GLP-1 and the food aisle: when the customer's job changes under the brand

GLP-1 drugs such as Ozempic and Wegovy, built on semaglutide and first prescribed for diabetes, became a mass phenomenon once they were approved and marketed for weight loss. Surveys published in 2024 suggested that something like one American adult in eight had used one at some point, and analysts expected the number to keep climbing. People on these drugs report eating smaller portions, feeling full sooner and losing interest in some foods. Retailers and food companies started talking about it on earnings calls, with some reporting small changes in what these shoppers put in their baskets.

The food industry responded with products. In May 2024 Nestlé announced Vital Pursuit, a frozen meal line in the United States aimed at people taking GLP-1 medication and at weight-conscious eaters in general, with portions built around protein and fiber; it reached shelves later that year. In January 2025 Conagra began putting a “GLP-1 Friendly” badge on a range of Healthy Choice meals, and press reports said the products themselves were not reformulated. Other brands followed with protein drinks, smaller portions and new labels. The story is still moving, as the drugs change form and price.

The job moved, the product stayed

Food has always been hired for several jobs at once. The functional one is to feed you; the emotional ones include comfort and reward; the social ones include sharing a table. A GLP-1 patient still sits at the same table with the same family, yet several of those jobs shift. When appetite drops, the functional job becomes get enough protein and nutrients out of much less food, and the emotional job becomes something closer to reassurance: eating without feeling sick and keeping muscle while losing weight.

This is the part of Jobs To Be Done that most positioning work skips. The job defines the competition, and here the job changed while the product on the shelf stayed exactly the same. A frozen lasagne designed around satisfaction and value for money is now competing with protein shakes, Greek yogurt and simply skipping a meal. Brands that kept describing themselves by category (we make frozen meals) missed that their customer was now hiring for a different outcome.

A label is a premise

“GLP-1 friendly” is, in our vocabulary, a premise: a declaration of who the product is for. It does useful work. A tired shopper who has just started a prescription sees one line on the pack and knows where to look. That is a real reduction in effort, and effort is one of the sacrifices that quietly decide adoption.

A premise has to be honest to hold, though, and this one has weak foundations. Reports noted that there was no regulatory definition of the term, and dietitians quoted in the press called it marketing. When a badge goes on meals that were never changed, it describes a shopper the brand wants to reach more than a product designed for that shopper. The risk is the classic one for promises: the first customer who feels unwell after a “friendly” meal turns the label into a story about broken trust.

Who is the product really for

Vital Pursuit was framed from the start for two groups: people on the medication and people managing their weight without it. That is a sensible hedge, since the second group is far larger and the drugs may change. It also shows the tension in the move. A brand built entirely around a drug borrows its value from someone else’s product, which is fast and dangerous at the same time: if prices fall, pills replace injections or patients stop treatment, the anchor of the positioning shifts with them.

The sturdier positions are the ones that describe the job and leave the drug as context: high protein in small portions, built for a smaller appetite. That premise survives whatever happens to semaglutide, and it also speaks to older eaters and anyone who simply eats less.

The broader lesson applies far outside food. Positioning describes a fit between an offer and the job a customer is trying to get done, and when an outside force moves the job, the fit breaks even if nobody touched the product. The brands that noticed first were the ones watching what their customers were trying to achieve, beyond what they were buying.

If a shift in your market is changing what your customers hire you for, see what we do to redraw your position around the new job.