TrimSpa In A Tight Bind

Trimspa's tagline has been "be envied"--well, as a brand with a plate full of problems, not so much (as they say).

Trimspa has faced a lot of challenges. First there was that issue with the ingredient ephedra, then FTC rulings and lawsuits, now the death of its famous marketing spokesperson: Anna Nicole Smith.

With each corporate PR disaster, Trimspa has found a way to work through it. With the ephedra ban, Trimspa re-forumlated and became "Trimspa Ephedra Free." When the FTC came knocking over advertising claims which were not supported by scientific evidence, Trimspa settled financially with the government agency. And now, with the death of their high-profile spokesperson, Trimspa is re-thinking their marketing plan once again.

After proclaiming that Trimspa's success "is not simply the result of Anna Nicole Smith", Trimspa announced that the company will now rely on its less-famous customers as spokespeople, people who TrimSpa President Tony Azzizzo described in the statement as "your neighbors, friends, family members."

However resilient Trimspa has been in the past, the death of Anna Nicole Smith along with slowing sales and growing doubts about TrimSpa's controversial weight-loss products may prove too much for the company to handle.

"Given the double whammy of who their spokesperson was and the other tangential difficulties, I don't think they're going to come back," Robert Passikoff, a New York brand consultant is quoted on CNN Money. "When you mention TrimSpa, the image that came to mind was Anna Nicole Smith and that's the difficulty with being so closely tied to a celebrity," Passikoff said. "You've just pulled the rug out from under what the brand was standing on," he added.

With Smith as spokesperson, TrimSpa sales skyrocketed 172 percent to $43 million in 2004 from close to $16 million in the year earlier. But by 2006, sales had reportedly shrunk to $19.5 million.

From CNN Money:

"TrimSpa has some major challenges given the loss of credibility about their product and [now] losing their spokesperson," said Britt Beemer, the chairman of strategic marketing firm America's Research Group. "It's a one-two punch and it does damage their marketing position dramatically."