MKT 3100 Principles of Marketing
Extra Credit Assignment
THE DIET BATTLE: WEIGHT WATCHERS, JENNY CRAIG, AND SLIM-FAST
Due on March 20, 2019
Instructions
•
First read the case “The Diet Battle: Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, and Slim-Fast” and then
answer the following questions about it. The objective of the case method is to help develop
skills in critical thinking. You are expected to use information from many sources (the case itself,
text book, lecture notes, and mainly outside references) to address the questions, and cite these
sources accordingly. You should visit the websites for each program and use current information
to address these questions.
This assignment is worth up to 30 extra points towards your exam 1 grade, based on the quality
of your answers. Thus, your grade for exam 1 will be updated to reflect the additional points after
grading.
Please submit a report of 4-5 pages (double-spaced, 12-point font, one-inch page margins on all
sides) by emailing me directly (at achris16@calstatela.edu) by March 20 end-of-day.
•
•
Questions
1.
Trace how you might go through the steps in the consumer decision process if you were thinking
of going on a diet and using any of these diet programs. At each stage discuss how these
marketers are currently attempting to influence you. (5 points)
2. How have Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, and Slim-Fast created value? Your book defines value
to mean “the relationship of benefits to costs” (page 13). Please make sure that you address the
key benefits and costs associated with each program. (5 points)
3.
a. Identify the determinant attributes that set Weight Watchers’, Jenny Craig’s, and Slim-Fast’s
programs apart from each other. (Please make sure that you read what is meant by a
determinant attribute.) Use those attributes to develop a compensatory purchasing model like
the one found in Exhibit 6.2. The weights that you assign represent your own perceptions of
the importance of each attribute. Explain your logic for the weights and explain the
differences in the scores of the three plans for each of the determinant attributes. (5 points)
b. Provide two specific implications your model has for a marketer and support your implications
using your model. Do you see any evidence of any of the three marketers taking your two
implications into account? If so how? (5 points)
4. Which factors examined in the chapter do you think would have the most impact on consumers’
propensity to go on a diet and choose either of these diet programs? Please make sure that your
answer includes at least one factor from each of the three categories mentioned in Exhibit 6.4
(psychological, situational, and social). How do these plans address these specific factors? (5
points)
5. How has mobile technology impacted consumers’ behavior to help them achieve their weight
goals? How are these companies reacting to these trends? (5 points)
THE DIET BATTLE: WEIGHT WATCHERS, JENNY CRAIG, AND SLIM-FAST1
Want to lose weight? For about 71 million Americans and approximately 73 percent of all U.S. women,
the answer is yes,2 and for weight loss companies, that's the right answer. The weight loss industry, worth
over $60 billion in 2010,3 is growing steadily because lifestyles and food choices keep working against
people's desire to lose weight. Many Americans spend their days sitting in front of a computer and their
evenings sitting in front of a television. Restaurant meals, prepared foods, and high-fat/high-sugar snacks
have replaced home-cooked meals, whole grains, and fresh produce. Exercise is limited to clicking a
mouse or turning an ignition key. These habits are fattening (both literally and figuratively) the profits for
the weight loss industry as well as expanding belt sizes. By the time we factor in diet pills, specially
packaged weight-loss meals and snacks, diet programs, and the whole range of products and services
promising bathing-suit bodies, we've got a highly lucrative market.
Page 6-4
Three recognized diet aid behemoths, Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, and Slim-Fast, share a substantial
piece of the pie. These companies stress flexibility to fit a wide range of lifestyles and showcase success
stories. But they approach dieting differently in their quest for new members.
THE BIG THREE
Founded in 1963, Weight Watchers International now boasts groups in more than 30 countries worldwide.
The program teaches portion control and the basics of good nutrition, allowing members to select their
own foods. A point system, based on nutritional value, encourages members to select healthy foods,
exercise appropriately, and control portions. 4 Dieters record meals and snacks in a paper or electronic
journal. Although members can follow the Weight Watchers regimen without support, the company notes
that the most successful members are those who weigh in at weekly group sessions and attend meetings.
