The aim of this paper is to analyze the case study of three diet aid companies: Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, and Slim-Fast. The paper will examine how the companies create value and influence decision-making process of their customers. It will also explore the determinant attributes of the companies’ programs. Moreover, the paper will present a compensatory purchasing model for three diet plans.
Consumer Decision Process
If the companies are to successfully sell their diet programs, they should have a clear understanding of buying process and how it relates to their customers. By understanding consumer decision process, marketing managers can easily customize their offerings by using “promotion in an effort to change consumers’ decision-making criteria” (Mattiske 132). Consumers usually go through five steps during the purchasing decision process: problem recognition, search process, evaluation of alternatives, selection, and evaluation of decision (Mattiske 132). These five stages are only a representation of the general consumer decision process. It should be noted that not all consumers are guided by all five steps.
If I were thinking of going on a diet, I would recognize the need to eradicate imbalance between actual and desired states of my body. At the stage of need recognition, marketers can influence my purchasing decision by exposing me to external stimuli. During the search process, the companies can affect my decision by placing context advertisements with the help of search engines. During the process of evaluation of diet alternatives, marketers can have an impact on my choice by using reviews. At the selection stage, successful marketing professionals can provide me with a sense of security. At the stage of evaluation, marketers can send an email thanking me for making the right decision.
Value
In the context of a purchasing decision, a value can be described as a dynamic relationship between costs and benefits (Mattiske 121). Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, and Slim-Fast use different value propositions in order to market their products. Therefore, the customers that are choosing between three diet plants interpret and react to their marketing messages differently. The most important point of costs difference in the three propositions is “the amount of effort required” (Case Study 1). Jenny Craig diet plan is the one that does not make it necessary for dieters to think about their eating patterns because they are being provided with customized meal schedules. Weight Watchers and Slim-Fast plans, on the other hand, need their customers to make informed decisions about what they eat. However, Slim-Fast has a more beneficial proposition than that of Weight Watchers because it provides dieters with fewer choices, thereby making it easier to eliminate bad eating habits. It should be noted that Weight Watchers exerts the most effort in attracting male customers. It creates value by offering male dieters a website that is tailored to their needs and concerns.
Determinant Attributes
Dieters are guided by determinant attributes of the diet plans while making their purchasing decisions. These attributes vary among the three plans; therefore, they should be taken into account during the process of developing marketing strategies. The most important determinant attribute that sets the three offerings apart is support. Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig offer their customers weekly group sessions and individual meetings with a personal counselor. The men’s website created by Weight Watchers is another determinant attribute. Choices for meals and reduction of meal prep time also can be used to differentiate between the three propositions. Having support is extremely important for the majority of dieters; therefore, this attribute has been assigned a weight of 0.5. The website targeting men has importance weight of only 0.1 because it cannot be considered equally important by male and female customers. Choices for meals is also relevant criterion that scores 0.3 on importance scale due to the fact that dieters are interested in a diversity of their diets. Reduction of meal prep time is the determinant attribute that ranks only 0.1 on the scale of importance because customers are mainly guided by other criteria. Marketers should understand how these attributes influence purchasing decisions of dieters. Table 1 presents a compensatory purchasing model for the three companies.
Table 1
A compensatory purchasing model for Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, and Slim-Fast
Factors Affecting Consumer Choices
People’s choice to go on a diet is being affected by reference groups because some programs offer their customers an option to visit weekly group sessions. Situational factors that are at play during the process of deciding between these diet programs are purchase situation and temporal state of dieters. However, psychological factors such as perception of a diet and attitudes toward particular lifestyle have the most impact on their decisions.
Conclusion
The analysis of the propositions of Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, and Slim-Fast has shown that Weight Watchers has the program that is valued the most by potential customers. It can be evident on a compensatory purchasing model for three diet plans.
Works Cited
Mattiske, Catherine. Understanding Customer Motivation. Routledge, 2012.