Food Delivery Services & Membership Economy - BusinessBlog : McGraw-Hill
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Food Delivery Services & Membership Economy
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Food Delivery Services & Membership Economy

Guest blog from Robbie Kellman Baxter, author of The Membership Economy.

Food subscription start-ups like Blue Apron, Purple Carrot and HelloFresh are gaining in subscribers by the tens of thousands. Even Beyonce’ has launched her own food delivery service!

The meal-in-a-box subscription trend is also growing via organic “box” companies that connect consumers with Community Supported Agriculture. Amazon even has a food subscription service, and there are now vitamin subscription services, like Bulu Box.

What is the significance of this massive disruption in the food industry?

Traditional food retailers are dealing not only with subscription-based food companies but also with online communities and marketplaces focused on food promoting new trends and innovators in the industry. What the new food entrepreneurs understand is that their customers have underlying values which drive nearly every purchase they make. They don’t want carrots or free-range chicken, necessarily; they want to be healthy eaters or to have great options for their families without having to get to the store.

By focusing on the bigger mission of the customer instead of the products they sell, these disruptive players are creating strong, formal and ongoing relationships with their customers—establishing ”forever transactions” which result in greater engagement, loyalty and recurring revenue. It also allows these new food start-ups to tailor and hone their messaging to the customer, driving a sense of community and belonging.

This one of the key aspects of The Membership Economy, which examines how organizations across virtually every industry are moving to business models featuring elements like subscriptions and online communities. The model is so flexible that even the food service industry is raking in millions in venture capital, spawning a spate of new delivery services on the rise.

Robbie Kellman Baxter is a consultant and speaker who has been providing strategic business advice to Silicon Valley companies for over 20 years. She is the founder of the consulting firm Peninsula Strategies LLC and regularly presents to professional associations leading universities and corporations.  Over the course of her career, Robbie has worked in or consulted to clients in more than twenty industries.

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Robbie Kellman Baxter

Robbie Kellman Baxter is the author of The Membership Economy: Find Your Superusers, Master the Forever Transaction & Build Recurring Revenue (McGraw Hill Education 2015), the groundbreaking book that changed everything. She first coined the phrase “Membership Economy", over 10 years ago, and it’s now part of the business lexicon used by organizations and journalists around the world. The Membership Economy was recently named a top 10 Marketing Book of all time by BookAuthority. Robbie is the founder of Peninsula Strategies LLC. Her firms clients have included Netflix, Microsoft, and The Wall Street Journal as well as several venture-backed private companies and associations. Over the course of her career, Robbie has worked in or consulted to clients in more than twenty industries. Before starting Peninsula Strategies in 2001, Robbie served as a New York City Urban Fellow, a consultant at Booz Allen & Hamilton, and a Silicon Valley product marketer. She has an AB from Harvard College and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Robbie has been interviewed by CNN, NBC, and NPR. She has presented to thousands of people in corporations, associations, and universities. Robbie’s forthcoming book, The Forever Transaction: How to Build a Subscription Business So Compelling Your Customers Will Never Want to Leave (McGraw Hill Education) is being released April 7, 2020.