Consumer Segments Different Industry Psychographics:

¶ … Consumer Segments

Different industry psychographics: The diet industry

Younger women recent television advertising campaign by Lean Cuisine, the 'diet' version of Stouffers frozen food products, portrays a group of young women, all relatively fit and attractive, although not 'model thin,' comparing their different strange dinners. One woman talks about eating pint of fat-free ice cream, another a lump of carb-free Gouda cheese, but soon they trumped by one woman who describes her delicious, perfectly prepared meal that is neatly balanced between protein, carbohydrates, and vegetables -- all found in a box of Lean Cuisine. The market demographic the company is clearly targeting is that of young women desiring to lose those extra ten pounds to fit into a slimmer size of jeans.

The women do not have children in the advertisement, and also because of the nature of the product, it is unlikely that a woman with a family to feed would be able to serve frozen dinners -- or eat a pint of guilty ice cream for dinner, either. Even the website stresses how Lean Cuisine allows women to "have it all," including taste, nutrition, and low calories. This buzzword is likely to appeal to young women trying to balance a career, relationships, and an active social life.

The food products offered on its website are also fairly 'forward' in incorporating new tastes and food trends, like Southwestern spices and Panini sandwiches, that an older woman might not be as interested in trying on a new diet plan. The attractiveness and delicacy of the white box also shows the focus of Lean Cuisine is women, not men, as is its stress upon the health benefits of its whole grain pastas and other offerings that attempt to balance high nutritional content with the need for portion control.

Older Women

In contrast to Lean Cuisine, the diet company Jenny Craig, which sells food and diet counseling for a fee, uses older women in its advertising, often with clear 'weight problems.' The most famous Jenny Craig advertising campaign was of self-proclaimed 'fat actress' Kristie Alley. Unlike the slim women of the Lean Cuisine advertisements, Kristie Alley's target weight was far higher. Alley was memorable as a formerly beautiful young actress who gained weight as she matured, and her ability to get slimmer, although not as slim as her old, younger self, symbolized Jenny Craig's focus on realistic goals for older women with families, who did not want to get back into their high school size jeans, but attain a more healthy, attractive weight.

The company's use of former glamour girls of the 1970s and 80s, like Kristie Alley and Valerie Bertinelli, also indicates that the company target demographic is older than that of Lean Cuisine. Valerie Bertinelli even keeps a blog linked to the Jenny Craig website, to inspire users of the program with her own story. Queen Latifah is also featured on the company's website as a full-figured, yet slightly slimmed down, healthy, fit woman.

Jenny Craig stresses its ease of fitting into a busy lifestyle, as the food is pre-prepared, and also its healthful balance. It is not low-carb and does it entirely cut out sweets and indulgent foods -- portion control is important in the program, as it is for Lean Cuisine. It also offers counseling for women about emotional over-eating. Learning how not to over-eat for comfort, not conforming to an ideal of past, youthful beauty, is the focus of Jenny Craig. It is thus a plan that addresses the needs and concerns of a woman who basically accepts herself, but wants to abandon some of her more unhealthy eating habits.

Carb-conscious dieters

One of the unique facets of the Atkins diet promotional campaign is that it does not only feature women. This may sound unremarkable, but given that the major diet retailers usually use women, who are presumably more weight-conscious than men because of aesthetic reasons (or feel more culturally pressured to subject themselves to the rigors of dieting) this feature of Atkins is noteworthy. Atkins is a high-protein diet and has been highly criticized by members of the medical community as being unbalanced and unhealthy. However, its embrace of meat and cheese as 'diet products' has made it more attractive to men than the strict portion control advocated by Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig.