Page 43 - Future Demands Jan 2021

FUTURE DEMANDS
NIKI COOKE
HEAD OF INTERMEDIARY – TWENTY7TEC SUBSCRIBING TO CHANGE
Adapting to new business models in 2021
Xerox, it was once famously said, sold ink cartridges rather than photocopiers. Whatever they made on those machines was more than surpassed by the value of their cartridge sales.
Well, this week, I was trying to buy a home printer. I wanted it to be colour, wireless and capable of printing directly from my phone. In my Amazon search, I uncovered yet another corner of the retail market that has moved to the subscription model. This time? For pages printed. The ink gets delivered when you’ve printed a certain amount of pages. Very clever.
Now, if I asked you to think about the objects or services that you used to own physically or buy as one-offs, you could name at least five that you now pay for as a subscription.
Music is an obvious one. Movie streaming is another. Microsoft and Adobe products are now mainly paid for on a monthly basis. Then there’s charity giving, which used to be dropping money in a tin, but now it’s chuggers asking for five minutes of your time and £3 per month. Oh, and my personal favourite: caffeine. Nespresso has moved so many of us to a subscription model by creating desirability around the capsule approach to your morning coffee.
43