Weight Watchers was founded in 1963 by Jean Nidtech, in Queens, NY, and has built up a track record of over 40 years of helping people lose weight. The company has been built on the philosophy that "dieting is just one part of long-term weight management," and therefore has built an entire weight loss system around its food products. The company has been able to grow to popularity on the basis that it works, because it emphasizes mental, emotional and physical health all in a combined package (Weight Watchers, 2014).
The Weight Watchers program includes education about nutrition and how to manage one's weight, but it also provides the tools needed to do this. Thus, there are booklets, pamphlets, online assistance, food products as well as meetings and other social organization that help to provide the sort of emotional and social support needed to help people change their daily habits and lose weight through developing good, healthy habits in place of the poor habits that created the weight issue in the first place (Weight Watchers, 2014).
The company began in the early 60s, but has grown rapidly since then. By the 1980s, it was worldwide, and a popular means of losing weight. It has now been purchased by a European parent company, but shares in Weight Watchers are still available and are traded on the New York Stock Exchange. Weight Watchers has revenues in excess of $1.7 billion, and profits of $200 million (MSN Moneycentral, 2014). These figures have been relatively stable, testament to the enduring popularity of Weight Watchers, which is the result of program effectiveness and high brand recognition as an innovator and market leader among weight loss solutions.
The company has a scientific advisory board that seeks to ensure the efficacy of its products and programs, and also to find ways to improve on how Weight Watchers can help all people to manage their weight.
Incentives
Weight Watchers has a Corporate Solutions division that caters specifically to the corporate market. The Weight Watchers program is perfectly suited to the corporate market because of the emphasis on peer support, which is a key component of the mental and emotional health. When you are enrolled with your peers at work, it is easier for the group to support its members, and to help people deal with any issues that may arise, such as relapses or temptations.
The Weight Watchers corporate plan has a number of different benefits. It comes with the Weight Watchers online program, that allows enrollees to monitor their consumption and exercise, to schedule consumption and have 24/7 access to information, in real time, from their computer or mobile device.
Enrollees will also have access to Weight Watchers Meetings. These meetings will have an experienced leader. They may be peer group meetings within the company, or externally in the community. Either way is fine because Weight Watchers has built this flexibility into its program. Weight Watchers partners with Human Resources departments in order to provide this benefit for employees, so that the cost is shared as part of the benefits package. Weight Watchers is beneficial to its corporate clients because it can lower health care costs, which are a major cost for any business, both in terms of insurance costs and in terms of man-hours lost to illness and injury. Weight Watchers is therefore a solution that should appeal to any company, as it has a net positive value, and employees trust in the reliability and enduring value of the Weight Watchers program.
Success Stories
With its long history, Weight Watchers has helped tens of thousands of people transform themselves. There are a number of testimonials available from real people who have experienced real results. Here are a couple of testimonials from the company's website, to highlight how Weight Watchers helped them to realize their weight loss goals. Rhonda wanted to arrive at her 50th birthday with a healthy body and signed up online for Weight Watchers in order to make it happen. Her motivation in her own words: "My mother had hypertension and heart disease, and passed away from breast cancer. My father has had surgery for prostate cancer. I didn't have serious health issues yet, but I was overweight and I knew if I didn't make changes to my life, bigger health problems would arise."
Like a lot of people, Rhonda could not resist the classic comfort foods, but over time, those foods cause weight gain. Nobody wants to give up their favorite foods,...
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