Millennials Are to Blame For the Downfall of This Product
- Publish date
- Tuesday, 30 Aug 2016, 7:31AM

Photo: iStock
A study has found that Americans between 18 to 24 are largely snubbing the old-fashioned bar of soap which is leading to sales declines, according to new data from consumer research firm Mintel.
Consumers who still buy bar soap, it turns out, have something in common: they tend to be over 60 years old and are men.
It's not like people are less clean, though. Sales of soap, bath and shower products are on the rise, with overall market growth of 2.7 percent last year, Mintel found. Sales of bar soaps, though, slipped 2.2 percent from 2014 to 2015 as younger consumers and women snubbed the traditional bar in favor of liquid soap.
So, why the shift? Apparently millennials believe the bar of soap is covered in germs after it's been used.
A 1988 study found that people who washed with bar soaps contaminated with bacteria didn’t have a detectable level of of the bacteria on their hands. There are a few issues with that study, however. For one, it was backed by Dial soap, and secondly, it was published before the spread of newer pathogens like antibiotic-resistant MRSA emerged, which raises the stakes for having clean hands.
About 60 percent of Americans over the age of 65 believe it’s fine to wash their faces with a bar of soap, compared with only 33 percent of people between 25 to 34 years old.
“In order to turn sluggish sales around, new bar soap product launches could incorporate a wider variety of claims, especially for more luxury and premium bar soap offerings,” said Margie Nanninga, beauty analyst at Mintel, in a statement.