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Want to eat steak for breakfast, drink cream in your coffee and munch on a big slab of brie as a mid-morning snack? Fine, and what's more you can have Minnie Driver's abs, Catherine Zeta-Jones' curves and Jennifer Lopez's rear-end.

If the hype is to be believed, the Atkins Diet is a slimmer's dream.

But for the diet brands industry, its growing popularity is a nightmare.

The diet allows unrestricted amounts of protein, but limits carbohydrates.

It has been around since the 60s, but its new-found popularity has been boosted by celebrity endorsement, word of mouth and a number of medical studies that show it works. It could even be said that it is now becoming a brand in its own right, with sales of its 'bible', New Diet Revolution, rocketing. The sudden death of the eponymous Dr Atkins last month has only added to the headlines.

Faced with the popularity of fad diets and a growing feeling among slimmers that most diets ultimately disappoint, existing brands are having to rethink the way they appeal to consumers.

Slimfast makeover

Last week, Marketing reported that Unilever is giving Slimfast, the meal replacement brand it acquired in 2000, a fundamental overhaul to boost 'disappointing' sales (May 29). The revamp covers everything from packaging to a focus on its diet plan. Slimfast is also dropping its testimonial-style ads.

It is not that the diet industry is slimming down - far from it. As waistlines increase, the pressure to diet is greater than ever. According to Mintel, the market for slimming foods was worth £110m in 2002, some 18% higher than in 1997. Meal replacements are still the most popular diets, accounting for more than 90% of value sales, with Slimfast the market leader.

Rather, the main problem the diet industry has to address is that for most people, diets do not work. A Datamonitor report found that 230.6 million Europeans attempted a diet last year, but only 3.8 million kept the weight off.

Neil Wickers, European managing director for Slimfast at Unilever, says it re-evaluated the brand by researching why people found diets difficult and looked at how it could further help people manage their weight. "The overriding issue is that most diets are a lot of hassle," he says. "The core of Slimfast is simplicity - we provide all the nutrients and do the hard work for you."

However, Unilever found that while people had got the message that Slimfast was based on two meal replacements plus a normal meal, they didn't understand that the plan included three snacks and was based on eating six times a day to give a steady energy release. They were therefore finding it more difficult to stick to. All future communication for Slimfast will focus on the 'Slimfast Day' and what it entails.

Slimfast also looked at its advertising, which had relied on the 'before and after' approach. Wickers says: "Most of our communication was about success, but what we found was that people didn't have an issue over the diet working - they just didn't know if they could actually do it themselves."

So the next ads, created by Grey Worldwide and breaking this month, will take a different approach. "Instead of demonstrating the end result, we will dramatise the process of losing weight," Wickers explains.

He hopes the revamp will help Slimfast appeal to busy people who don't have time to think about preparing meals or going to slimming meetings.

The rethink also reflects a more realistic approach to dieting - emphasising a healthy lifestyle and weight maintenance, rather than weight loss.

Slimming club Weight Watchers, which relies on a 'points' system, is currently using the strapline 'Real Food. Real Life. Real Results'.

"There has been an increased focus on long-term maintenance," says its PR manager, Naomi Maister. "People want to go out, have a drink and have fun when they're on a diet, so that's why they choose the points system - it's about making choices."

But how do established brands stand up against fads like Atkins, which promise rapid results? Wickers argues Slimfast has several long-term clinical studies on its side. "We have to make sure we have science behind us. Being credible and ethical is key to building a long-term sustainable business."

Long-term fears

This could well be an advantage to the brand, as opinions remain divided about Atkins. A study reported in last week's New England Journal of Medicine concludes that while the diet does indeed work fast - it outperformed low-fat diets in the first three months - after 12 months the amount of weight loss is similar to low-fat diets. The study also warns that many people in the trial abandoned the diet and that much more research needs to be done into the long-term consequences of a low-carbohydrate diet.

Then again, most consumers are more interested in the celebrities pictured in glossy magazines than in medical studies. With so much coverage devoted to whether Geri Halliwell has or hasn't got her curves back, how can diet food marketers compete against the free PR celebrities provide? "Celebrities are more of a factor than ever. We now know so much more about the minutiae of their eating habits," says Brigid McKevith, a nutritionist at the British Nutrition Foundation.

Wickers says celebrity endorsement is just "one way to create hype" and that he hopes to build Slimfast's credibility on a more solid foundation.

But he admits that it can help, and points out that Robbie Williams has been using Slimfast.

So are fad diets here to stay? Miriam Jordan-Keane, client services director at Bates UK on Heinz's Weight Watchers food account, says: "My feeling is that the faddish, celebrity diets will come and go, but the brands will survive."

Wendy Doyle, spokeswoman for the British Dietetic Association, emphasises that the only tried and tested way to lose weight is to increase physical activity and change long-term lifestyle habits. But she admits that, compared with fad diets, at least brands such as Slimfast contain "all the nutrients they should", have accompanying healthy eating guidelines and are "more realistic".

Doyle also predicts the craving for Atkins will pass: "It's popular at the moment, but next year it could be the grapefruit diet. People will try anything to lose weight."

WHY DIETERS QUIT
Too hard                       32%
Ineffective                    21%
Attained target weight         18%
Food was unpleasant            12%
Too expensive                   6%
Other                          11%
Source: Datamonitor
UK slimming sales
Year              Sales (pounds m)
1997                          93.9
1998                          98.5
1999                         103.1
2000                         106.3
2001                         109.4
2002 (est)                   110.9
Source: Mintel