Team Fivelounge 1

Fran Eighme

Mary Pharis

Jessica Plyer

Collin Shread

Jamie Wilson

NV Diet Pill Going in the Right Direction

In recent years, obesity has been escalating in the United States. For many years,

companies have been trying to come out with diet plans, exercise plans, and weight loss

products to target the overweight market. Diet plans seem to go in and out of style, like

the Atkins Diet. As well, many people feel that after awhile diet plans and exercise plans

aren’t enough, so they turn to weight loss products. Diet pills are the most commonly

bought weight loss product and the market has been growing over the past years. Diet

pills are not only bought by overweight people, but people who are just generally

concerned with staying a certain weight. Furthermore, the market for diet pills is even

larger due to the fact that America broadcasts skinny models in almost every

advertisement; Americans, even if they are not overweight, are trying to be skinny. The

market for being skinny is even larger among women and diet pills should be targeted

more so for women.

Along with feeling to fit the American image of beauty, the health factors that go

along with being a few pounds overweight are causing many people to diet and find

products to help lose weight. “In 2006, the National Cancer Institute alarmed the public

with recent study results showing even a few extra pounds can cause premature
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death”(Myers 1). With so many different types of cancer these days, people are very

concerned about developing it and constantly go to the doctor to make sure they don’t

have cancer. Knowing that their weight can affect the development of such a disease will

lead many to seek ways to drop those few extra pounds.

However, many people dieting still want to live a healthy life style and many diet

pills are not the healthiest product. Customers are becoming more concerned with eating

and using goods that are all natural. As well, other countries that are beginning to join the

diet craze tend to use all natural products. This may be a downside for many weight loss

companies, but for NV Weight Loss it gives them one step up the ladder.

NV, like all weight loss products, was started to help people loss weight.

However, it is also a product used to help sustain a person’s weight. This allows NV to

both be a product that customers losing weight or maintaining weight will be interested in

buying. As well, since it helps lose and maintain weight, those who buy it first to lose

weight, may be inclined to continue using the product after they lose weight.

Furthermore, NV uses all natural products and, one especially important

component, green tea. An extract found in green tea, called epigallocatechin gallate

(EGCG), has been shown to “increased endurance capacity, energy metabolism and fat

oxidation…” (Myers 6). Green tea is a natural product that will appeal to many dieters

who are trying to stay healthy. As well, the health benefits that go along with green tea,

may entice health conscious consumers to buy the product.

The fact that green tea is used in NV makes it appeal to the growing Asian market.

The market for weight loss products is growing in Southeast Asia due to health benefits
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that the goods provide. Analysis estimate that the target in Southeast Asia reached over 2

billion dollars in 2005 alone and “ingredients such as conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) and

green tea extract targeting the weight loss market saw significant growth rates in

2005”( Weight Loss Products 1). Green tea being a main component of the NV diet pill

will appeal strongly to the Asian market and sales should increase.

More over, many of the ingredients in NV have been found to be very beneficial

to a healthy lifestyle. Green tea, hoodia gordonii, theobromine, taurine, ginseng, collagen,

and silica are a few of the many ingredients that promote weight lose and other healthy

affects. For example, theobromine has been tested to have a mood improving affect and

silica benefits skin, hair, and nails (NV Exposed 1). Although, not all the ingredients

promote weight loss they do promote some kind of beneficial affect that will help women

feel beautiful and confident. Furthermore, women who begin feel beautiful and confident

will be more likely to continue to use the product.

The impact that American media has on the public makes it a wise decision to

have Carmen Electra as the NV spokeswoman. She will appeal to those wanting to look

like her as well as those trying to maintain their weight. More over, “ideals about how

one’s body should be shaped are influenced primarily by images disseminated through

the mass media (i.e., advertising, television, movies, magazines, music videos, etc.), as

well as general cultural politics” (Demeritt 2). More so than just striving to look like

models portrayed in the media, seeing Carmen Electra speaking about NV may cause

people to want to look like her and take the product she is using.
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As well, over recent years many other diet pills have come under attack for falsely

showing “before” and “after” pictures (The Irish Times 1). The fact that NV uses Carmen

Elektra will help keep such discrediting attacks away from them. Carmen Elektra had

been in the limelight for years and everyone knows that she has never been fat. This

allows people to see that the NV diet pill is for more than just losing weight. It is for

controlling their weight and for making ones “outer appearance match her inner glow…

[and] maintain [her] looks, energy, and confidence” (Carmen Elektra and the NV 1).

Furthermore, the bottle that the diet pill comes in may appeal to the glamorous

lifestyle many women want to have. Instead of buying a bottle that resembles every other

medication bottle, they can know buy a slender, red bottle that will match their new

slender, sexy body. Furthermore, the bottle is so unique that it will easily stand out in

peoples mind which will help if people go into a store not really sure which diet pill to

buy; it will be more likely that they will remember a red bottle and the name associated

with it than a typical, white bottle.

Also appealing to women is the fact that NV is called the “‘couture diet pill and

the ‘supermodel diet pill’” (Mohan 1). This is the diet pill that they will see as being

sophisticated enough to appeal to the rich and famous; they will be more intrigued to buy

something that will bring a bit of elegance into their life. Moreover, NV advertises itself

as more than a diet pill. Advertising to its consumers “Be sexy. Be confident. Be desired

with NV” is very appealing because most other diet pills simply talk about losing weight.

Many women dieting are already self-conscious so advertisement that doesn’t completely

announce the fact that they are trying to lose weight will make them fill more confident.
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Also, the pill says it will give them confidence and make them sexy so that they will be

desired and, as made obvious by the name, envied.

Diet pills are extraordinary products, but many people have an imprudent view of

what the pills do. They assume that they should be able to take the pill and lose weight

without dieting or exercising. This is a very misguided idea; many dieters and consumers

of the pills may become frustrated when they do not start to lose weight and stop buying

the product. To avoid such problems, NV should consider creating a diet and workout

plan. Recently workout and diet plans, like Curves and Weight Watchers, have been

growing among women trying to lose weight. If NV includes with the bottle a diet plan,

for the amount of time one bottle of NV should last, may entice more dieters to try NV; as

well, it may encourage those using the pill to stay on it. After, the diet plan comes to an

end NV should encourage its consumers to visit a website that has further diet and work

out plans. A fee should be charged for applying to the extended program and a monthly

payment could be enforced. Yet, to keep customers, a discount for the diet pills should be

extended to those on the diet plan. Another approach that NV could take would be to

follow the example of programs like Jenny Craig and Weight Watchers and sell pre-made

frozen meal options that are low calorie and low fat and aid in the weight loss of the

dieter. By combining these meal options with the proposed exercised plans and the NV

pill itself, the dieter would experience more effective weight loss.

A quickly growing target market for diet pills is female adolescents and in girls

“ages 19 to 20 nearly 20% reported using diet pills” (Brink 1) to help control their

weight. By targeting female adolescents NV could expand its client base and having
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Carmen Electra as the spokeswoman for the product only helps in that expansion. While

this might not be the most ethical approach, to help in the marketing of these adolescent

females, NV could offer a discount to girls who presented their college or high school

IDs when purchasing the product. They could also hand out coupons on college or high

school campuses. This would make the product less expensive for young girls who

struggle financially throughout college.