

Major Findings: 

Market Size
?The total self-improvement market (incl. revenues of weight loss
programs) was estimated to be worth $9.59 billion in 2005. The market
grew more than 24% between 2003 and 2005. We expect 11.4% yearly
growth through 2010, to a value of $13.9 billion.?

Infomercials
?ALL infomercials sales grew strongly in 2005, up 10% to $2.69
billion. Self-improvement shows represented 48% of the total, or $1.29
billion.?

Audiobooks 
?Audiobook sales have been growing about 4.5% per year. Total
audiobook sales were estimated at $2.08 billion last year, with
self-improvement titles representing $354 million of this.?

Books
? $693 million worth of self-improvement books were sold last year.
Fueled by continued strong sales of diet books, the market is forecast
to grow 8.3%/year??

Personal coaching

An estimated ? 40,000 people in the U.S. work as life or work coaches
and this $2.4 billion market is growing 18% per year. ?


Value of Self-Improvement Market Segments: 2005  ($ millions)

Infomercials:   $1,290       
Personal Coaching:  2,400   
Mail Order Catalogs: 70       
Holistic Institutes & Training Companies: 320    
Books: 693 
Audiotapes: 354
Weight Loss Programs *: 3,970 
Stress Management Programs: 
* commercial chains & medical programs only, not incl. diet foods,
drinks, books or surgeries.

PRWEB via PRWeb: September 21, 2006 
http://www.prwebdirect.com/releases/2006/9/prweb440011.htm


The US Market For Self-Improvement Products & Services
Marketdata Enterprises Inc. 
September 1, 2006 http://www.marketresearch.com/product/display.asp?productid=1338280&g=1



========================================

2003-2004

According to Marketdata Enterprises, the Self-Improvement Market was
worth $8.5 billion in 2004.


Market Size
?The total self-improvement market (incl. revenues of commercial and
medical weight loss programs) is estimated by Marketdata to be worth
$8.56 billion as of 2003.?

Infomercials
?Total infomercial sales were up 13.4% to $2.46 billion in 2003. Sales
of SI programs and products now capture an estimated 60% - worth $1.48
billion.?

Audiobooks
?Sales have grown 7% per year since 2001, to $461 million in 2003.?

Books
?Sales of self-help/SI books grew moderately, from $611 million in
2000 to $640 million last year. The number of ?new age? bookstores
rose to 5,000 in the U.S.?

Motivational Speakers
?The top 12 speakers (incl. Franklin Covey Co.) grossed $303 million
last year. (2003)?

Personal Coaching
?Roughly 25,000 ?personal coaches? now work in the U.S.?
?The market is worth about $1.5 billion, and is growing rapidly.? 


Value of Self-Improvement Market by Segment 2003 ($million)

General motivational, spiritual, self-help: $4,711 
Business/financial: $1,062 
Stress managem: $385 
Weight loss: $1,294        
Exercise: $1,114  
                         
Marketdata Enterprises, Inc: February 19, 2004
http://www.mkt-data-ent.com/pressreleases/Self-Improvement%20Market%20PR%2002-20-2004.doc


========================================


2000

According to Marketdata Enterprises, the Self-Improvement Market was
worth $5.7 billion in 2000.


Growth

?The market has been growing 9.9% annually since 1998, up nearly 20%
in two years. ?

Books
?An estimated 1,800 self-help/inspirational books were released in
1997, with sales valued at $538 million. This sales figure grew to
$611 million last year, according to Simba Information Inc., up 13.5%
in two years.

?The number of ?new age? bookstores appears to have leveled off at 4,000.? 


Audiotapes/Cassettes Market 
?According to the Audio Publishers Association (APA), the overall
market for spoken audio has doubled over the past eight years, and is
now worth an estimated $2 billion. Self-help and inspirational
categories are ranked third and fourth, respectively, as the most
popular categories.?
http://www.mkt-data-ent.com/sample.html



======
Growth
======

Americans spent a whopping $668 million on self-help books in 2005, a
44 percent increase over 10 years earlier.

Appeared in the May 2006 issue of Women's Health 
http://www.womenshealthmag.com/article/0,6176,s1-21-80-789-1-P,00.htmlhelp.htm

?To cope with such economic insecurity, it seems that Americans have
seized upon self-improvement culture in record numbers. Between 1972
and 2004 the number of self-help books published more than doubled.
Estimates of the total annual revenues for the self-help industry
range from $2.8-billion to $8.6-billion, with one out of every three
Americans reporting that they've purchased at least one self-help
book.?

