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Americans' growth in girth creates marketing opportunity

By Margaret Webb Pressler
The Washington Post

	PRNEWS Tennis star Serena Williams and actor Paul Newman join Ronald McDonald at a McDonald's in New York City yesterday. The fast-food chain is now selling salads with Newman's brand of dressings for weight-conscious customers.
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America's growing obesity "was never considered" up until five years ago, Senytka says. Now it's "a very real situation." The problem is finding the space to fit a wider passenger "because there's so much more going into a vehicle than there was 10 years ago."

The automotive industry isn't the only business feeling America's weight problem. Companies of all kinds are adjusting their designs, measurements, marketing, menus and training in an effort to find ways to prevent, accommodate — even profit from — growing waistlines.

But obesity hasn't been easy for many businesses to deal with. Some embrace it, others are scared of it, and some just won't talk about it. That's the typical reaction of American business to any "momentous sea change in the public," said Bobby Calder, a marketing professor at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management.

"That's the model you'd learn from history," he said, such as the rising Hispanic population, or the sudden widespread Internet use. "First there's the threat, (then) it sets in that people really care about it and there's a consciousness about it, so there's got to be a marketing opportunity."

When it comes to obesity, American business is in the midst of that transition.

It's no news that in the past 20 years, obesity has skyrocketed: Nearly a third of all adult Americans, or about 62 million people, have a body mass index (BMI) of greater than 30, which is the clinical definition of obesity. That's the equivalent of a 5-5 woman weighing 180 pounds or a 5-11 man weighing 215 pounds.

A number of studies have tried to pinpoint the root causes of growing waistlines — and many put the restaurant and food industries squarely in the middle of the debate.

That quickly altered the political, regulatory and cultural landscape for the industry, which once enjoyed an unblemished reputation as the feel-good provider of food for our tables and entertainment for our evenings out. Now some trial lawyers are suggesting that food companies could become the next Big Tobacco-style litigation target.

The attitude of restaurant chains and foodmakers is just beginning to turn. It started in July when Kraft announced it would rework many products to make them healthier, reduce some portion sizes and stop marketing in schools. Kraft's positive press pushed other food companies to rush out products that are free of trans fats, lower in carbohydrates or produced organically.

McDonald's introduced a line of salads featuring actor Paul Newman's Newman's Own brand dressing under mounting criticism about its unhealthy foods and the specter of litigation, and immediately sales got a much-needed boost. Now there's hardly a chain restaurant out there that isn't putting healthier fare on its menu and promoting that fact to the hilt.

"What they hit upon was the general marketing opportunity that they should have discovered by realizing that they needed to balance their menu with some healthier choices," said marketing professor Calder.

The apparel business has been scared of fat people for years. Department stores treated plus-size customers with near disdain, putting clothing for larger women on the third floor in the back by the restrooms.

Then regular retail sales softened, and when executives went looking for the reason, they found all those fat people. Plus sizes for men and women now represent 23 percent of all the retail dollars spent on apparel, according to NPD Fashionworld, a market-research firm.

"For the longest time the designers didn't want to ruin the reputation of their brand by having anyone who was overweight walking around in their clothes," said Marshal Cohen, senior industry analyst for NPD.

"The retailers made an uproar about it, and some of the manufacturers started to realize it was a great opportunity. In the last two years we've seen an injection of plus-size product."

The publishing industry is having a field day with titles devoted to weight management, exercise and cooking leaner meals. Daisy Maryles, executive editor of Publisher's Weekly, said this is the first time she can remember that three weight titles are stuck at the top of the best-seller charts. The hottest title, Rodale Press' "South Beach Diet," has sold a staggering 5 million copies since April.

And if people need to fit in it, sit in it or lie on it, someone is thinking about making it bigger.

Preferred Seating of Indianapolis, a distributor and manufacturer of seating for stadiums, theaters and similar venues, has had plenty of business replacing 17- and 18-inch seats in theaters and arenas.

"People's fannies are wider than that," said Frank Sumner, president of the company. "We sell a few 19-inch seats, but we think for a while it's going to be 20s, 21s and 22s," he said.

And there is Goliath Casket, which makes only oversize caskets and is adding ever-larger models.

But the airline industry is pretty much stuck with 17- and 18-inch coach seats because of the fixed width of a plane's fuselage, and that has made comfort increasingly elusive for all sizes of passengers.

Last year, Southwest Airlines announced that especially large customers would be asked to buy a second seat. Though the ticket would be refunded afterward unless the flight was completely sold out, Southwest was publicly vilified and many larger travelers were offended.

"For airlines, it's sort of a Hobson's choice: damned if you do, damned if you don't," said Doug Wills, a spokesman for the Air Transport Association. "They want to accommodate passengers that don't want to be crowded out of their seats, so it's a comfort issue.

"On the other hand, there are lots of large people out there ... and they don't want to alienate these folks."

Copyright © 2003 The Seattle Times Company