CASE STUDY 4WEIGHT I AM ON

ATKINS

By: Chaouechi Chaïma

Tlili Amal

Wajih Jbaî

Rihab Labidi

summary

THE “WEIGHT GROWTH SPURT” IN BOTH AMERICAN ADULTS AND CHILDREN IS A BIG PROBLEM NOW, AND OBESITY IS BECOMING THE 1# KILLER IN THE UNITED STATES. FAST-FOOD RESTAURANTS, THE HABIT OF REMAINING SEDENTARY, AS WELL AS FROZEN, CANNED AND DRIED FOODS ALL CONTRIBUTE TO THE OVERWEIGHT PHENOMENON. 

DIFFERENT MEASURES SUCH AS DIET PILLS, COMMERCIAL WEIGHT-LOSS CENTERS AND BARIATRIC SURGERY ARE APPLIED BY PEOPLE TO LOSE WEIGHT. BUT NOW, MORE AND MORE PEOPLE ARE CHOOSING ATKINS OR THE SOUTH BEACH DIET TO LOSE WEIGHT. ATKINS HAS HAD MAJOR EFFECTS ON AMERICAN BUSINESSES—SOME GOOD AND SOME NOT-SO-GOOD

Q1) WHAT SOCIAL, CULTURAL AND PERSONAL FACTORS ARE ASSOCIATEDWITH OBESITY? WITH EATING DISORDERS? WHAT PSYCHOLOGICALFACTORS?

Factors associated with obesity include the following:

Firstly, obesity in the adult population has been increasing over the years. Sowith respect to the cultural perspective, the children are also likely to growup to be over-weight adults. Such people are prone to major problemsranging from heart attacks to cancer and kidney diseases along with otheremotional upsets and depression.

This case reveals that a study has proven that over weight children faceproblems such as poor social interactions, lack of athletic power, low schoolachievement and trouble in family relationships. Not only this, the childrenbecome a victim of many medical problems like sleep apnea, fatty liver orhigh cholesterol.

The personal lifestyle of people is also directly associated to obesity in thesense that the office workers usually spend a lot of time sitting down insteadof walking and being more active.

The psychological factors majorly involve the tag lines of restaurants such as“all you can eat” and other movies (Supersize Me) which influence peopletowards eating more fast food than the healthy ones. Then the processedfood such as canned or frozen products are very frequently used since theyare an easier come by, which are convenient to use thus making it easy toovereat.

Factors associated with eating disorders involve the following:

Eating disorders include anorexia (starving) and bulimia (binge eating and then purging oneself by vomiting). With respect to the social class, the low-income Americans are more likely to be obese than the rich ones.

Then the obese people come to hate themselves because they are unable to

meet the society’s expectations and are regarded negatively by others.

The personal factors include the norm and lifestyle today that the thin girl is love while the fat ones get to mop the floors, the beefed-up boys get the girl while the puny men get kicked.

These eating disorders are accompanied by stress and body image problemssince the force comes from the perception of being thin. It thus leads todependency, obsessiveness, loss of control and lower self-esteem.

Q2) HOW WOULD OBESITY, DIETS, AND EXERCISE PROGRAMS FIT INTO VALS LIFESTYLES? WHAT GROUPS ARE MOST LIKELY TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF WHICH MEANS OF LOSING WEIGHT? 

VALS classifies people according to how they spend their time and money. It divides consumers

Into groups: Primary motivations and Resources.

Primary motivations include ideals, achievements, and self expressions. Consumers motivated by

Ideals will be the ones with all the knowledge of diets and exercise programs. Consumers who are

Primarily motivated by self -expression desire social or physical activity and they are most likely

to involve in weight reduction activities and taking risks to lose weight.

Resources are classified into High and low resources, depending on levels of income. Higher

Low levels of income have further 2 classifications Innovators, Survivors. Innovators are usually

People with high level of income and are most likely to have diet plans and exercise programs,

They exhibit all Motivations in varying degree.

Q3: WHY HAVE SO MANY CUSTOMERS CHOSEN ATKINS OR THE SOUTH BEACH DIET? HOW HAS THE DECISION-MAKING PROCESS AFFECTED THEIR CHOICE?

Atkins and South Beach Diet are two very easiest ways of getting slim and smart, people don’t have

To work out physically, people are always short of time to go in gyms, they don’t have to go through any surgery, and all is just to eat food. And Atkins and South Beach Diet also showed successful results with many scientific reasons backing those results. It presented a new theory for losing weight which was tested and found very successful, so it seemed best option for people.

Decision-making process:

The first step in Decision making process for a customer in whom he/she recognizes problem or

Need and for American people Obesity was a big problem.

Evaluation of Alternatives and the alternatives were difficult to follow.

Purchase Decision, it involves selecting brands, as there were not any other brand with such diet

So people had no difficulty in selecting Atkins.

Post purchase Behavior, Products like Atkins showed good results after people started using it, so

This point was also in favor of Atkins and South Beach Diet.

Q4) HOW HAS AMERICAN BUSINESS CAPITALIZED ON OBESITY ANDEATING DISORDERS? IS THIS DESIRABLE?

American businesses have been taking advantage of both, obesity and

eating disorders in people, by increased promotional campaigns. Thesebusinesses specifically include the fast food retailers and the frozen foodsellers in the sense that they are easily available and carry no hassle ofpreparation for the food lovers. As for the anorexics, the empowerment ofpeople becoming thin has been promoted by television, internet, magazinesand movies.

As far as the desirability is concerned, although these strategies undertakenby the firms satisfy the target consumer needs, but they tend to be injuriousto their health and simply add to the problems they have to face (asdiscussed in earlier questions).

Q5) AMERICANS SPEND MORE THAN $100 BILLION A YEAR ON WAYS TOLOSE WEIGHT, BUT IT DOESN’T HAPPEN. NEXT YEAR, THE SAME PEOPLEWILL PROBABLY SPEND MORE. PEOPLE APPEAR NOT TO CARE IF THEYDON’T GET THE PRODUCT THEY PAY FOR. WHAT SOCIAL, CULTURAL ANDPERSONAL FACTORS EXPLAIN THIS? HOW DOES IT BENEFIT BUSINESS? 

In the social factors, people are status conscious and prefer to go with

The latest popular thing in the market and are less concerned about the

Product satisfying the amount they have paid.

The cultural factors state that the high income groups are more concernedabout status than health i.e. the White Americans so they will accept theproducts new in the market irrespective of the fact that it doesn’t get therequired advantage.

In the personal factor, we see the spending pattern of the customers i.e.they go on increasing their spending every year and are less concernedabout getting the stated outcome. This shows that they afford to pay theamount. Moreover, those who are brand conscious tend to buy whatever is“in” those days in the market. Lastly, the Lifestyle shows that it has becomea social outing to work out for people so it doesn’t really matter if they don’tavail the amount they pay.

Businesses, of course, do benefit from these factors and try to take maximumadvantage out of it. Since the main aim of organizations is to make profitand maximize shareholder’s wealth, they tend to extract profits out of italong with building profitable customer relationships by satisfying theirbrand conscious thinking patterns.