There is another Diet Delivery Service out there getting attention; The Fresh Diet. Their revenues are expanding by making your waist line slimmer! What is a Diet Delivery Service? They deliver diets? No of course not, but they do deliver "hope", the hope of losing weight in an effortless manner. The "hope" they are selling is why people will fork over (just had to use the food metaphor) over $1,000 for a 31 day plan. More on the marketing strategy of diet delivery services later.
America is in an obesity crisis as I wrote in It's Not Easy Selling Healthy. According to the Center for Disease Control U.S. Obesity Trends report her is a startling fact: "During the past 20 years there has been a dramatic increase in obesity in the United States. In 2009, only Colorado and the District of Columbia had a prevalence of obesity less than 20%." Check out the site, they have an animated map that shows obesity prevalence from 1985 through 2009.
Think of Diet Delivery Services as combination of your own chef combined with a nutritionist making all or most of the meal decisions for you helping your achieve your goal of losing weight. For many consumers, grocery shopping is a chore and time consumer. Once you shop, there is the kitchen time for meal preparation made more complex if you are focusing "good for you meals". Creative meal planning that avoids the boredom of limited choice is constant struggle. Maintaining a sustainable healthy diet is very difficult for most consumers, hence the disturbing trends in obesity. Finally no one likes the cleanup associated with home prepared meals.
Most of the diet delivery services position themselves as food and nutrition experts that prepare "gourmet" meals that you can't prepare on your own and ship it to your house, either via an overnight delivery service, like FedEx or delivered in specially outfitted vans. The promise is heat, eat and lose weight in relatively short periods of time, attaining your goal in 30 to 90 days.
We are all familiar with the major brands such as Jenny Craig,Nutrisystem, and theZoneDiet. You would be hard pressed to go more than a few days without seeing theNutrisystem The New You Revolution commercials or their spokesperson Marie Osmond.
The Fresh Diet according to the Top Food & Beverage Companies on the Inc. 5000 list has revenue of $7 Million and had a 3 year growth rate 1582% ranking them #4 in the food and beverage sector they cover. Fox News Network features The Fresh Diet in a segment on companies doing well during the recession and states the Diet Delivery Industry $1.5 billion and the company has approximately 4000 customers. Fresh Diet started in Miami five years ago and has since expanded to Chicago & NY Tri-State Area, San Diego, San Francisco, Philly, Washington DC, Boston and other metropolitan areas.
Its meals are prepared according to the well known Dr. Barry Sears 40/30/30 formula which stands for 40% carbs, 30% protein and 30% fat. They say we "…offer clients fresh daily-prepared meals that are never frozen, freeze-dried or vacuum packed" which is something the major players can't claim. They deliver 3 freshly prepared gourmet meals plus 2 snacks delivered directly to your home daily. Sounds good, but you must be prepared to spend $1084 per month which equates to $35 per day which is more expensive than shopping for groceries and preparing your own meals.
