WW International looks beyond dieting
The company has a broader mission that includes general health and wellness
NEW YORK—During a recent Bruno Mars concert at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, some concertgoers passed on the greasy hot dogs, opting instead to nibble on sesame lamb meatballs. Meanwhile, other attendees, granted passage to a VIP section, listened to a three-minute meditation app and fiddled with new kitchen tools.
The unique concert offerings were part of an elaborate marketing maneuver by WW International Inc., formerly Weight Watchers, as it tries to reinvent its stodgy brand and broaden its product offering beyond diet help to include general health and wellness.
The New York-based company is betting its new slimmed-down name and repositioning will help it broaden its appeal beyond women, as is tries to make good on its promise to Wall Street to ramp up revenue and members. WW set targets of five million members and $2 billion (U.S.) in revenue by 2020, a significant increase from the $1.3 billion it took in last year.
The changes, which also include adding meditation help to the WW app and a new line of cooking tools, are some of the boldest moves the diet giant has made since it began in the 1960s when founder Jean Nidetch started inviting friends into her Queens, N.Y., home once a week to discuss how to lose weight.
The tasks of getting consumers to embrace the new name and the “Wellness That Works” slogan falls to Gail Tifford, a 48-year-old former Unilever marketer who joined the company in March as chief brand officer. She spoke with The Wall Street Journal about how WW data is shaping the company’s products and marketing, and how WW intends
to attract more men.
Here are edited excerpts. From diet to wellness.
WSJ: Why has the word “diet” become a four-letter word?
MS. TIFFORD: It’s becoming totally irrelevant. When you ask people what’s motivating them, they say they want to be healthy and strong. Ten years ago, they would say, “I want to be skinny.”
WSJ: What research went into this repositioning and name change?
MS. TIFFORD: We knew with weight in our name that it would really not encompass everything we are striving to be. Our member base already refers to it as WW. It’s not easy finding something that can translate in 11 countries. We conducted 26 focus groups in four countries including the U.S. It showed high awareness and appreciation for the WW name.
WSJ: Will people embrace the wellness pitch?
MS. TIFFORD: Our community has been talking about wellness for a long time. If you look at Connect, our in-app community, the No. 1 hashtag used is #NSV, which stands for “non-scale victory.” We see people talking about what they’ve gained in their life from being healthy. It’s not just about food and recipes.
WSJ: If people don’t have the urgent and measurable goal of losing weight, why join? What goals can WW offer that have that immediacy?
MS. TIFFORD: One way we’re diversifying our membership is through life stage. Whether you’re becoming a parent, graduating from college or becoming an empty-nester, these are moments that make you take a fresh look at your health. It can be anything—joining a softball team, taking a first trip overseas, running a marathon, taking your kids to Disneyland. We, and our members, are finding those are far more powerful than the number on the scale.
WSJ: How is WW’s customer data influencing its products and marketing?
MS. TIFFORD: Our members share everything with us from their credit cards to what they’re eating every day to their emotions. We use it to make the experience better. We saw our members start to self-organize and connect more with each other, so we launched Connect. We saw from the data that the No. 2 most-tracked beverage on our app was wine, so that helped with our product portfolio. We partnered with a winemaker to create Cense, a low-calorie wine.
We also saw that more men were joining the program. So we introduced new male ambassadors like DJ Khaled and Kevin Smith.
WSJ: How many of WW’s subscribers are men, and how much do you plan to enlarge that segment?
Ms. TIFFORD: Approximately 10% of our subscribers are men, and we plan to grow that significantly. The healthy firehouse WSJ: How do you attract more men?
MS. TIFFORD: It’s really not hard. We are tailoring and targeting specific ads to men. We are putting more men in our advertising. One of our campaigns features a fireman who joined WW. He now has his entire fire station on it, and they are learning how to cook healthy and use the recipes. I also think the evolution to WW will help. It becomes a badge, as opposed to a stigma.
WSJ: How old is the average subscriber?
MS. TIFFORD: On average, a joining member is in their 40s.
WSJ: How do you get younger people to embrace the service?
MS. TIFFORD: First, it’s about creating experiences. You’ll see us really reimagining our studios. We could bring a chef in to give healthy-cooking lessons.
Another example is our oneyear partnership with the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, where we launched the WW Freestyle Café to provide healthy eating options for people who are going to concerts.
WSJ: WW paused its offer to give teenagers free memberships after the program faced backlash on social media from eatingdisorder groups claiming that dieting can lead to eating disorders in teens. Is the teen market still a priority for WW?
MS. TIFFORD: We’re committed to helping families get healthier, and—as with everything we do—it will be guided by science. We’ve formed a Youth Advisory Board made up of 24 experts from seven countries with expertise in pediatrics, psychology and healthy-weight management. They’ve met several times in the months since our announcement, and we look forward to sharing more on our approach soon.
WSJ: Will your push to diversify your subscriber base include adding more AfricanAmericans and Hispanics?
MS. TIFFORD: Yes
WSJ: Has that been an untapped opportunity for the company? How will you do it?
MS. TIFFORD: Yes. It’s about listening and understanding where their needs are, and how we can come into their communities and meet them where they are. That is the first step. It’s a really exciting opportunity. Keeping subscribers WSJ: On average, a new subscriber remains with the service for about nine months. Since churn is the enemy, how do you get people to stay longer?
MS. TIFFORD: We’d like to measure retention in terms of years. We are giving subscribers content that is outside of nutrition. We launched our rewards program, where members earn rewards when they update the app and track a meal, weight or attend a workshop. The pilot program for rewards showed increased engagement, satisfaction and retention. The second thing is Connect. Even once people have met their goals, they’re staying on to inspire other people in our in-app community. Another example is the launch of our partnership with Headspace, the meditation company. There will be a core selection of meditations available within our app, and then a new meditation will be featured every three weeks.