It might not be book retailing or advertising, but the weight loss industry is one of many that have been completely disrupted by the internet and mobile market. Traditional leaders such as Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig have been struggling to adapt to a new era of do-it-yourself digital dieting and apps, while MyFitnessPal and other upstarts in that genre are taking off.
Jenny Craig, for example, has sworn off celebrity weight-losers in its new advertising campaign that hatched today, a major departure for an industry where most of the players have relied on celebrities for decades. No more Valerie Bertinelli, Mariah Carey or Jason Alexander in ads for the Nestle-owned marketer, as Advertising Age has pointed out. Now, Craig is hatching animated ads that promote its menu of portion-controlled foods and one-on-one online support.
"It's a change for the category, to actually say what we do," Leesa Eichberger, the new CMO for Jenny Craig, told the publication, rather than "go down that same cliched path that is out there."
Eichberger came from Vonage and also has launched an ad-agency review at Jenny Craig. Something had to happen. Nestle has said that the Jenny Craig business so far this year fell way below its expectations. "Apps are good for some people," Eichberger said about the digital competition. "But you are not being held accountable. When you are talking to someone every week you follow an obligation to follow the diet."
Meanwhile, Weight Watchers recently swapped CEOs after reporting poor earnings. The brand also said that free online services were eating into its paid offerings and projected steep declines in its revenue from meetings for the current year, according to the Wall Street Journal. Subscriptions to its website also declined.
But things are rosy for some of the newbies. MyFitnessPal, for instance, is getting $18 million in new funding from venture capital giants Keliner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Accel Partners, in investments that value the whole of MyFitnessPal between $100 million and $120 million, according to the paper. The site and app have 40 million users.
"We don't want people to think of us as just a calorie tracker," Mike Lee, co-founder, told theJournal. "Our ambition is to very cleary be more than that."
Not exactly music to the ears of brand executives at Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig.
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