Support our non-partisan non-profit newsroom 💜 Donate now

Weight loss products just got sexier

Sarah Gardner Apr 1, 2013
HTML EMBED:
COPY

Weight loss products just got sexier

Sarah Gardner Apr 1, 2013
HTML EMBED:
COPY

Weight Watchers is no longer a diet company. Nope, it’s now a “health care company,” according to the company’s CEO David Kirchhoff. 

That’s just one of the branding changes going on inside the roughly $40 billion American diet industry. The industry is being forced to rethink how it sells itself as it competes against new products like free calorie-counting apps on smartphones.

Unilever’s nutrition supplement company Slim-Fast is turning away from the traditional diet marketing strategy and is unveiling a whole new campaign targeting sex appeal.

E.J. Schultz looked into the marketing behind the diet industry for a new article in Advertising Age and says the new provocative ads focus on the “bedroom benefits” of losing weight. 

“One ad shows a silhouette of a woman and there’s a speaking cloud that comes out and she’s saying ‘I want to get into my new pants’ and then there’s a thought bubble above her head that says ‘I want to get into someone else’s pants’ and the tag line is “Get what you really want. Slim-Fast.” 

Schultz says that traditional weight loss companies need to innovate to keep customers from being lured away by free versions online.

“[Weight Watchers is] probably hoping that the people with the free apps maybe join for a day or two, or a week or month, and then just slowly forget about it,” said Schultz. “I think the fact is if you’re paying for something as in Weight Watchers you’re a little bit more invested and you might be more likely to stick with the program if you’re seeing the steady results that they promise.”

There’s a lot happening in the world.  Through it all, Marketplace is here for you. 

You rely on Marketplace to break down the world’s events and tell you how it affects you in a fact-based, approachable way. We rely on your financial support to keep making that possible. 

Your donation today powers the independent journalism that you rely on. For just $5/month, you can help sustain Marketplace so we can keep reporting on the things that matter to you.