WeightWatchers 2013 Annual Report Download - page 23

WeightWatchers.com Website
The WeightWatchers.com website is an important global promotional channel for our brand, services and
products. The website is a vehicle for communicating our services and products in greater detail than could be
achieved in more traditional advertising vehicles. In addition to being a gateway for our Internet subscription
products, the website contributes value to our meetings business by promoting our brand, advertising Weight
Watchers meetings, assisting in locating meetings and keeping members involved with Weight Watchers outside
of meetings through useful offerings, such as healthy recipes, weight management articles, success stories and
social media functionality. In fiscal 2013, our Meeting Finder feature generated on average over 1.3 million
meeting searches per month globally. The Meeting Finder makes it easier than ever for our existing and potential
members to find a convenient meeting place and time.
Seasonality
Our business is seasonal, with revenues generally decreasing at year end and during the summer months.
Our operating income for the first half of the year is generally the strongest, and the first quarter of the fiscal year
typically results in the greatest revenue due to the importance of the winter diet season to our overall recruitment
environment. Our advertising schedule generally supports the three key recruitment-generating seasons of the
year: winter, spring and fall, with winter having the highest concentration of advertising spending. The timing of
certain holidays, particularly Easter, which precedes the spring marketing campaign and occurs between
March 22 and April 25, may affect our results of operations and the year-to-year comparability of our results.
The introduction of Monthly Pass in the meetings business has resulted in less seasonality with regard to our
meeting fee revenues because its revenues are amortized over the related subscription period. While
WeightWatchers.com experiences seasonality similar to the meetings business in terms of new subscriber sign-
ups, its revenue tends to be less seasonal because it amortizes subscription revenue over the related subscription
period.
Entrepreneurial Management
We run our company in an 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. In addition, many of our meeting
products were developed locally and then 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
services and products.
While having strong local leadership has always been a cornerstone of our strategy, we have also been
investing in building our global corporate management team. Our management team plays a critical role in
driving and facilitating the global coordination necessary to optimize our international assets and share best
practices across geographies.
Competition
The weight management market includes self-help weight management regimens and other self-help weight
management products, services and publications, such as books, magazines and websites; commercial weight
management programs; Internet, mobile and other electronic weight management approaches; dietary
supplements and meal replacement products; weight management services administered by doctors, nutritionists
and dieticians; surgical procedures; the pharmaceutical industry; government agencies and non-profit groups that
offer weight management services; and fitness centers.
Competition among commercial weight management programs is largely based on program recognition and
reputation and the effectiveness, safety and price of the program. In the United States, we compete with several
other companies in the commercial weight management industry, although we believe that their businesses are
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