I have this friend who makes a lot of money but leads a very isolated and dull life. As a result, he spends much of his money on ridiculous, overpriced purchases.
For example, a while ago, he bought a $2,000 Japanese smart toilet. He had it shipped from Japan and installed in his house in Baltimore.
This morning, I thought of my friend and his foot-massaging, storybook-reading, life-coaching toilet. I imagined him going to his master bathroom… using his smart toilet for its core functionality… and attempting to flush. But instead of hearing the satisfying rush of water, a soothing female voice would say:
“Thank you for using SmartAsshin! Your subscription to the Flusshi® function has now expired. To renew your Flusshi® subscription, please visit smartasshin.com.”
That might sound ridiculous. But it’s not entirely out of the realm of the possible.
A couple days ago, I read that BMW has been trying out subscriptions for things like heated car seats.
The idea is that each new BMW comes fully equipped with all the extras. But in order to activate any of the extras, you have to pay. Monthly.
As the folks at BMW argue it, this system actually makes a lot of sense.
It allows people to try out functionality before committing.
It allows buyers to upgrade their car as they can afford to do it.
Plus it makes the resale value of the car greater. The functionality of the car no longer depends on the choices of the initial buyer.
Of course, BMW buyers don’t see it that way. They are furious, and there is a lot of backlash. I guess see it as a variation of my scenario above, with the Japanese smart toilet.
And now to get deadly serious.
Smart marketers, in particular smart direct marketers, have long known:
Continuity offers are where it’s at.
Of course, BMW story shows it ain’t so simple. Put a part of your usual service behind a paywall, and you can face indifference, or perhaps backlash.
It will be interesting to see what happens with BMW and their heated seats by the month.
Meanwhile, if you have a business… and your offer is not inherently a subscription like a streaming service or a newsletter… then it’s past time to start thinking how to integrate subscriptions into your offers.
And if you are looking for ideas for how to do it, without triggering a backlash, then check out the article below.
It comes from Simon Owens, somebody I’ve written about before. Owens publishes a Substack newsletter, covering media and publishing businesses.
In the article below, he talks about three subscription models he has seen. None of them involves hiding more of your content behind a paywall.
Of course, you don’t have to check out Owens’s article.
You can also just stay put.
In time, I will probably take Owens’s ideas… pad them out with a few other good things I find… and repackage them into a product, which I will offer to you later. Perhaps inside some kind of continuity offer.
But in case you don’t want to wait for that, you can do some of that work yourself right now. Here’s the link:
https://simonowens.substack.com/p/thinking-outside-the-box-with-paid