Weight Watchers members can prepare their own food, dine out, or purchase Weight Watchers–prepared
or –endorsed dinners, snacks, and desserts at most grocery stores. To further support dieters in making
healthy food choices, Weight Watchers recently changed its point system, increasing the number of
points for fat content and reducing them for fiber. 5
Recently rated the top weight loss program by Consumer Reports Health, Jenny Craig promises a unique
and comprehensive plan for food, body, and mind. 6 Members eat meals and snacks prepared and
packaged by Jenny Craig, supplemented by fresh fruits and vegetables. Jenny Craig's offerings provide
portion control and accommodate busy schedules by reducing meal prep time. Members meet weekly on
a one-on-one basis with a personal counselor and are encouraged to develop an exercise program. Like
Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig offers customized programs for men and teenagers and for those who
prefer to lose weight on their own rather than travel to a center. Jenny Craig lapped Weight Watchers and
other diet programs in the Consumer Reports Health ranking because of members' success in weight
loss, the duration of time they remained committed to the program, and the nutritional value of the foods. 7
Slim-Fast, which ranked second in the Consumer Reports Health ratings, offers dieters a combination of
three small and healthy snacks, two meal-replacement shakes, and one 500-calorie meal daily.8 By
eating six small meals daily, dieters maintain steady glucose levels, and the plan ensures adequate
intakes of carbohydrates, protein, and fiber. 9
Other diet programs abound, but even when people lose weight on these regimens, the losses tend to be
temporary because the diets are based on unsustainable eating patterns, such as eliminating major food
groups (e.g., no carbohydrates). Two of the big diet companies also offer social reinforcement and
flexibility, which appears to help people remain committed to their weight-loss programs.
DEFINING THE DIFFERENCE
Perhaps the most significant difference among Jenny Craig, Slim-Fast, and Weight Watchers is the
amount of effort required. Jenny Craig dieters don't have to think about what they eat; everything is
prepared for them. Dieters on the Weight Watchers plan must learn how to make the right choices from
among the foods that surround them in their daily lives. Slim-Fast combines both ease and education, but
it provides fewer choices for controlled meals than Jenny Craig does. Each program competes heavily for
members, particularly in the early months of the year, when Americans return to the scales after indulging
over the holidays.
The diet giants are locked in another battle as well, this one targeted at men. 10 Although a completely
different program isn't necessary—both genders need to cut calories and increase exercise to lose
weight—marketing specifically to men has the power to bring in new members.
While the Weight Watchers' programs are identical for men and women, the men's website is tailored to
their interests and concerns, focusing more on working out and less on the eating plan. The men's site
also mentions the link between obesity and erectile dysfunction, implying that a man's sex life might
improve if he loses weight.
To entice men in its program, Jenny Craig uses Jason Alexander, the actor who played George Costanza on the TV
series Seinfeld, as a spokesperson (pictured with another Jenny Craig spokesperson, Valerie Bertanelli, teenage TV
star from the late 70s of One Day at a Time and Touched by an Angel.)
Page 6-5
Jenny Craig's men's program also is very similar to its women's program, but tweaked, to accommodate
differences in food cravings and issues with portion control. Men on this program, Jenny Craig promises,
can still have a beer and fries once in a while. To further entice men to its program, Jenny Craig uses
Jason Alexander, the actor who played George Costanza on the television series Seinfeld, as a
spokesperson.
The Slim-Fast program tends to appeal to men because they like to lose weight on their own rather than
participating in group meetings.11 The company has used male celebrities, including a former New York
mayor, to sell its products.
TECHNOLOGY SUPPORT FOR DIETERS
Dieters have a variety of electronic devices to help track food consumption and exercise. Using any
Internet-ready device, Weight Watchers members can check points values for foods, including meals at
popular restaurants, and add snacks or meals to their daily journal. Similar services and applications for
fitness training are available via cell phone applications. Using a camera-equipped cell phone, for
example, dieters can photograph a meal and send the picture to a registered dietitian, who replies with
recommendations for modifying portions or food choices. Theoretically this approach is more honest than
keeping a food diary because dieters may be tempted not to record full amounts. These services require
additional fees though.
