Expert: ‘No One Pill Can Be WeightWatchers’ Hail Mary Pass’

Media Contacts: Emily Gowdey-Backus, director of media relations and Nancy Cicco, assistant director of media relations 

WeightWatchers’ rebrand in 2024 may leave customers “without the sense of community that enabled and motivated millions to successfully manage their weight,” according to UMass Lowell business turnaround expert Scott Latham, who is available for interviews.

In a publicity campaign last week, WeightWatchers CEO Sima Sistani promoted the 70-year-old company’s acquisition of telehealth platform Sequence, a move designed to enable customers to obtain the injectable weight-loss drug semaglutide – sold under brand names such as Wegovy and Ozempic – from physicians who can prescribe it.

While Ozempic is approved to treat patients with Type 2 diabetes, Wegovy, is not, though it is approved for weight loss in patients who meet certain weight requirements. Wegovy’s manufacturer, Novo Nordisk, is seeking approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to market the drug as a pill. That clearance could come by the end of the month, setting up an anticipated explosion in demand for the medication. 

In the meantime, WeightWatchers is pivoting. Across the country, the company has closed an estimated 300 of its in-person meeting sites, long a gathering place for customers to share their weight-loss journeys, swap recipes and seek advice from wellness coaches. Instead, this week, the company is rolling out new virtual meeting options for dieters and will be shuttering its product sales Dec. 20. All packaged foods, cookware and lifestyle items exclusively branded under the WeightWatchers name will be phased out, no longer available for purchase on the company’s website or at the brick-and-mortar locations that remain. 

It’s all too much, according to Latham, who called the shakeup “a strategic misstep.”

“Often, organizations pursue innovation – a dramatic shift in the business – to reverse a period of decline in the same way a football team will throw a Hail Mary pass in the final moments of a game. They throw the pass because their options are limited, and if it is successful, it saves the day. Yet, often, the pass falls to the ground, incomplete. Similarly, innovation often doesn’t save the day, and usually accelerates the decline,” he said. “WeightWatchers was in the health and wellness business. But what now? Are they in the telehealth business? The prescription-by-mail business? The low-calorie meal business? The company has lost sight of one of its core value propositions: the sense of community.”

The company may find it’s getting more than it bargained for, according to Latham.

“In a whole new space, WeightWatchers will have a whole new set of competitors, like CVS, Walgreens, Doximity, and countless others. The company has pinned its hopes on medications that are so far unproven in the long term. From a financial standpoint, even if Ozempic and Wegovy are successful, then they will largely become a commoditized generic drug with incredibly slim margins.” 

Latham, who has studied the relationship between business innovation and decline for two decades, is a management professor in UMass Lowell’s Manning School of Business. To arrange an interview with him, contact Emily Gowdey-Backus or Nancy Cicco.