CASE STUDY 4
WEIGHT I AM ON ATKINS
By: Chaouechi Chaïma
Tlili Amal
Wajih Jbaî
Rihab Labidi

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
ASSOCIATED
WITH OBESITY? WITH EATING
DISORDERS? WHAT PSYCHOLOGICAL
FACTORS?

Factors associated with obesity include the following:
Firstly, obesity in the adult population has been increasing over the years. So
with respect to the cultural perspective, the children are also likely to grow
up to be over-weight adults. Such people are prone to major problems
ranging from heart attacks to cancer and kidney diseases along with other
emotional upsets and depression.
This case reveals that a study has proven that over weight children face
problems such as poor social interactions, lack of athletic power, low school
achievement and trouble in family relationships. Not only this, the children
become a victim of many medical problems like sleep apnea, fatty liver or
high cholesterol.
The personal lifestyle of people is also directly associated to obesity in the
sense that the office workers usually spend a lot of time sitting down instead
of 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 people
towards eating more fast food than the healthy ones. Then the processed
food such as canned or frozen products are very frequently used since they
are an easier come by, which are convenient to use thus making it easy to
overeat.
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 problems
since the force comes from the perception of being thin. It thus leads to
dependency, 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 AND
EATING DISORDERS? IS THIS
DESIRABLE?

American businesses have been taking advantage of both, obesity and
eating disorders in people, by increased promotional campaigns. These
businesses specifically include the fast food retailers and the frozen food
sellers in the sense that they are easily available and carry no hassle of
preparation for the food lovers. As for the anorexics, the empowerment of
people becoming thin has been promoted by television, internet,
magazines
and movies.
As far as the desirability is concerned, although these strategies
undertaken
by the firms satisfy the target consumer needs, but they tend to be
injurious
to their health and simply add to the problems they have to face (as
discussed in earlier questions).

Q5) AMERICANS SPEND MORE THAN $100
BILLION A YEAR ON WAYS TO
LOSE WEIGHT, BUT IT DOESN’T HAPPEN. NEXT
YEAR, THE SAME PEOPLE
WILL PROBABLY SPEND MORE. PEOPLE APPEAR
NOT TO CARE IF THEY
DON’T GET THE PRODUCT THEY PAY FOR.
WHAT SOCIAL, CULTURAL AND
PERSONAL 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 concerned
about status than health i.e. the White Americans so they will accept the
products new in the market irrespective of the fact that it doesn’t get the
required 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 concerned
about getting the stated outcome. This shows that they afford to pay the
amount. Moreover, those who are brand conscious tend to buy whatever is
“in” those days in the market. Lastly, the Lifestyle shows that it has become
a social outing to work out for people so it doesn’t really matter if they don’t
avail the amount they pay.
Businesses, of course, do benefit from these factors and try to take maximum
advantage out of it. Since the main aim of organizations is to make profit
and maximize shareholder’s wealth, they tend to extract profits out of it
along with building profitable customer relationships by satisfying their
brand conscious thinking patterns.