The subscription box market has become increasingly saturated. So to remain relevant, these services must deliver constant variety.
To keep customers interested, lifestyle brand and subscription service FabFitFun is launching FFF Live, a new content series. FFF Live will take the form of a rotating program of live shows airing on Facebook Live. The brand will invite fashion and beauty experts to give tips on how to style the products included in the seasonal box, showcase sneak previews of next season’s box and include a game show relying on audience participation.
It’s an evolution of FabFitFun’s existing video strategy. The brand has been hosting FabFitFunTV, a streaming video service focused on fitness and fashion, since late last year. FFF Live, which was created in collaboration with Facebook, will continue FabFitFun’s pattern of making streaming video content an integral part of its brand.
FabFitFun is focused on discovery. Four times a year, customers receive a box full of new and different products, something that customers can look forward to and be surprised by each time. This sense of discovery and surprise is key to the brand’s success. With FFF Live, FabFitFun is trying to add new ways for customers to engage with the overall lifestyle the brand is trying to create. This commitment to discovery even led FabFitFun to collaborate with discovery platform Pinterest on a unique box earlier this year.
By focusing on creating engaging content that is independent of subscription to the FabFitFun membership, the company is hoping to get new customers hooked on the aesthetic and lifestyle elements of the brand before converting them into paying members.
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“Whether we are talking about the box or the content, surprise and delight are huge pieces of the puzzle,” said Katie Rosen, co-founder and editor-in-chief of FabFitFun. “Continuing to revamp and change what those offerings are, that just makes sense. We are a very consumer-insight-driven brand. We have incredible engagement from our community, and all of that information is used to make the boxes better and the membership better.”
FFF Live, which is free for anyone with a Facebook account, is meant as a gateway into FabFitFun’s other content offerings, most notably FabFitFunTV, which is available only to members. These content offerings are a central part of the brand. FabFitFun sees itself as more than just a box full of stuff that comes at a regular interval.
“We launched FabFitFunTV in the spring of last year as a companion to the box,” Rosen said. “We really consider our service a membership rather than just a subscription box. One of our goals is to continue to layer on more perks, and one of the core pieces to that is content. We are much more than just sending people stuff. I’m excited to tell the story of our brand partners.”
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The effort to create a community around a brand is a strategy that can be seen across the sectors of fashion and beauty. Nordstrom, for instance, recently unveiled a major new relaunch of its loyalty program, the Nordy Club, built around personalization and fostering a loyal community.
Like other efforts from subscription services, like Stitch Fix tripling the amount of brand partners it carries, FabFitFun’s new streaming content was created after consulting the data and analytics of its customers. For a subscription service or lifestyle brand, the community is vital to the brand’s longevity. FabFitFun took a close look at its community, what they were saying and what they wanted, and determined that stronger content offerings were the way to go.
“It was something our members asked us for, whether it’s talking about the new trends we are seeing or just showing people how to do something a little better,” Rosen said. “Everything is member-generated.”
