Post by Kitty on Aug 7, 2022 0:48:55 GMT
So, I just read the earnings call transcript for the 2nd Quarter of this year.
Earning Call Transcript
I have to say I love what the new CEO was saying (Sima Sistani). She was very upfront and said many things that many of us have said. I knew that she had used WW herself. She mentioned in the call that she has been a member since 2014. So that tells me she started during Points Plus and then has gone through all the Smart Points iterations.
More detail below but the key points she made:
Weight Watchers has spent too much time hiding from weight loss to focus on wellness. That makes no sense since WW is the best weight loss program (note the WW is my shortening, she always used Weight Watchers). Personal Points is fine from a science and efficacy standpoint but it has been too complicated. Digital programs need to build community and it is hard to do that with Personal Points. They will not wait 2 years to solve problems they see in the program right now.
Now for the more detail:
The big problem is apparently that the new program did not drive new subscriber growth as much as they expected it to. The problem is not existing member retention. It is getting new sign ups. There is a bigger program with digital than workshop members.
It is crystal clear that she is a big fan of workshops. She thinks that community and connection
Sima comes from a social media and gaming background (Fortnite). Those are areas where digital community making is really important. She clearly feels that WW is failing at that.
Her view is that what needs to happen with WW is to build a community around weight loss and heath. She feels that haven't brought to the digital experience (80% of members are digital) what they do best in workshops.
She was asked about using the term Weight Watchers. She was clear she and they are going to pretty much use that all the time. She dismissively said that WW was part of the corporate name and was a nickname for Weight Watchers.
I mean, it is just so clear that she feels that Mindy Grossman's running away from weight loss and her focus on "wellness" was just nuts.
This is the gist of what she said about Personal Points:
1. It should have performed better
2. It moves science forward in having a program for people with diabetes and the new point's algorithm
3. The science and efficacy of it are fine.
4. Challenge is that we added complexity when consumers want simplicity.
5.
6. Members want connection. They want to easily find members like them, share recommendations and recipes, and feel like part of a supportive group.
She was very cagey about what they plan to do to fix this. She did say they won't wait 2 years to solve it. They will roll out solutions and will evolve and improve the program.
She talked about finding aha moments, which she said were the moments that matter. Also things that are predictive behaviors that are triggers that make people more likely to engage. She gave an example from FB in its early years. People tended to stick with it if they got 7 "friends" within some specified period.
She talked a bit about them working to improve the app which she says they are rolling out.
My comments:
They are going back to marketing that focuses on Weight Watchers being about weight loss and how Weight Watchers is better and healthier at weight loss than other programs. They want the digital experience to build the community you get with workshops. I think she feels that digital is having a hard time doing that with Personal Points because everyone is doing their own thing. This isn't like when you had blue and green and purple for example. There are just so many possible permutations of zero point food lists that it is hard to have a group of similar people. Everyone is splintered.
In some ways, I personally like having the ability to choose what foods are zero point. I choose not to have zero point fruit because I don't love fruit. That got me back 3 points a day which is great for me. If they simplify the offerings then I am going to lose those 3 points again.
They did talk a lot about the diabetes plan being successful and I think they will clearly continue that.
My guess is that they are doing to simplify things. I would be surprised if they outright go back to blue, purple, green. I guess they could do it using the new algorithm. But, I do think the idea of having a few specific plans to choose from is likely the way they will go. The difference between blue, purple and green was mostly about how much zero point foods you had. But, the foods that could be zero point were the same across the whole program. Just that with purple you got all of those foods as zero point while with green you didn't and blue was more in between. I could perhaps envision plans where the differences were more in what foods were zero point rather than how much was zero point. But! That is more complex.
They could reduce the number of foods you could choose as zero point. But they still have to be careful on that. Back in the day, they could list a food and you could clearly say that if you were on Green it was X points, on blue it was Y points and on purple it was Z points. Now, you can't do that at all. I think they want to get back to a situation where there are only a few options there and so you can find on digital your "group" of people doing the same thing you are doing.
Earning Call Transcript
I have to say I love what the new CEO was saying (Sima Sistani). She was very upfront and said many things that many of us have said. I knew that she had used WW herself. She mentioned in the call that she has been a member since 2014. So that tells me she started during Points Plus and then has gone through all the Smart Points iterations.
