Robbie Kellman Baxter's Blog, page 11

Managing Subscription Partnerships for HBO Max Across Multiple Channels with WarnerMedia’s Molly O’Connor

Much has been written about the so-called "Streaming Wars." The market for streaming video content is crowded with players, each with unique strengths—from Netflix's digital native, early adopter status, to the platform power of Apple and Amazon to the highly specific and valuable content of niche players like Crunchy Roll or the History Channel, whom we recently profiled on this show. Anyone interested in subscription models can learn a lot from understanding the diverging strategies of streaming players, many of whom number among the most powerful companies in the world.
 
Today's guest, Molly O'Connor leads Business Planning Strategy for WarnerMedia Sales Distribution, HBO Max, Cinemax and Turner Networks, all US distribution partners. That means she's responsible for managing the (sometimes competing) demands of the consumers, cable and satellite partners, and the app stores, weaving these disparate products and partners into a single cohesive strategy. In our conversation, we discuss how to think about balancing direct and indirect channels, how a subscription offering can achieve strategic and/or financial objectives and the nerdy world of subscription math.

Will Subscriptions Work Forever? The Future of a Popular Pricing Tactic

Subscriptions are everywhere. Big companies, small companies, public, private, venture-backed, bootstrapped, and across virtually every industry. And many are starting to complain of “subscription fatigue“. They might feel that the subscription pricing isn’t justified by the offer (a Product/Market Fit problem). Or maybe they feel bad about fact that they aren’t taking advantage of all […]

Subscription Learnings from Apple, VMware and GitLab with Xiaohe Li

Pricing is one of the trickiest parts of building a successful subscription model. You want to make the model simple, transparent and easy-to-understand, but you also want it to be optimized for each customer, and of course to maximize revenue and profitability. It can be tempting to offer multiple tiers for different use cases, as well as promotions and add-ons. Before you know it, you have a complex mess.
 
Today’s guest, Xiaohe Li, is an expert on subscription pricing, with experience at organizations including Apple, VMware and now GitLab. 

In our conversation, we cover what Xiaohe learned about pricing in the Membership Economy at three dramatically different organizations, how to balance the “art” and the “science” of good pricing strategy, and what Sun Tzu’s The Art of War has to teach us about pricing innovation.

What is the Future of Loyalty Programs?

For the last fifty years or so, for many marketers, “Loyalty” has been synonymous with Points Programs.  Nearly every hospitality organization  and retailer has a Points Program to drive engagement in episodic businesses.  The value on both sides is clear. Consumers “earn” rewards in exchange for frequency, recency, breadth and depth of purchase. Businesses enjoy greater Lifetime Customer […]

Developing a Minimum Viable Subscription Product at Nike with Dave Cobban

Launching something new is always tricky. It can be especially challenging be entrepreneurial inside a global brand like Nike. You want to align with the broader goals of the organization while also staying nimble and creative. When you’re also introducing subscription models into a transactionally oriented organization, the stakes are even higher. Dave Cobban spent over 12 years at Nike, many working with the innovation team.
A few years ago, as a result of his work as part of a team looking at driving exponential growth at Nike, Dave identified an opportunity for subscription commerce as a potential way to achieve several key Nike objectives. Dave incubated and developed what has come to be known as “Nike Adventure Club,” a shoe subscription for children.
Today, Dave is a co-founder of Unbrkble, an organization that helps start-ups and scaling businesses stay close to their customers as they launch and scale their own businesses.
In this interview, Dave and I talk about how to start small with your subscription offering while thinking big, incorporating sustainability into an eCommerce strategy, and best practices for defining your subscription MVP.

How Good is Best Buy’s New Premium Loyalty Program? And How Different is it from Amazon Prime, Walmart + and the others?

How does BestBuy Beta compare with Amazon Prime, Walmart+, Costco and other Premium Memberships?

6 Tips When Going Global with Your Subscription Model

A key tactic in scaling your subscription model is “going global”–that is, bringing your offering to other countries and markets. But going global is about more than just translating your content, or enabling multiple currencies. I have been working with subscription businesses all over the world, and while they share many best practices, there are […]

Freemium, Free Trial and Free Surprises with Elena Verna of Reforge. When Does It Make Sense to Give It Away, and When Doesn’t It?

Some businesses today give products and services for free to entice customers to purchase more. However, a huge number of entrepreneurs distance themselves from giving away a freemium offering because of the risks of decreased revenue. But for Elena Verna, Reforge EIR and Partner, this must not be the mindset. Sharing her work in Survey Monkey and Malwarebytes, she explains to Robbie Kellman Baxter how every business strategy can benefit from freemium offers and impact customer relationships. Elena also dives deep into the real process involved in achieving genuine growth in a business, and why every team must invest in having their own growth leader.

Building a Content Machine to Support Your Subscribers with EntrepreneurOnFire’s John Lee Dumas

How much content is too much? If you have really honed down to your ideal audience, the answer is there will never be enough. Indeed, you have to practically create a content machine to support the needs of your avatar because they would simply love it! With an uncanny stroke of genius, John Lee Dumas solved this problem early in his podcasting career. An avid podcast consumer himself, he identified an unmet need for a daily podcast to punctuate entrepreneurs’ long days with bouts of gainful learning. John started EntrepeneurOnFire out of that need. Since launching in 2012, the podcast has interviewed over 3000 people, including Tony Robbins, Tim Ferris, Barbara Corcoran, Gary Vaynerchuk, and this show’s host, Robbie Kellman Baxter. The podcast has gathered over 100 million listens over the same time. Over the years, John has incorporated courses, community, journals and other experiences, layering in more ways to help his members thrive. He recently launched a new book, The Common Path to Uncommon Success. In this short and sweet conversation, John and Robbie talk about how he has evolved his offerings over time in support of his avatar, "Jimmy", why he wrote his new book and how he has been able to build a content creation machine to serve the ongoing needs of his members.

When & How to Scale Your eCommerce Subscription Operations with Matt Fiedler of Vinyl Me, Please

  Now that you have launched your subscription model, it’s time to operationalize your business. For this, you will need a real team, systems to support your processes, and metrics to let you know how the business is doing. This episode’s guest, Matt Fiedler, is the co-founder and chairman at Vinyl Me, Please, a record […]