A brand is a promise of a relevant, differentiated trustworthy experience. Defining a brand means knowing the functional, emotional and social benefits of the promised experience; the values of the customer; the personality of the brand that appeals to those customers and the features that bring the benefits, values and personality to life.
A brand must always be in sync with the changing world and the changing world of its customers. At the same time, a brand must be true to its heritage. Abruptly shifting a brand’s purpose, its promise, and how it delivers against that promise can alter the bonds between core customers and the brand. You must know your core customer as if that person is your best friend. Changing your brand promise without conversations with your core customer is the same as changing the basis of your personal relationships.
This is Weight Watchers’ dilemma.
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For those people who think “brand” is just about image, ads, promotions, and digital games, think again. Brand has both physiological, psychological and emotional impacts. We relate to brands on many different levels. We build bonds with brands.
With Weight Watchers, generations of weight-loss customers who believed in the benefits of camaraderie, weigh-ins, points, willpower, mutuality, and support learned last year that maybe Weight Watchers’ approach was in many ways wrong. In fact, the then-CEO of Weight Watchers apologized for strongly advocating the willpower behavioral approach to weight loss as the way forward. The CEO apologized for not recognizing that for some people, the “you-can-do-it” approach of Weight Watchers’ discipline combined with its group discussions was probably, for a large number of its customers, destructive.
As you can imagine, the howls of current customers were loud. This unhappiness and anger were real—not the same as the laments when packaged goods are taken off the market. There has been a lot of serious psychic energy voiced regarding Weight Watchers’ shift to GLP-1 weight-loss drugs.
Weight Watchers desperately needs a Plan to Win. Now. To survive as a viable, customer-focused brand, Weight Watchers must address its purpose, promise, its strategic and tactical actions along with its related metrics.
The Weight Watchers core customer response – and possibly the effect on potential customers from the core customer response – as well as the miraculous weight-loss results of GLP-1 drugs, has resulted in a seriously troubled brand. In turn, Weight Watchers is now a target for private equity and investment fund financiers.
At the moment, according to The Wall Street Journal, Weight Watchers is being stalked by an investment fund. And no wonder. Weight Watchers’ stock is down almost 70% year-to-date.
When Weight Watchers saw its edge slipping away, the CEO decided to go full-tilt into GLP-1 offerings and programs. There was a reorganization and an approach overhaul. Rather than eliminate the standard regimens, Weight Watchers encircled its mindset and behaviors with the availability of GLP-1 drugs and medical personnel for counseling.
Since then, Weight Watchers has lost its CEO, CFO, and other executives, as well as former supporter and spokesperson Oprah Winfrey. Although a get-well strategy has been in place, the brand has gone to Wall Street for restructuring.
The investment firm leading the proxy fight may or may not make the Weight Watchers brand better. The firm’s statements indicate a desire to 1) cut costs and 2) generate a growth plan. Neither of these bodes well for Weight Watchers.
First, Weight Watchers has already cut costs. At some point there are no more costs to cut. You cannot cost-cut your way to enduring profitable growth. You need to decide whether you are keeping this brand or not.
Second, the investment firm indicates that Weight Watchers needs a turnaround plan, not a growth plan. Weight Watchers will not survive with a growth plan because Weight Watchers has not earned the right to grow. A growth plan is for a brand going in the right direction. Weight Watchers appears to be in the ER. A growth plan, instead of a turnaround plan, will damage the brand more than it already is damaged. Plus, Weight Watchers already has $1.4 billion in debt. You know this number will only increase with financial engineering.
A Plan to Win is needed because Weight Watchers must figure out what it intends to be, for whom it intends to be, what actions the brand must take to activate this purpose and promise, and how the brand will measure its progress.
At The Blake Project, we define A Plan to Win as a brand roadmap in which all business units are aligned around the same goals, actions, and measures. A Plan to Win reflects the vision and forward-looking mindset that is necessary for proper, disciplined strategic thinking. A Plan to Win provides planning boundaries and sets a future focus for enduring profitable growth. Growth that is not profitable and growth that is not enduring are both non-starters. Weight Watchers needs a Plan to Win for quality revenue growth, not just revenue growth.
Here are 8 key reasons For Weight Watchers to create and enact a Plan to Win.
- The purpose of the Plan to Win is to achieve organizational alignment. Considering that there has been an exodus of executives, organizational alignment is essential. A Plan to Win tackles the organizational, brand, and senior management desire for everyone being on the same page, so the brand can move ahead.
- A Plan to Win is actually a “one page” of Purpose, Promise, Actions, and Metrics to which all can adhere. A Plan to Win puts the brand’s Purpose, the Promise, must-do actions and performance metrics on a single page so that everyone is on the same page. For successful brand revitalization and for brand growth, the brand’s culture must change from playing to not lose to committing to win.
- A Plan to Win is defines how to win. The Plan to Win ensures the integration of brand actions for success across the Eight Ps: Purpose, Promise, People, Product, Place, Price, Promotion, and Performance.
- A Plan to Win is a common platform for rebuilding Trustworthy Brand Value. It provides the necessary framework for success.
- A Plan to Win creates a platform for renewal.
- A Plan to Win outlines the critical brand components from Purpose and Promise through the Five Action areas to the Performance measurements of progress. Inconsistent business and brand building create internal global chaos.
- A Plan to Win creates common clarity, encouraging everyone to aim in the same direction by having the same brand goals and priorities. You cannot be successful if you are unfocused. Focus is fundamental.
- A Plan to Win helps an organization act as an integrated team breaking down silos.
Weight Watchers is an iconic American brand. Its focus on helping individuals progress with weight loss has been an enduring part of life for many people. Weight Watchers deserves better than financial engineering. It now needs some helping hands. Sure, the brand faced off against science and data. And, even though the brand responded quickly, at the same time, the brand hurt itself by turning off a proportion of its core believers.
Weight Watchers does not need a growth plan. It needs a turnaround plan, which must, as a principle, keep its core customer base. Of course, a turnaround plan needs to stop the bleeding of cash. But there is already a cost-cutting initiative in place.
When it comes to brands, completely altering the brand’s promise without engaging its core customers first is problematic. Stop the bleeding. Adore the core. Create a Plan to Win. Modernize but do not jeopardize the brand promise. ASAP.
Contributed to Branding Strategy Insider by: Joan Kiddon, Partner, The Blake Project, Author of The Paradox Planet: Creating Brand Experiences For The Age Of I
At The Blake Project, we help clients worldwide, in all stages of development, define or redefine and articulate what makes them competitive at pivotal moments of change. This includes co-creating Plans To Win that propel their businesses and brands forward. Please email us to learn how we can help you compete differently.
Branding Strategy Insider is a service of The Blake Project: A strategic brand consultancy specializing in Brand Research, Brand Strategy, Brand Growth and Brand Education
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