Self-help Fact Sheet
S.E.E.K.
Self-help: products and services that offer a holistic approach to self-improvement, touching on one’s personal, professional and spiritual life
Self-help Statistics:
- $10.5 billion industry in 2010*
- Self-help products excluding those for weight loss and exercise make up roughly 60% of this total self-improvement market
- 6.2% annual industry growth projected through 2012
Media of Self-help / Vehicles for Self-help / Avenues to Self-help [not sure which]
- TV, Infomercials [Passive self-help]
- Books, DVDs, CDs, tapes, websites [Self-guided self-help]
- Motivational speakers, retreats, seminars [Interactive Self-help]
- Self-help Programs: utilize a number of these approaches to offer a multi-media self-help package
Prominent Leaders in the Self-help Industry
- Tony Robbins
- Deepak Chopra
- Wayne Dyer
- Dr. Phil McGraw
- John Bradshaw
What Self-help is Not:
- Professional psychologists, psychiatrists, licensed therapists, etc.
- Established religions
Self Help O TV:
- Dr. Phil
- “Breakthrough With Tony Robbins,” first aired 7-27-2010 on NBC
- On the sitcom Friends, the character of Chandler Bing listens to a self-hypnosis tape to quit smoking
- On the comedy-drama Gilmore Girls, the character of Luke Danes listens to a self-help CD to deal with depression.
- On the reality show Mythbusters, cast members Grant Imahara, Tory Belleci, and Kari Byron tested the effectiveness of self-help CDs by attempting to cure Grant’s motion sickness and Adam Savage’s fear of bees, and to alter Kari’s eye color. All three tests proved unsuccessful, thus busting the myth.
- Dexter character, Jordan Chase, is a self help guru with a personality cult and the motto, “Take it!”
- In the movie, “Sex and the City” (2008) the character Samantha is reading “The Secret”
*The Market for Self-improvement Products and Services. 8th Ed. Report # FS15. Marketdata Enterprises Inc. Nov. 2010.
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