Questions
1. Trace how you might go through the steps in the consumer decision process if you were thinking of
going on a diet and using any of these diet programs.
2. How have Weight Watchers, Slim-Fast, and Jenny Craig created value?
3. Identify the determinant attributes that set the Weight Watchers, Slim-Fast, and Jenny Craig
programs apart. Use those attributes to develop a compensatory purchasing model similar to the
one in Exhibit 6.2.
4. How can Weight Watchers, Slim-Fast, and Jenny Craig increase the probability of customer
satisfaction?
5. Which factors examined in this chapter might have the most impact on consumers' propensity to go
on a diet and choose one of these diet programs?
• Adding Value 1.2 .
The Meaning of Best Value:
Whole Foods' Purpose-Based
Marketing
NAM
iii
luce and flowers
sibly low!
The finest produce and flowers
are Resonably grown!
The pineal alsduce and flowers
ale Aanddy Ploowa/
Whole Foods' Responsibly Grown rating program identifies all
fresh produce and flowers according to their environmental impact.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Some analysts looking at Whole Foods' dwindling sales numbers and de-
creased earnings would feel the solution to these issues is obvious: The
grocery chain should lower Its prices so that consumers consider it more
valuable. Whole Foods rejects that notion though, arguing Instead that
value means far more than prices. And it has several ideas in mind to
prove that it is right.
To start, it has introduced a new Responsibly Grown rating program,
which Identifies all fresh produce and flowers according to their envi-
ronmental Impact. The program is stringent In its demands. When ven-
dors exert minor environmental Impacts, they are rated good; those
producers that go further by, for example, minimizing wasteful plastic
usage or ensuring conservation areas for bees, earn a ranking of bet-
ter. The producers Identified as the best address a vast range of re-
sponsibility Initiatives, from working conditions for farmers to
conservation efforts to clean energy to renewable resources and so on.
For example, one criterion asks farmers how many earthworms live in
the soll on their farms.
This produce-orlented Initiative follows Whole Foods' existing efforts
such as its eco-scale applied to cleaning products and separate pro-
grams to determine the sustainability and responsibility associated with
animal and fish products. Furthermore, by 2018, it plans to Introduce
labels that Indicate whether any particular food item contains any genet-
Ically modified Ingredients.
In parallel with these new Initiatives, Whole Foods has developed a re-
vised advertising campaign, with a prominent tagline that reminds shoppers
that "Values matter." The commercials emphasize that by shopping at
Whole Foods, consumers can be confident that their food has been sourced
responsibly and fairly. For example, any beef purchased in the stores has
been ralsed by responsible ranchers who give the cows “room to roam.”
By promoting the idea that "value is Inseparable from values," Whole
Foods seeks to remind shoppers of all that It provides, In exchange for a
somewhat higher price point. In particular, it promises that they can
make their food choices confidently, buoyed by a range of Information
that Whole Foods will make available to them at all times.
LO 1-2
Describe how marketers create value for a product
or service.
portfolios; when Nike allows customers to custom design their
sneakers, they are cocreating.
In the next section, we explore the notion of value-based
marketing further. Specifically, we look at various options for
attracting customers by providing them with better value than
the competition does. Then we discuss how firms compete on
the basis of value. Finally, we examine how firms transform the
value concept into their value-driven activities.
How Do Marketing Firms Become
More Value Driven?
Firms become value driven by focusing on four activities. First,
they share information about their customers and competitors
across their own organization and with other firms that help
them get the product or service to the marketplace, such as
manufacturers and transportation companies. Second, they
strive to balance their customers' benefits and costs. Third, they
concentrate on building relationships with customers. Fourth,
they take advantage of new technologies and connect with their
customers using social and mobile media.
