Why does the world need another book on subscriptions?

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SUBSCRIPTION POV #14

By Morten Suhr Hansen

Admittedly, for as long as I can remember, I’ve been hooked on the world of books and literature. Mountains of books, be it fiction or non-fiction, have shaped my knowledge and taught me almost everything I know. That’s why I’ve always had my own dream of writing my own books.

In 2014, I released my first book ‘How To Build A Subscription Business’. A book that was updated and released in a second edition in 2018. Now, on the 24th of September this year, my new book hit the shelves. ‘The Subscription Movement and How To Succeed In It’ is the title of the book that works, both as a follow-up on the first book, as well as a brand new publication.

However, my book is not alone. A long line of other books on the subscription movement has been published in recent years – stay tuned for the end of the article, and I will provide you with a couple of recommendations for other great books on subscription.

So why did I decide to write a whole new book about subscriptions, anyway? Why does the world need another book on the great subscription movement?

First of all, three years is a long time, when talking about subscription and the subscription movement. It feels like the interest in subscription models and subscription businesses have skyrocketed in the last few years.

Subscription has moved from being mainly a business model for utility providers, media, and digital services, to influencing our lives all around. The number of suppliers within meal boxes and other groceries on subscription has exploded and, at the same time, we subscribe to expensive consumer goods that we used to buy and finance ourselves. This is true for cars and bicycles, or glasses and hearing aids – and soon, it will be true for clothes and furniture.

Simultaneously,  the subscription model is now truly a relevant model for companies selling to other companies (business-to-business). Large industry companies who, until now, have sold industry products and installations in a traditional way, now look into how they can sell their products as services, often with the help of sensors and digital, additional services, to provide customers with value on an ongoing basis.

It’s this explosion in the number and scope of new subscription concepts that I describe in my new book. And I attempt to go behind the numbers and explain why we are experiencing this explosion right now. Why do we, both as consumers and companies demand services, instead of products and subscriptions, instead of transactions?

At the same time, I wished to write my new book with a clear, Scandinavian perspective. Many of the books that already exist take a starting point in an American reality. And the truth is that Scandinavia is very far along when it comes to the prevalence of subscribers, both privately and within companies. This is shown in our own, large survey on the subscription consumption of Scandinavians, ’The Scandinavian Subscription Survey’ – the first of its kind and also a theme in my new book.

A number of Scandinavian companies are already on the way to bringing subscription solutions out on an international scale. This goes for companies like Spotify, Mofibo, Goodiebox, Yousician, Whim, Schibsted, and many more. My guess is that in the future, we will view the subscription model as a Scandinavian export.

Finally, in my book, I try to look ahead and give my take, on how the subscription movement will develop in the future. Will we, at some point see a saturation point and a stagnation or are we on the way to a place, where we will subscribe to almost anything and not own very much ourselves? You’ll have to read to book to get my answer to this. But I’ll give you a little hint! Our survey shows that young consumers are even more fond of subscriptions than older ones.

But it shouldn’t all be visions and big words!

Therefore, the book also includes an update of the model ‘How To Build a Subscription Movement” from my previous book. So if you are thinking of building a subscription business from the ground up, or if you’d like to get inspired on new ways to work with your existing subscription business, you can dig deep on these seven phases that you need to perfect, when working with subscriptions.

The book is available directly from our website and is free if you give us a little information. And it’s available both as an e-book and audiobook. A brilliant narrator ensures that you can get into subscriptions while driving a car or mowing the lawn.

You can get access to the book right here. Happy reading – or listening!

When you’ve read the book, here are four other suggestions for great subscription books to dive into:

  • Robbie Kellman Baxter (2015). The Membership Economy: Find your Super Users, Master the Forever Transaction, and Build Recurring Revenue
  • Marc Randolph (2019). That Will Never Work
  • John Warrillow (2015). The Automatic Customer
  • Tien Tzuo (2018). Subscribed
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