By: Todd Long
Submitted: 2010-06-04 00:02:30 | Word Count: 785
Weight watchers is a health and fitness company that has been in existence for the last over forty years. Its main objective is to help people manage their weight through diet and be physically fit. Founded by Jean Nidetch, the organization has grown over the years and now is a global player, with many health sensitive clients benefiting from its services. The company is built around a strong mission of “helping people lose weight in a sustainable way by helping them adopt a healthier lifestyle and a healthier relationship with food and activity” (Weight Watchers, 2009). The company’s corporate structure consists of a CEO, David Kirchoff, who is also the president. In addition, the company has a scientific advisory board consisting of elite scientists coming from diverse cultural territories, who ensure that the right products are produced by the company. Moreover, the company ensures that its clients are satisfactorily served by providing informative resources, through frequent meetings and the web, about its products.
Lean Cuisine is a company that is affiliated to Nestle Foods that was established in 1981 to provide weight checking food supplements. The company has managed to spread widely due to its quality products that have low calorie content and low fat content. The management of Lean Cuisine has engaged in corporate partnership with some fitness organizations such as ‘America on the Move’ in order to diversify the customer outreach and product lines. The company is committed to providing dietary products that spread from vegetables, fruits, beef, chicken to pasta and so on (Lean Cuisine, 209).
Marketing Environment Factors
Just like any other product, social implications of a product should be taken into consideration when introducing it to the market. In other words, the product should not be harmful to the end consumers. This is an ethical obligation of every company that deals with consumable and non-consumable product. Social factors including customer’s lifestyle, values, beliefs and consumption behavior are influential on the success of a product in the market; some consumers may be allergic to frozen foods or may have negative perception on the product. Therefore, for the product to be successful, it should satisfy the needs of the customer.
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Economic factors may also influence the consumption of the product in the market. Consumers are known to make preference on their purchase behavior based on their income status or purchasing power. In other words, they will go for the product that maximizes their utility subject to their budget constraint. The price of the dietary frozen foods will play a role on the choice of the customers.
Regulatory authorities are very concerned about the plight of consumers and therefore will enforce regulations that will ensure consumer protection is enhanced. Dietary frozen foods have been under close check especially following the drafting of safety regulations by the US in 2007 that are aimed at safeguarding the consumers from effects of frozen foods like vegetables, fruits, meat and fish among others.
Technological factors influence the marketing of dietary frozen foods through, logistics and accessibility. For instance, consumer prefers to consume fresh foods and therefore the time that the product takes to get to the market is important. In addition, the current marketing climate has gone techno savvy, with orders and trade deals being made online.
Global Presence of Dietary Frozen Foods
According to MarketsandMarkets (2009), dietary frozen foods have been on the global market for sometime, including in America, Europe and Asia-Pacific and Oceania. This is as a result of the global demand for weight loss supplements following the escalation of obesity and weight related complications. The main market for these foods is Northern America countries and Europe. The high fragmentation of the weight loss management has seen the domination of the market by several companies in this industry including GSK, Roche, McNeil Nutritional and Unilever among others. Therefore, the introduction of this product to non-Us market will need a lot of effort in order to compete with these companies. However, there is a viable opportunity in the Asian market which is expected to have a long term growth as health and fitness awareness increases.
The Northern America market is the highest consumer of frozen foods and despite the presence of the many competitors, it still remains viable only if differentiation is possible. The Asian market has been consuming less of the recommended health diet causing the prevalence of health problems. With sensitization on the importance of dietary frozen foods and elimination of some myths inherent in them, the market can provide a viable opportunity for marketing the product line; especially considering that Asian countries have some of the highest populations. However, African market is untapped, although there are fewer reported cases of weight related problems.