More detail below but the key points she made:
Weight Watchers has spent too much time hiding from weight loss to focus on wellness. That makes no sense since WW is the best weight loss program (note the WW is my shortening, she always used Weight Watchers). Personal Points is fine from a science and efficacy standpoint but it has been too complicated. Digital programs need to build community and it is hard to do that with Personal Points. They will not wait 2 years to solve problems they see in the program right now.
Now for the more detail:
The big problem is apparently that the new program did not drive new subscriber growth as much as they expected it to. The problem is not existing member retention. It is getting new sign ups. There is a bigger program with digital than workshop members.
It is crystal clear that she is a big fan of workshops. She thinks that community and connection
They're coming for the weight loss, but they're staying there because of the belonging, because of the connection because people are supporting each other through their weight-loss journey. That's the part that I'm saying is missing from Digital.
Sima comes from a social media and gaming background (Fortnite). Those are areas where digital community making is really important. She clearly feels that WW is failing at that.
Digital ends up being a very lonely experience. And remember, we're coming out of two years of COVID, where people feel lonelier than ever, and weight loss is an emotional problem. In order to solve it, you needed emotional solution that's only something that other humans can provide. So just as a reminder, I've been a part of this program since 2014. I came in with a clear vision of where I think we should go and what's going to catalyze the future of this product. I spent decades building sticky social and gaming experiences that do just that bring empathy to online experiences. So what I'm saying that we need to bring more of that magic online. I'm not saying it literally. I mean it figuratively that we can build better community. You come for the weight loss that you stay for the community.
Her view is that what needs to happen with WW is to build a community around weight loss and heath. She feels that haven't brought to the digital experience (80% of members are digital) what they do best in workshops.
She was asked about using the term Weight Watchers. She was clear she and they are going to pretty much use that all the time. She dismissively said that WW was part of the corporate name and was a nickname for Weight Watchers.
It's proven that Weight Watchers is 2 times more effective for weight loss than doing it yourself and we haven't said that enough because over the past few years, we've hid behind wellness versus being prideful about what set us apart. We're the Number 1 doctor recommended program for weight management. And we didn't do ourselves any favors by moving away from a clear weight loss message.
I mean, it is just so clear that she feels that Mindy Grossman's running away from weight loss and her focus on "wellness" was just nuts.
This is the gist of what she said about Personal Points:
1. It should have performed better
2. It moves science forward in having a program for people with diabetes and the new point's algorithm
3. The science and efficacy of it are fine.
4. Challenge is that we added complexity when consumers want simplicity.
5.
We launched PersonalPoints saying that no two people are alike, so no two plans are alike. But I believe White Watchers' super power has always been its ability to unite people into a community and the data supports this point of vi
She was very cagey about what they plan to do to fix this. She did say they won't wait 2 years to solve it. They will roll out solutions and will evolve and improve the program.
She talked about finding aha moments, which she said were the moments that matter. Also things that are predictive behaviors that are triggers that make people more likely to engage. She gave an example from FB in its early years. People tended to stick with it if they got 7 "friends" within some specified period.
She talked a bit about them working to improve the app which she says they are rolling out.
My comments:
They are going back to marketing that focuses on Weight Watchers being about weight loss and how Weight Watchers is better and healthier at weight loss than other programs. They want the digital experience to build the community you get with workshops. I think she feels that digital is having a hard time doing that with Personal Points because everyone is doing their own thing. This isn't like when you had blue and green and purple for example. There are just so many possible permutations of zero point food lists that it is hard to have a group of similar people. Everyone is splintered.
In some ways, I personally like having the ability to choose what foods are zero point. I choose not to have zero point fruit because I don't love fruit. That got me back 3 points a day which is great for me. If they simplify the offerings then I am going to lose those 3 points again.
They did talk a lot about the diabetes plan being successful and I think they will clearly continue that.
My guess is that they are doing to simplify things. I would be surprised if they outright go back to blue, purple, green. I guess they could do it using the new algorithm. But, I do think the idea of having a few specific plans to choose from is likely the way they will go. The difference between blue, purple and green was mostly about how much zero point foods you had. But, the foods that could be zero point were the same across the whole program. Just that with purple you got all of those foods as zero point while with green you didn't and blue was more in between. I could perhaps envision plans where the differences were more in what foods were zero point rather than how much was zero point. But! That is more complex.
They could reduce the number of foods you could choose as zero point. But they still have to be careful on that. Back in the day, they could list a food and you could clearly say that if you were on Green it was X points, on blue it was Y points and on purple it was Z points. Now, you can't do that at all. I think they want to get back to a situation where there are only a few options there and so you can find on digital your "group" of people doing the same thing you are doing.