Progress Check
1. What is the definition of marketing?
2. Marketing is about satisfying
and
3. What are the four components of the marketing mix?
4. Who can perform marketing?
5. What are the various eras of marketing?
Marketing Analytics
Modern marketers rely on sophisticated data analytics to define
and refine their approaches to their customers and their markets.
CHAPTER 1 | Overview of Marketing 13
value Reflects the
relationship of benefits to
costs, or what the consumer
To understand how marketing has
gets for what he or she gives.
evolved into its present-day, integral
value cocreation
business function of creating value,
Customers act as
let's look for a moment at some of
collaborators with a
the milestones in marketing's short
manufacturer or retailer
history (see Exhibit 1.5).
to create the product
or service.
Production-Oriented
Era Around the turn of the 20th
century, most firms were produc-
tion oriented and believed that a good product would sell itself.
Henry Ford, the founder of Ford Motor Company, once fa-
mously remarked, “Customers can have any color they want so
long as it's black.” Manufacturers were concerned with product
innovation, not with satisfying the needs of individual consum-
ers, and retail stores typically were considered places to hold the
merchandise until a consumer wanted it.
Sales-Oriented Era Between 1920 and 1950, produc-
tion and distribution techniques became more sophisticated;
at the same time, the Great Depression and World War II con-
ditioned customers to consume less or manufacture items
themselves, so they planted victory gardens instead of buying
produce. As a result, manufacturers had the capacity to produce
more than customers really wanted or were able to buy. Firms
found an answer to their overproduction in becoming sales ori-
ented: They depended on heavy doses of personal selling and
advertising
because of World War II, became plentiful. And the United
States entered a buyers' market—the customer became king!
When consumers again had choices, they were able to make pur-
chasing decisions on the basis of factors such as quality, conve-
nience, and price. Manufacturers and retailers thus began to
focus on what consumers wanted and needed before they de-
signed, made, or attempted to sell their products and services. It
was during this period that firms discovered marketing.
Value-Based Marketing Era Most successful firms
today are market oriented.20 That means they generally have
transcended a production or selling orientation and attempt to
discover and satisfy their customers' needs and wants. Before
the turn of the 21st century, better marketing firms recognized
that there was more to good marketing than simply discovering
and providing what consumers wanted and needed; to compete
successfully, they would have to give their customers greater
value than their competitors did. (The importance of value is
appropriately incorporated into the AMA definition of market-
ing discussed earlier.)
Value reflects the relationship of benefits to costs, or what
you get for what you give. 21 In a marketing context, customers
seek a fair return in goods and/or services for their hard-earned
money and scarce time. They want products or services that
meet their specific needs or wants and that are offered at a price
that they believe is a good value. A good value, however,
doesn't necessarily mean the product or service is inexpensive.
If it did, luxury goods manufacturers like Godiva would go out
of business. There are customers willing to pay asking prices
for all types of goods at all price levels because, to those indi-
viduals, what they get for what they give is a good value. This
point is central to the marketing strategy adopted by Whole
Foods, as Adding Value 1.2 explains.
A creative way to provide value to customers is to engage
in value cocreation.22 In this case, customers can act as
collaborators to create the product or service. When clients work
with their investment advisers, they cocreate their investment
Market-Oriented Era After World War II, soldiers
returned home, got new jobs, and started families. At the same
time, manufacturers turned from focusing on the war effort
toward making consumer products. Suburban communities, fea-
turing cars in every garage, sprouted up around the country, and
the new suburban fixture, the shopping center, began to replace
cities' central business districts as the hub of retail activity and a
place to just hang out. Some products, once in limited supply
EXHIBIT 1.5 Marketing Evolution: Production, Sales, Marketing, and Value
Turn of the
century
Turn of the
21st century
1920
1950
1990
Production
Sales
Marketing
Value-based marketing
Photos (left to right): ORyan McVay/Getty Images; OCMCD/Getty Images; Lawrence Manning/Getty Images; Ryan
McVay/Getty Images, McGraw-Hill Education/Mark Dierker, photographer
12 SECTION 1 | Assessing the Marketplace
motive A need or want
that is strong enough to
cause the person to seek
satisfaction.
