Ulta Beauty has launched the Joy Project as a long-term company initiative designed to help customers and consumers at large find, embrace and experience happiness in their lives.
In partnership with author, motivational speaker and podcast host Mel Robbins, Ulta Beauty intends to combat what research found to be the number-one obstacle to experiencing joy: the inner critic and the negative “self-talk” it produces. Through The Joy Study, third-party research commissioned by the retailer, Ulta asserted it aims to spark a national conversation about the barriers to joy people face and how to overcome them. The first step in launching the initiative involves an employee training curriculum developed by Robbins to positively transform the way the company’s 53,000 associates think about themselves and empower guests to do the same.
The decision to take the project to employees first reflects Ulta’s embrace of feedback from staffers who regularly witness guests struggle with negative self-assessment. The feedback inspired Ulta to understand how the inner critic could be affecting people’s ability to experience joy and overall well-being, the company noted.
The dialogue with employees helped prompt the Joy Study, which examined a sample of 5,000 national adults and teens created to assess the experience of joy and the common barriers to experiencing it on a daily basis. In the research, 73% of participants said they experience negative self-talk, and 91% identified such unfavorable self-consideration as a primary obstacle in their ability to experience joy.
At the same time, 85% of study participants said they wished they felt a high level of joy in their lives, and only 58% of people reported feeling they did. As for personal assessment, 91% of participants, including 93% of teens, rated the effect of negative self-talk on their ability to experience joy to be significant.
Ulta maintained that many people don’t recognize they’re actively caught up in unfavorable self-assessment, with 67% of study participants saying that their negative self-talk is so common and natural they don’t recognize when they’re actively engaged in it. Young people are the most unaware, according to the study, with 74% of Gen Z failing to realize when they’re engaging in negative self-talk. Negative self-talk, according to the study, tends to arise from issues regarding physical well-being and appearance, at 82%; body image, at 79%; and questioning the worthiness of success, achievement or personal validation, at 76%.
“At Ulta Beauty, we strive every day to use the power of beauty to bring to life the possibilities that lie within each of us, and joy is a feeling we want everyone to experience when walking through our stores,” said Michelle Crossan-Matos, Ulta chief marketing officer. “The reality is, there’s a joy deficit in our country, which if left untreated, will only continue to hold people back from living the lives they’ve always wanted. As industry leaders, who care deeply about how people experience beauty and show up in the world, we believe it’s our responsibility to help change this. By taking an inside-out approach, in helping our associates unlock their own barriers to joy, and using our platforms to positively influence the communities we serve, we know we can ignite a movement that will help people everywhere live more authentic and joyful lives.”