?In addition to a thriving, well-advertised, and widely televised
cohort of self-help gurus, over the last decade an entirely new
profession has emerged: personal and career coaches. Themselves often
hailing from the ranks of the downsized, these coaches aim to help
Americans find their way through an increasingly competitive economic
world that has been shorn of most safety nets.?
Self-Help Inc
http://www.selfhelpinc.com/04b01701.htm


"You don't need me to tell you that self-help books are a significant
chunk of today's publishing market; out of the $8.5 billion spent on
self-help in 2003, publishers saw about $640 million."

http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/publishing/common_sense_doesnt_come_cheap_37969.asp


"Motivational books, CDs, and self-growth seminars are an annual $5.7
billion US business, with percentage growth in the double digits."
http://media.wiley.com/product_data/excerpt/09/04708351/0470835109.pdf


?The self-help book category came into its own in 1936 with the
publication of Dale Carnegie's book How to Win Friends and Influence
People. Today self-help sales are $538-million and account for one in
ten titles sold.?
  --The Wall Street Journal, December 8, 1998. 
http://online.wsj.com/public/us
http://www.www.parapublishing.com/sites/para/resources/statistics.cfm


-------------------------------


Psychology Today
Jan, 1988 

?An estimated 12 million people now help themselves and their
neighbors by participating in roughly 500,000 self-help groups. These
groups range from such nationally established organizations as
Recovery Inc., founded 50 years ago by psychiatrist Abraham A. Low to
help people with debilitating psychological problems, to Mistresses
Anonymous, Bald-Headed Men of America and Fundamentalists Anonymous.?

(?)

?Fifteen years ago, (1973) not one clearinghouse existed to provide
information on self-help groups or encourage the development of new
ones.?

(?)
 
?Although people have joined together to find strength in groups for
thousands of years, the modern self-help group composed of people
facing a single problem can be traced back to June 10, 1935, when two
men known to the public as Bill W. and Doctor Bob first met to help
each other stay sober. They eventually founded Alcoholics Anonymous
(AA). By 1986, AA membership totaled an estimated 804,000 in the
United States and Canada, with 41,000 registered groups meeting
regularly. Worldwide membership is estimated at 1.5 million, making AA
by far the largest self-help group in the world. In the 1970s, it
spawned similar groups for people closely involved with alcoholics
(Al-Anon), teenage children living with alcoholic parents (Alateen),
Gamblers Anonymous and Overeaters Anonymous. Today, at least 14
organizations follow the AA format.?
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1175/is_n1_v22/ai_6213727



-------------------------------


?? key moments in the development of the self-help model in America.
Between the rise of AA and the spread of the current mass movement,
there was a period -- the late 1960s and early 1970s -- when a very
different kind of self-help model was prominent and influential: the
feminist consciousness-raising movement (CR), which also named and
addressed emotional, family- and relationship-based difficulties
plaguing women. CR meetings resembled 12-step meetings in many ways.
Women sat in a circle and "testified" to often hidden, shameful
personal problems such as abusive fathers, boyfriends and colleagues;
body hatred and eating disorders; sexual insecurity and unhappiness;
and self-destructive impulses and practices. ?
Mental Help
http://www.mentalhelp.net/poc/view_doc.php?type=doc&id=365


-------------------------------


?Many self-help books advocate the use of ?incantations? or
?affirmations.? Simply repeat phrases such as ?I like myself? over and
over again, we are told, and soon we will experience an enhanced
self-image and boosted self-esteem. This idea is not new. In the
1920s, French pharmacist Emile Coué created an international fad of
?autosuggestion? by encouraging everyone to repeat the mantra: ?Day by
day, in every way, I am getting better and better.? Repeating it aloud
20 times each morning and evening was supposed to result in health,
wealth, and pretty much whatever else one wanted (it does, after all,
specify improvement ?in every way.?)
Psychotherapy
http://www.psychotherapy.net/products/articles/detail.php?id=160


-------------------------------

Search criteria:
Self improvement OR help billion OR million market
Growth percent rates trends 


I hope you find this information helpful!


Best regards,
Bobbie7
chrisriche-ga rated this answer:5 out of 5 stars and gave an additional tip of: $2.00
Great data as well as a great topline summary of the data.  Outstanding.

Comments  
Subject: Re: Amount spent on self-help
From: bobbie7-ga on 28 Nov 2006 19:08 PST
 
Thank you very much for the five stars and tip!
--Bobbie7

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