EXHIBIT 6.4 Factors Affecting the Consumer Decision
Process
Product
Price
Place
Promotion
Motives
Attitudes
Perceptions
Learning
Lifestyle
Marketing
mix
Psychological
factors
for most people in developed
countries these basic needs are
generally met, there are those
in developed as well as less de-
veloped countries who are less
fortunate. However, everyone
remains concerned with meet-
ing these basic needs.26 Market-
ers seize every opportunity to
convert these needs into wants
by reminding us to eat at Taco
Bell, drink milk, sleep on a
Beautyrest mattress, and stay at a
Marriott.
Safety needs pertain to pro-
tection and physical well-being.
The marketplace is full of prod-
ucts and services that are de-
signed to make you safer, such as
airbags in cars and burglar alarms
in homes, or healthier, such as vi-
tamins and organic meats and
vegetables.
Maslow's hierarchy
of needs A paradigm
for classifying people's
motives. It argues that when
lower-level, more basic
needs (physiological and
safety) are fulfilled, people
turn to satisfying their
higher-level human needs
(social and personal); see
also physiological, safety,
love, and personal needs.
physiological needs
Those relating to the basic
biological necessities of
life: food, drink, rest, and
shelter. This is part of
Maslow's hlerarchy.
Consumer
Decision
Process
Social
factors
Situational
factors
Family
Reference groups
Culture
Purchase situation
Shopping situation
Temporal state
safety needs One of
the needs in Maslow's
hlerarchy of needs, pertain
to protection and physical
well-being.
frescomenu
Lesslat More laste
Psychological Factors
Although marketers can influence purchase decisions, a host
of psychological factors affect the way people receive market-
ers' messages. Among them are motives, attitudes, percep-
tion, learning, and lifestyle. In this section, we examine how
such psychological factors can influence the consumer deci-
sion process.24
When it comes to eating better,
there's the bland way. And then
there are nine really
delicious ways.
Fresco Ranchero Chicken Soft Tace
with 4g of lot and only 170 calories
Motives In Chapter 1 we argued that marketing is all about
satisfying customer needs and wants. When a need, such as
thirst, or a want, such as for a Diet Pepsi, is not satisfied, it mo-
tivates us, or drives us, to get satisfaction. So, a motive is a
need or want that is strong enough to cause the person to seek
satisfaction.
People have several types of motives. One of the best-known
paradigms for explaining these motive types, developed by
Abraham Maslow more than 70 years ago, is called Maslow's
hierarchy of needs.25 Maslow categorized five groups of
needs: physiological (e.g., food, water, shelter), safety (e.g., se-
cure employment, health), love (e.g., friendship, family), es-
teem (e.g., confidence, respect), and self-actualization (people
engage in personal growth activities and attempt to meet their
intellectual, aesthetic, creative, and other such needs). The pyr-
amid in Exhibit 6.5 illustrates the theoretical progression of
those needs.
Physiological needs deal with the basic biological
necessities of life—food, drink, rest, and shelter. Although
The Fresco Menu.9 incredible Taco Bell tastes under grams of fat.
For a healthier lifestyle, pay attention to total calorie intake and to regular exercise.
Taco Bell's Fresco Menu can play a part by offering calorie reduction of between
TACO
20 to 110 calories compared to the corresponding product on our regular menu. BELL
Taco Bell Frasco Ranchero Chicken Sott Toco contains 4 got fot. For additional information
please victobel.com. Cos TACO BE on regarding to content of a loco del tem.
In this ad, Taco Bell satisfies the physiological need of food while letting
the consumer know that healthy eating can also be delicious.
Source: Taco Bell
CHAPTER 6 Consumer Behavior 127
Purchase answer to see full
attachment