One of my childhood friends, who have always been obese, had
his awakening call 2 years back. He started with a simple diet plan, then
started going to programs promising to reduce 4-6 inches in 1 week, later
started taking tabs, tonics, powders, and other supplements to reduce weight.
His Moto was rather simple he actually wanted to reduce weight with very little
or no physical exercise.
Though he understood the fact that Exercise is the best and
cheaper way to reduce weight his argument was “When a product is available in
the market to reduce weight without exercise why not take it?” It strike me… we
buy many things in life just as a supplement to reduce our human effort; any
machine is made - invented is to reduce human effort as bottom line. In that
context why not buy a product which would reduce your weight without sweating a
drop.
Now the question is whether there is a product truly made
(Applicable to Everyone) to reduce weight without involving the traditional
method that is Exercise? The Answer is
as much as I know and have seen there is none. If my statement is true then how
come this industry survives…? When it cannot do what it supposed to do for a
major chunk of their customer base if not all. In a recent article in New York Times
I read Weight Lose market has a $ 3 Billion whooping US dollars market turnover
in US alone… Imagine other countries in Asia where Obesity population levels
are growing every day.
In order to understand better I had an honest discussion with
my friend about his failures attending various programs to lose weight.
Initially he commented saying all the programs he attended either did not suit
him or did not worked as expected… so I asked why continue doing the same
error, Initially he did not have answer later on I realised it was his guilt of
quitting made all the difference, Someone trying to quit smoking is no
different than my friend who is afraid to quit going to people promising to
reduce his weight.
Corporates in weight lose industry, who produce and sell
Powders, Tablets, Diet Plans, Books etc… know for a matter of fact that there
consumer market will never reduce and it will only multiply though they produce
no results. They confidently open shops investing only on marketing. Where they
market not their products, but creating a Maya that FAT PEOPLE ARE UGLY.
Mostly the trend I see in the corporations is this, they
struggle so much only to make a prospective customer to a customer, they do
very little to retain them, as chances of a customer quitting using their
product is very high (which they are completely aware off), or the payment plan is in such way that mostly they make their
profit in the first transaction itself. They see only two kinds of customers,
first one is the kind who know it’s not working but the guilt of quitting makes
them stay and pay. Second One is the one
who boldly calls a quit but eventually lands up in another program and ends up
paying….It’s a cycle.
Corporates follow simple game theory as there marketing strategy,
once a person enters there office only 2 options are given to him/her and they
are forced to choose one. Either choose a program and get stuck there or call
it quit and join another program. As you see both the options are designed by
the corporates and you have left with no choice either u spend and stay with
this corporates and be happy in heart thinking you are at least trying or live
with the feeling you are FAT and UGLY.
