Recipe planning platform Mob recently achieved the milestone of 100,000 active paying subscribers. As it rolls out its new app to existing members, Michael Sladden, senior product manager, tells Katie Searles about their flexible approach to building a digital sous chef.
Cooking membership company Mob is aware that there is a plethora of direct-to-consumer meal kits and recipe-related apps and website, but wants to change the perception that cooking is a necessary evil.
“ We see cooking as a great use of time. We’re targeting people that find joy and comfort in cooking,” explains Sladden. Mob looks to provide delicious, new and exciting cuisines, while understanding that people are busy. It bases its offering on three principles – Discover, Learn and Cook.
While Mob had lots of great ideas for providing delicious recipe inspiration, the team sought advice from product mentor Frank Qiu to help them turn its business ideas into data-driven ones, with their users at the centre.
“Until recently, we were prioritising customer acquisition over other key projects, such as building new features. Of course, we were ensuring that we’re consistently producing incredible recipes and responding to user feedback – but there was a real focus on optimising the website for conversion rates in the early days of the subscription platform.”
Alongside website optimisation, Mob has worked to ensure clear messaging, focusing on what’s working, taking slightly novel approaches, and collaborating with its paid social team to harness its 2.7 million Instagram followers.
“We’ve dabbled in reaching an American audience with specific messaging and we’ve done some other small experiments around different cohorts, but the key focus has been on converting those 2.7 million Instagram followers – which as a brand that’s launching a subscription service is pretty exciting, even envy-inducing.”
Every follower, or new partnership, has also made Mob’s offering “more alluring”, highlighting social media’s impact on building a subscription platform.
Persona playbook
When looking at retaining these followers and therefore subscribers, Mob’s strategy is one that is always developing. More of “a mindset, rather than a roadmap”. It currently is purposefully looking at who it is building products for.
“We are following the persona playbook – where we have a persona that we’ve built internally which best mirrors the people that are using our products the most. And we are talking to those types of users, analysing their actions on products and developing the product based on that insight.
“That persona will change, and our hypotheses around what will make those people stick around will change. We will adapt and build new features accordingly.
“Content is a huge part of what we do, so the same principles apply to that as well, making sure that we’re making recipes in line with what people want.”
Sladden is aware that some users may turn to the platform for inspiration every other night, while others will be looking for something to impress on special occasions, and Mob has to manage this digital experience for various users. The brand is currently trialling an app with its existing membership.
Launching an app while the subscription platform was in its nascent phases could have been risky, so the app development and roll out has taken time. There are additional features such as a planning tool and shopping list being explored, which subscribers find “real value in.”
The next step is to “interweave Mob into people’s everyday lives”, with Sladden adding: “A lot of our research points to the fact that the people that really love Mob use it all the time. There are ones who see it as almost a sous chef for their Monday to Friday cooking. So, we are doubling down on that.”
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