A Strategic Assessment of Medifast

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The total diet market segments served by Medifast is $18 billion. Of that, Medifast has a 2% share of the customer market. This seemingly insignificant percentage of the market is actually quite admirable. The diet industry is a very large one because there are not a lot of requirements to create and market a diet plan. This creates a multitude of companies and individuals competing for Medifast History

In 1979, Dr. William Vitale and his son founded Jason Pharmaceuticals in his kitchen as a way to get weight loss products to doctors and their patients more easily. In the first few years of operation, Jason Pharmaceuticals steadily grew to $17 million in sales as they provided liquid diet plans to doctors for their patients (Dresser, 1993). In 1988, Oprah Winfrey lost 67 pounds on Optifast and told the world on her daytime television show (Brody, 1988). As a substitute product to Optifast, Jason Pharmaceuticals saw sales jump to $51 million the following year (Dresser, 1993). After a bout with mismanagement in the mid-nineties, causing Jason Pharmaceuticals to declare bankruptcy, the company was restructured and renamed. Since then, Medifast has become one of the fastest growing weight loss companies in the United States.

In 2013, Medifast posted $356.89 Million in revenue (Medifast, Inc., 2014) and has seen revenue growth per share climb to 22.1% over the last five years (Gurufocus, 2014). This growth is no longer associated with just doctors and their patients. In 2003, Medifast expanded their market reach beyond doctors. With the help of Dr. Wayne Scott Anderson, Take Shape for Life was developed. This allowed customers of Medifast to become trained coaches and mentors to other Medifast customers (Gaither, 2012). Recently, ...

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...y 7, 2014, from Online Visibility from Vocus: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/4/prweb10629316.htm

Risk-Return Tradeoff. (2014). Retrieved from Investopedia: http://www.investopedia.com/terms/r/riskreturntradeoff.asp

Types of nutritionists. (2013, March 21). Retrieved from Chicago Tribune News: http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013-03-21/health/ct-met-nutritionist-types-20130128_1_medical-nutrition-therapy-food-and-nutrition-nutrition-professionals

Venture Capital. (2014). Retrieved from Investopedia: http://www.investopedia.com/terms/v/venturecapital.asp

WebMD LLC. (2012, October 13). Weight Loss & Diet Plans. Retrieved Feburary 5, 2014, from WebMD: http://www.webmd.com/diet/guide/the-truth-about-fad-diets

Wile, E. (2013, August 16). Why Did Obesity Increase So Much in America. Retrieved from Livestrong: http://www.livestrong.com/article/339349-why-did-o

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