Consumer Perceptions of the Obesity Issue

Consumer Perceptions of the Obesity Issue
As consumers turn to diversions (Im not overweight, Imjust big boned), the rate of obesity continues to climb.
by Laurie Demeritt

From public health officials, nutritionists, policyanalysts, policy makers, food retailers and manufacturers to televisions Dr.Phil, seemingly everyone has weighed in on the subject of obesity in America.While all agree obesity is a national health problem of epidemic proportions andwatch as the number of overweight individuals fails to drop in spite ofunprecedented levels of awareness and an overwhelming amount of health andnutrition information, experts remain unable to answer a very importantquestion. Namely, why is it that the most overweight individuals appear unableto address their problem?

According to the 2004 study by The Hartman Group, Obesityin America: Understanding Weight Management from a Consumer Perspective,most overweight individuals do not seem overly interested in doing anythingabout it.They are concerned about the problem of obesity much the same waythat they are also concerned about global warming, asbestos and gingivitis. Theyacknowledge it is a problem, just not their problem.

When it comes to personal weight assessment, consumers lackobjectivity in identifying obesity. Most consumers consider their weight to befairly average. This comes despite the fact that 66 percent of respondents inThe Hartman Groups nationally representative sample of 5,000 U.S. consumersare considered overweight or obese according to body mass index (BMI)measurements. Additionally, most overweight consumers still believe they arephysically healthy. The conundrum is that while these consumers recognize othersas being overweight, they see themselves as average.

Perhaps even more interesting, the words obese and obesity are not part of the consumers daily lexicon concerning bodyweight. Predominantly, consumers view obese or obesity as negative,clinical terms that have infiltrated their lives from the medical profession asopposed to words that emerged from the context of everyday life. These wordssignify a restricted minority of overweight people rarely encountered ineveryday life.

When consumers hear the word obese, images typicallycome to mind of very large, grossly overweight or humongous people. In this portrayal, obesity is actually a smaller subset of fat.In fact, many consumers in the study suggested the word obese only appliesto people who are very, very overweight, somewhere in the range of 120 to200 pounds overweight.

The language people use to describe themselves and theirweight is very different than the language that the government, the media andothers use. When asked to self assess their weight, consumers use consistentlanguage themes, such as extensive use of euphemisms (e.g., big-boned, curvy) todescribe themselves. Additionally, they use their stomach as the initial site ofweight self-assessment, and they express uncertainty about the relevance oftheir weight to their health. While consumers say they are aware of the supposedconnection between excess weight and health risks, most do not perceivethemselves at risk.

Beyond the Bathroom Scale

Questions about how obesity affects individuals day-to-daylives remain largely unanswered. Contrary to conventional wisdom, people dounderstand the relationship between calories consumed and calories burned.Consumers are not lacking for nutritional information. Policies aimed ateducating the overweight and near overweight about how to get real and overcometheir problem are doomed to failure as long as they persistently ignore thefact that people have yet to agree they have a problem.

Virtually every person has a mental image of an ideal body.The body image that people carry around with them and that informs theirinternal weight manager is a composite picture of the images of real peopleencountered in the daily grind. Beliefs about how ones body should beshaped or look are, not surprisingly, influenced primarily by images thatdominate electronic and print media, entertainment and cultural politics.

For many, these ideals serve as desirable goals, but goalsthat are in the form of wishes, as in, I really wish that my body looked likeso and so (on TV, movie or in an ad). In the same breath that peoplearticulate these desires for an idealized body, they also realize these goalsare not necessarily realistic. For example, they know to achieve that lookthey would have to drop 20 or 30 pounds, grow a couple inches and have cosmeticsurgery.

Rather than serving as gauges for managing ones weight,these ideals become markers for fashion and entertainment. In other words, theyare not driving changes in behavior with regard to attaining or maintaining acertain body shape. Visual self perception derives as much from comparisons toothers as it does from personal attributes. We implicitly compare ourselves toothers to see if we are underweight or overweight.We may even ask for othersopinions to validate the comparison. And we spend much less time studying BMI charts than we dokeeping an eye on our friends and relatives to decide when it is time to gain orlose weight. For example, a spouse may ask her partner, Do you think I weighless (or more) than my sister?

Discussing body and weight issues is not easy. Many peoplewould rather turn to impersonal networks typically developed around targetedweight loss programs, such as Jenny Craig or Weight Watchers, than discussobesity-related issues with those closest to them. This means individualassessments of a persons own body weight are highly subjective and oftentransitory.

Although people are not oblivious to weight in an absolutesense, their subjective assessments of weight are definitely not constrained bymere physical measurements. Rather than rely solely on the bathroom scale andother objective measurements, most consumers will turn and look at their socialnetworks, co-workers and people around them on a daily basis to decide when andhow much to worry about weight. In their minds, the Center for Disease Controlestimates that two-thirds of the population is overweight or, worse, tends torelate to strangers, those people who are contestants on reality TV showsto determine the biggest loser or take Dr. Phils weight loss challenge.

Consumers form weight-related opinions of themselves inreference to specific aspects of daily life, such as how they compare to thosein social networks, and tend to judge others, especially strangers, against moregeneralized cultural standards. In part, this stems from the fact that people rely on personalcircumstances to explain their self-assessments (Ive put on a few extrapounds over the years, mostly because an old ankle injury prevents a lot ofwalking), but often lack this basic information when it comes to evaluatingothers.

When asked to form judgments about an individual in anillustration, participants in our obesity study made up stories to help thembetter assess the individuals condition. Invariably, these stores draw onculturally derived images and language, which moved the standard used to judgethe illustrated individual closer to what one might consider an idealized bodyimage. This inclination to use a double standard, rather than aninability to see ones self accurately, is what makes consumers selfassessment generally less critical than their assessment of others.

Recommendations

Marketers interested in making a connection with weightmanagementconscious consumers should not use command and controlnarratives (Lose weight now!). Instead, narratives that adopt the languageand cadence of the consumers plight will resonate with the consumer, speakingto him or her more as a friend and less as a distant, belligerent authority.

Weight management messages focusing on health conditions orscience will not resonate with consumers who are trying to make a change.Rather, utilize commiseration narratives that focus on issues such as improvedappearance and social acceptance.

Consumers want opportunities to meet other consumers withsimilar lifestyles and weight management goals. Position your companys Website as a community meeting place for consumers to dialogue with oneanother.

Companies need to assist consumers in the understanding ofportion sizes. Potential options include offering pre-divided portions withineach package or offering individually wrapped portions. Although many of theidentified barriers to effective portion size control lie well beyond the domainof food manufacturers, companies should have realistic and appropriate portionsize information available.

Finally, most consumers looking to manage their weight areseeking healthy options. In this instance, the consumer perception of healthymeans fresh, balanced, authentic and homemade, as well as convenient andeasy to prepare.

Laurie Demeritt is the president and chief operating officer(COO) of The Hartman Group, a leading consulting and market research firm. TheHartman Group (www.hartman-group.com) specializes in the analysis andinterpretation of consumer lifestyles and how these lifestyles affect thepurchase and use of health and wellness products and services. Their client baseincludes a number of Fortune 500 consumer packaged goods companies,pharmaceutical firms, and mass and natural food retailers.