First read the case “The Diet Battle: Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, and Slim-Fast” and then answer the following questions about it.
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)