WeightWatchers 2002 Annual Report Download - page 14

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America. Prior to the Duchess, we used Kathleen Sullivan and Lynn Redgrave as our North American
celebrity spokespersons. We also use local celebrities to promote our program in other countries.
Weight Watchers Magazine
Weight Watchers Magazine is an important branded marketing channel that is experiencing strong
growth. We re-acquired the rights to publish the magazine in February 2000. Since its U.S. re-launch in
March 2000, circulation has grown from zero to over 800,000 in December 2002 and to over one
million for the January/February 2003 issue. Our most recent information from MediaMark, an industry
tracking service, shows a readership of 8.8 readers per copy, one of the highest in the industry. In
addition to generating revenues from subscription sales and advertising, Weight Watchers Magazine
reinforces the value of our brand and serves as an important marketing tool to non-members. We also
have Weight Watchers magazines in all of our other major markets.
WeightWatchers.com
Our affiliate and licensee, WeightWatchers.com, operates the Weight Watchers website, which is an
important global promotional channel for our brand and businesses. The website contributes value to
our classroom business by promoting our brand, advertising Weight Watchers classes and keeping
members involved with the program outside the classroom through useful offerings, such as a meeting
locator, low calorie recipes, weight-loss news articles, success stories and on-line forums. During fiscal
2002, approximately 105,000 unique visitors per week on average used our Meeting Finder feature. This
is an increase of 75% over the previous year. The Meeting Finder makes it easier than ever for our
members to find a meeting place and time that is convenient for them. WeightWatchers.com now
attracts over 1.8 million unique visitors per month on average, an increase of over 150% from the same
period a year ago.
In the United States during 2001, WeightWatchers.com launched two online paid subscription
products, Weight Watchers eTools and Weight Watchers Online. Weight Watchers eTools is designed to
supplement and strengthen the Weight Watchers classroom business. Weight Watchers eTools is a suite of
electronic tools available only to Weight Watchers members, designed to help them achieve greater
success by making it even easier to follow Winning Points and by reinforcing our weight-loss approach
between meetings. Weight Watchers Online is a self-help product based on our current plan designed to
attract consumers who cannot or choose not to attend Weight Watchers meetings. We believe that
Weight Watchers Online will increase the popularity of our brand among dieters and strengthen our
brand in the entire weight-loss market.
During July 2002 and September 2002, WeightWatchers.com launched an upgrade to the United
Kingdom and Canadian web sites respectively, including the offering of two online paid subscription
products. These products have similar functionality to the existing United States products, but are
tailored specifically to the United Kingdom and Canadian markets.
Entrepreneurial Management
We run our company in a decentralized and entrepreneurial manner that allows us to develop and
test new ideas on a local basis and then implement the most successful ideas across our network. We
believe local country and regional managers are best able to develop new strategies and programs to
meet the needs of their markets. For example, local managers in the United Kingdom were responsible
for developing our POINTS-based program. Local managers have also developed many of our
customized pricing strategies such as the Liberty/Loyalty plan, which started in France. In addition,
many of our classroom products have been developed locally and then been introduced successfully in
other countries. Local managers have strong incentives to adopt and implement the best practices of
other regions and to continue to develop innovative new programs.
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