Lipozene – A Marketing Review

Are you overweight?

Can people feel the ground shake when you approach?

Does the bathroom scale tremble in your presence?

Do you want to lose a few pounds but without that pesky diet thing people joke about and swear against?

Is there a way to lose weight without changing what you eat, without going to the gym, and without going under the knife in the hospital?

Well today is your lucky day!

The marketers of Lipozene want you to believe that such a product really exists.  In fact, they’re giving you a 100% money back guarantee to back up their claim.

But what is it exactly that they are selling to the public?  How do they present the concept in their TV commercials?  Let’s take a look.

Lipozene – An older commercial from 2007.

On a side note, the commercial above is a little bit old, but the current marketing campaign is very similar to this advertisement.  Just throw in random clips of people claiming how hard it is to lose weight, slightly change the offer,  and there you go.

I remember seeing these Lipozene commercials a few years ago.  But then I hadn’t seen any for a while, and I actually thought that the company went away.  But late last night I saw two of them within a 30 minute period.  The company is still alive and they’re more confident than ever that their method is the best way to diet.

The commercials starts with the spokeswoman showing you sympathy.  By speaking softly and asking the generic you-suck-at-dieting-but-its-not-your-fault questions, she’s reaching out to show you that no, it’s really not your fault for being fat.  You can blame it on a million other excuses, but it’s not because of you or your actions.

Whew!  That’s a relief.

“It’s not your fault,” she spoke while softly shaking her head.  Her eyes told me that she understands my overweight problem.  My poor dieting skills are her and my little secret.  Looking at her confident posture, I already know that she also knows exactly the right dieting method for me.  She doesn’t know a single thing about my health or lifestyle, but she has the answer.  I want to believe her.

Go on, I responded in silence.  Please help me.  Tell me what to do.

Okay, maybe people don’t see it in that method.  I’m actually not an overweight person.  Sorry to ruin the surprise.  But the general concept here is that the spokeswoman in the commercial is acting as our confidant.  The company wants us to believe that this woman has been there and seen that in the world of dieting.  She knows that most people cannot handle the mandatory lifestyle change required to keep off the weight.

“Many of us have simply given up the hope to lose weight.”

Notice how she said “us” and included herself.  Like she’s worried about losing some weight?  Yeah, right.  Even in loose clothing the woman looks like a fox.  A lot of overweight women would kill to look that good on camera.  On the other hand, if she actually was a former overweight person who had trouble losing the pounds, chances are likely that she did not use the company’s product to lose the extra pounds.  And how do we know that?  It would have most likely been mentioned in the commercial.  She would have been a walking, talking, paid endorsement.

The commercial then transitions into what I like to refer to as “science” mode.  I like to use the word science in quotation marks because often times in these commercials, the actual science isn’t presented in the most honest fashion.  Statements are usually dumbed-down for any simpleton to understand, we’re often told the bleeding obvious, and products “proven in a laboratory” may still not necessarily be the best or safest product for you.

Sure enough, the guy doing the voiceover tells us that body fat does indeed build over our midsection, on top of the muscle and under the skin.  Wow.  Welcome to a first grader’s science class.  Is he going to tell us next that it if you drop an egg on the floor it’s going to break?

The text on the screen is just plain shocking!  Apparently over the years, body fat gets worse! Noooooooo!

The chart that they show next is even more dramatic.  Everything from having kids to having stress to a poor diet and lack of exercise will increase body fat over time.  I’m sure that those factors only affect a few people out there.  I mean, how many people with kids and/or stress at work also have a poor diet and lack of exercise?  Nobody, right?  Hmmm.

The spokeswoman comes back on screen to let us know that “[t]he Obesity Research Institute has found the solution.”

Gee, what has the Obesity Research Institute, LLC, marketers of Lipozene, found to be the best solution for losing weight?  Man, this is going to be a tough one!

Woah, it’s Lipozene!  Holy cow!  I thought that the Obesity Research Institute, LLC was going to suggest some kind of combination of proper dieting, mild exercise and stress reduction.  Damn.  I was way off on that one.

According to the woman, “Lipozene is clinically proven to help reduce your body fat and weight.”

It’s tough to read on the video, but the small text on the bottom of the screen is very important.  I saw it clearly on TV last night.  It basically says an average of 3.86 pounds of fat loss over an 8 week university study.

