Obesity Can Be Opportunity for Proactive Businesses

By Ashley Coker

Utter the words “business” and “obesity” in the same breath, and you’re probably not picturing an image of health. But according to new research from Texas A&M’s Mays Business School, joining the health market offers businesses new opportunities and a chance to change the public’s negative perception of the business–obesity relationship.

The fight against obesity extends much farther than the drive-through window, says Texas A&M Distinguished Professor of Marketing Leonard L. Berry. In his 2006 Organizational Dynamics research, “Regaining the Health of a Nation: What Business Can Do About Obesity,”  Berry and co-authors indicate that businesses, because of their unique position, can help deter the obesity epidemic by using three spheres of influence: employees, the marketplace and schools.

Berry, also M.B. Zale Chair in Retailing and Marketing Leadership, finds that businesses have influence by virtue of the goods and services they sell, the access they have to employees and their role in encouraging healthier eating and more physical activity in schools.

By helping businesses recognize the opportunities of health promotion, Berry hopes to promote a business role that quells obesity.

In our own backyards we can already see the positive impact of promoting employee health. Take Bobby Jenkins ’81, president of ABC Pest & Lawn, who has chosen to help his 350 employees become pictures of health. A proactive employer, Jenkins authorized building an on-site fitness facility at ABC’s Austin office and supports health contests among employees, encouraging them to stay on track. The company also offered an on-site health fair for employees to check their cholesterol and blood pressure and learn more about how to achieve healthy living standards.

ABC’s wellness program encourages employees to set health targets and monitor individual progress. The program assigns each employee a personal coach to help achieve a health goal — be it weight management or quitting smoking — through support, advice and periodic phoned-in checkups.

In addition, Jenkins replaced donuts at company meetings with fruit and muffins.

To give an added incentive for good health, the company rewards employees who participate in the wellness program with lower insurance copayments. But the company also benefits: Jenkins sees more productive workers; fewer days of missed work; and boosted morale among his service providers, office staff, sales force and managers.

“I have a lot of reasons why I’m motivated to help them be as healthy as they can possibly be,” Jenkins says. But the most important reason? Quality of life in general.

“To me it’s a statement of what kind of company we are — that we value health and we care about our employees overall. We’ve just tried to make health more of a visible part of everyone’s thought process. It’s just a constant beating of that drum.”

Berry says that, like ABC Pest & Lawn in Texas, businesses have good reason to be proactive in curbing obesity. He said that wellness among employees means more efficient work, decreased health care costs, a lower risk of employee injury and less illness-related absenteeism.

Companies nationwide are beginning to offer wellness alternatives for employees. Sprint designed its 200-acre headquarters with parking lots farther away from the building to ensure exercise, and Highsmith Inc., a Wisconsin distributor, places a “Twinkie tax” on high-fat items in vending machines. Berry warns that, without a well-rounded program to help justify changes like these, employees may not welcome them.

“The key issue is not to do anything in isolation,” Berry says. “If all a company does is build a new parking lot that’s three blocks from the building, then that’s not enough — it doesn’t fit into a pattern of a variety of proactive actions to create a healthy workforce, so it’s not understood or appreciated by employees.”

The marketing power of businesses is also influential. If companies use common sense in marketing, they can draw in consumers while still combating obesity. “No other society entity is better positioned or equipped to modify people’s behavior than business,” Berry says. “And no other segment knows more about persuasion, uses media more extensively or adeptly, or has access to more people.”  

By helping businesses recognize the opportunities of health promotion, Berry hopes to promote a business role that quells obesity.

“When the subject of obesity comes up in the popular press, business is almost always portrayed as the villain…that they just care about profits and they don’t care that the nation is getting fat,” Berry says. “But obesity is a huge opportunity for business and a chance for businesses to generate financial and social profits. They don’t have to wear the villain’s hat anymore.”