Customers’ dangerous desire for everlasting (self) love

It feels everywhere we turn, we’re encouraged to be kind to number one, open up about mental health, strive for balance and prioritise self-care. We ask, in a bid for self-love, are we creating another unattainable standard?

On the surface, it’s tricky to see how talking about feelings and being kinder to ourselves can be anything but good. It’s making us more understanding to one another; we’re no longer plugging such a strict view on ‘perfect’. By opening up, we’ve given permission to talk about tricky topics, fewer people are suffering alone and more feel supported. These feelings are sparking real action as more of us question and critique messages that threaten our ‘be kind’ manifesto.

Our image of self-love is actually piling on the pressure

The reality of prioritising exercise, committing to a natural skin care regime, practicing mindfulness, running a side-hustle, living in the moment, joining the crusade to be kind to others, doing our bit for body positivity and opening up about our feelings can be overwhelming. Especially, as to truly nail this self-love standard we have to make it look natural, authentic and effortless a la Meghan Remarkable.

We predict we’ll reach tipping point soon

We’ve created a new aspiration, it might sound more wholesome and healthy than those we’ve had in the past, but it’s certainty not easy.

Self love will become a new way to critique ourselves, we’ll see consumers snap. We already seeing ‘30 day self-love challenges’ and ‘self love hacks’. How long before we hear the phrase ‘I’m really falling behind on my self-care” or start downloading self-love tracker apps?

We’ll look to brands to help us navigate

We believe some brands will win by feeding the frenzy – making it easier for us to achieve Markle-status. We suspect subscription models, services which advise and curate for us, propositions built around easy multi-tasking will soar in popularity. Helping us achieve the impossible.

We imagine the brand to re-calibrate this and liberate us from the new unattainable aspiration, will thrive. Our money is on brands who play in the empowerment space, like Nike. Which breaks down our image of greatness, democratising fitness with liberating perspectives – summed up in their crusade, ‘if you have a body you are an athlete’.

Our unique work with emotions tells us this sense of freedom is one of the most transformational feelings we possess. We help brands reimagine customer propositions to do just this.

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