By Morten Suhr Hansen
In order to identify the biggest subscription trends within the subscription movement, we at Subscrybe are always aware of the best subscription companies in the world. By studying these companies carefully, you will get an understanding of which elements help to create a successful relationship between the company and their customers and thereby create the foundation for a strong business
My collague, Niels Vestergaard, has just published our Subscription Case Report, where we dives deep into the 10 most successful subscription companies from all over the world and analyses his way to some of the reasons behind their success.
In the Subscription Case Report, you will find cases from well-known subscription companies like Spotify, Goodiebox and HelloFresh, but there are also companies who aren’t as well-known. So I’ll set my sights on those below.
Huel works systematically on creating the good customer experience from the very beginning
British Huel helps their customers with nutritious meal replacements, often in powdered form. As opposed to their competitors, Huel focuses on making meal replacements with a focus on natural, vegan ingredients and offers protein shakes, protein bars and powdered meals. The company utilizes many of the subscription metrics that characterize the ‘3.0’ way of thinking that define the market today.
For example, Huel offers a subscription to their customers that is fully ‘tailor-made’. They allow subscribers to tailor their own combination of products. They simultaneously work with creating a great onboarding experience for subscribers. A welcome package filled with relevant products and accessories starts the subscription journey and thereby secures the instant gratification for new subscribers. Something that unarguably has an effect on the long-run retention of customers.
Strava is the world’s largest community for athletes of all kinds
We are staying in the health space when we look at American Strava. However, many Europeans will probably know this one. A large part of Strava’s 75 million subscribers comes from Europe.
Fundamentally, Strava is a tracking app that can keep track of your workouts, regardless of the sport you like the most. But at the same time, it’s a community where you can experience a strong membership feeling with others who like sports. This can be private friends that you follow on Strava, but it can also be the community with the many millions of other users on the service.
Another strong part of Strava’s success is the specific use of ‘gamification’. Strava systematically works with getting their users to train as much as possible – and thereby, using the service as much as possible – by rewarding users with high scores and trophies.
Masterclass let’s you learn from the biggest legends.
American Masterclass is a streaming platform reserved for learning from the best of the best. At Masterclass you can learn from well-edited streaming courses. Gordon Ramsey can teach you how to become a better cook, Garry Kasparov can improve your chess game and John Legend can teach you all about songwriting.
Masterclass has an aura of exclusivity and takes it starting point in the self-development trend alive in the population right now and where we constantly seek to become the best, by learning from the best.
As a streaming service, Masterclass is still very niche-based. But this case shows us that you can easily make a niche product a succesful case, if you create an exclusive club with content of high quality.
Luckily, the subscription world always offers new and interesting cases. I hope you’d like to check out the report here. And I hope even more that you will send me or Niels a tip, if you come across interesting subscription cases that we can learn from.
