Tuesday, January 09, 2007
GfK says Americans are less likely to feel it's important to usually look one's best.
How often do you check the mirror? If you're like the average American, you pay at least some attention to how you look, but maybe not as much as you used to. New data show that adults are less likely to feel it's important to always or usually look one's best.
Americans’ attitude toward the importance of physical appearance does not fluctuate as wildly as, say, the stock market, but it has changed in recent years. Currently, the 26% who feel it is “always important to look one’s best” has dropped 5 points since 2001 and now ties for the record low across ten readings over nearly twenty years.
The largest group remains people who say it’s “usually important to look one’s best,” at 47%, but this has dropped as well (see chart). In turn, one in five adults now thinks about his or her appearance “only on special occasions,” up 8 percentage points in the past five years.
The recent shift looks similar to what happened in the early 1990s, when people jumped ship from both the “always” and “usually” groups. But the “special occasion” segment is much larger this time around, and the “always” group is smaller. This means there are almost as many Americans not thinking much at all about how they look when they walk out the door as there are appearance- conscious people checking the mirror as they head out.
Aging Boomers to Blame?
The first thought that might occur is to blame the Baby Boom. After all, the oldest members of this generation are entering their 60s. Do people this age still care how they look? Yet Boomers cannot be the scapegoats for two reasons. First, the generation currently fills the 45 to 59 age group, not the 60-plus. Second, there is hardly any difference in appearance attitudes by age.
So who is to blame for Americans’ drop in devotion to their looks? It looks as if men might be the culprits. While women have become marginally less appearance-conscious since 2001, men have become much less concerned than they were five years ago (see chart). All told, nearly four in ten men either think about their appearance only on special occasions or hardly at all.
This might be a scary thought to businesses that provide consumers with the means to look their best, from clothing and accessories to personal care and beauty products and services. But all is not lost. Even with the recent shifts, a majority of men and most women pay a reasonable amount of attention to their appearance. Other GfK Roper research indicates that Americans equate looking good with feeling good and self-respect. These inner-driven motivations are powerful.
Although it is unlikely that Americans will completely abandon grooming, they are in a less attentive mode these days. Maybe this means that marketers have been successful to some degree in offering products that allow people to adopt a more carefree approach – such as wrinkle-resistant fabrics and long-lasting personal-care products. Maybe it means they need to keep moving in this direction to continue to meet the needs of the increasingly laissez-faire line that men, and some women, are taking with their everyday look.
This analysis is based on GfK’s Roper Reports® US in-person surveys of adult Americans conducted between May 1987 and May-June 2006. For more information go to www.gfkamerica.com.
GfK surveys.com marketing marketing research
Americans’ attitude toward the importance of physical appearance does not fluctuate as wildly as, say, the stock market, but it has changed in recent years. Currently, the 26% who feel it is “always important to look one’s best” has dropped 5 points since 2001 and now ties for the record low across ten readings over nearly twenty years.
The largest group remains people who say it’s “usually important to look one’s best,” at 47%, but this has dropped as well (see chart). In turn, one in five adults now thinks about his or her appearance “only on special occasions,” up 8 percentage points in the past five years.
The recent shift looks similar to what happened in the early 1990s, when people jumped ship from both the “always” and “usually” groups. But the “special occasion” segment is much larger this time around, and the “always” group is smaller. This means there are almost as many Americans not thinking much at all about how they look when they walk out the door as there are appearance- conscious people checking the mirror as they head out.
Aging Boomers to Blame?
The first thought that might occur is to blame the Baby Boom. After all, the oldest members of this generation are entering their 60s. Do people this age still care how they look? Yet Boomers cannot be the scapegoats for two reasons. First, the generation currently fills the 45 to 59 age group, not the 60-plus. Second, there is hardly any difference in appearance attitudes by age.
So who is to blame for Americans’ drop in devotion to their looks? It looks as if men might be the culprits. While women have become marginally less appearance-conscious since 2001, men have become much less concerned than they were five years ago (see chart). All told, nearly four in ten men either think about their appearance only on special occasions or hardly at all.
This might be a scary thought to businesses that provide consumers with the means to look their best, from clothing and accessories to personal care and beauty products and services. But all is not lost. Even with the recent shifts, a majority of men and most women pay a reasonable amount of attention to their appearance. Other GfK Roper research indicates that Americans equate looking good with feeling good and self-respect. These inner-driven motivations are powerful.
Although it is unlikely that Americans will completely abandon grooming, they are in a less attentive mode these days. Maybe this means that marketers have been successful to some degree in offering products that allow people to adopt a more carefree approach – such as wrinkle-resistant fabrics and long-lasting personal-care products. Maybe it means they need to keep moving in this direction to continue to meet the needs of the increasingly laissez-faire line that men, and some women, are taking with their everyday look.
This analysis is based on GfK’s Roper Reports® US in-person surveys of adult Americans conducted between May 1987 and May-June 2006. For more information go to www.gfkamerica.com.
GfK surveys.com marketing marketing research
