Brianne Garcia

The company created a loyal beauty products customer out of thin air, and perhaps the worst part is I don’t even regret it. It happened so naturally. It’s demand-generation marketing, and it might be the strongest kind there is, because —ugh — we are paying for it.

If you think about it, Birchbox has figured out a way to get women to pay money to be marketed to. 

I am admittedly not a Birchbox “subscriber”/member (mainly because I’m broke), but have heard a lot of great things about the experience from friends. What I like about this article is that it sheds light on how Birchbox is different than most subscription-based companies. I too am a skeptic of the monthly-box-in-the-mail idea and feel like there’s a new themed “box” everyday. I don’t think this model is sustainable or innovative, even if it is profitable. It doesn’t excite me, so I tend to ignore it. However, Birchbox is apparently converting half of their subscribers to shoppers of their ecommerce site, which allows for more detailed tracking browsing and taste. With a monthly payment and box of beauty goodies, women are actively opting in for extremely powerful marketing: tactile, IRL “beta” trials of products. 

Still can’t afford any additional monthly bills, but am a bit more interested in opting in myself.