Not twenty pounds over six weeks.

Not five pounds in two weeks.

3.86 pounds on average during an eight week study!

She refers to it as a “. . . weight loss breakthrough.”  I’d use a term so offensive that I’ll go ahead and censor myself now.

The woman begins to tell us about a 30-day, risk-free trial before a different voiceover does another “science” demonstration.  According to the voiceover, “a recent, major university double-blind study, not only did participants lose weight, but 78% of each pound that was lost was pure body fat.”

I’m going to take a shot in the dark and say that the other 22% of each pound was lost from a loss of water.  It’ll be explained in a minute.

“That’s right.  Nearly all the weight lost is body fat.”

Well, 78% isn’t quite “nearly all” of something.  Back in high school, scoring a 78% on an exam was only a “C” letter grade.  Out of a hundred questions, you still missed twenty-two of them.  You really couldn’t go around saying about how you got “nearly all” of them correct.  But if you lost, say, oh, let’s be generous and round it up to 3.9 pounds in 8 weeks of taking diet pills, 3.04 pounds of that weight would be from body fat.  Since we’re dealing with such a low number, I’ll allow the “nearly all” description when you’re talking about 3.04 out of 3.9 pounds.

By the way, “most” would have been a better term.  “Nearly all” should be reserved for cases with 90% and above.

The spokeswoman comes back on the screen and tells us a huge selling feature.  Those people in the study, from what we’re told, were not asked to change their daily lives.

“It’s so easy.  Just take Lipozene.  That’s it.”

When it comes to dieting, how hard is it to take a couple of pills a day with a glass of water?  I mean, anybody can do that, right?  Taking evening walks through the neighborhood is overrated, and treadmills are boring.  Why try a diet when you know that you’re going to cheat and not lose any weight in the long run?  It isn’t worth it.

We’re finally hit with the call to action when she tells us to call the number on the screen if we feel like we’re ready to lose “pounds of body fat.”  The grand production all comes down to getting the people to make the call or go online and try out the product.

“Lipozene is clinically proven to work.”

Notice again how she tries to establish that scientific credibility by mentioning its clinical success again.  It’s a last ditch effort on her part to sell the product.  We may have still been questionable, but mentioning the “science” again will help convince more people to buy the product.

Finally, the commercial ends with a different man doing a voiceover for the ordering information.

It’s interesting doing research about Lipozene and Obesity Research Institute, LLC.

According to Wikipedia, the Obesity Research Institute, LLC, has settled a claim by the FCC for $1.5 million from a misleading weight loss case.  According to the BBB, the same company has had 163 registered complaints within the past three years, many of them dealing with refunds, billing, and sales issues.

Wikipedia also claims that Lipozene mainly relies on dietary fibers.  You take a couple of pills before each meal, and inside of your stomach the contents expand, sending signals to your brain that you’re full.  Another hokey weight loss product actually explains this in more detail in its TV commercial.  It’s almost like eating a sponge that expands after being swallowed.

The other major effect of the pill happens on the lower end of the digestive system, if you know what I mean.  The increase in daily fiber promotes more bathroom visits, and thus a loss of weight.  You’re not eating as much at meal time (though you may be starving for snacks between meals), and you’ll most likely be visiting the bathroom more often.

Fun.

One of the major side effects mentioned on Wikipedia is “severe diarrhea.”  Diarrhea commonly includes dehydration which goes with my theory of 22% of the weight loss being from a loss of water.  When you’re taking more frequent porcelain cruises, you’ll be dropping the extra weight a little bit quicker than normal, but could also be losing too much water in the process.

Have fun with that side effect!

So yeah, technically you’ll most likely lose some weight with Lipozene.  Just don’t get your hopes up for shedding pounds quickly.  You’ll probably want to hang on to those fat clothes for a while.

The big questions are A) how much weight do you want to lose, and B) how fast do you want to lose it?

Losing a lot of weight quickly is going to take more diet and exercise work on your part.  Losing a small amount of weight slowly is much easier, but you may be spending a lot of money on pills before you start seeing the desired results.

Remember that diets are temporary and will most likely fail.  A lifestyle change is long-term and may give you better results.  The bottom line is your own motivation and determination to losing weight and keeping it off for good.

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Lipozene is a registered trademark of Obesity Research Institute, LLC and was used without permission.