Blue Apron was a pioneer in the meal kit industry, now saturated by options. However, the New York-based company is getting ready to ditch their subscription model, and it may not be for the reason you think.
“We turned subscription fatigue into a dystopian fever dream,” Angela Campos, creative and commercial director of Quirk, said as the company prepared to debut a three-part Black Mirror-esque ad campaign. “Trust me, it’s a lot more fun to watch than to live through.”
As the company, which launched in 2012, prepares to transition to an a la carte ordering model, the dystopian ad campaign holds a mirror to our dependency on subscriptions.
“Somewhere along the way, you had to subscribe to everything—even dinner,” a narrator in one of the clips says. “With the new Blue Apron, you don’t.”
According to Raina Enand, head of marketing for Blue Apron, “Life is really different now.”
“Busy families need more control and flexibility,” she said.
Echoing Enand, Blue Apron SVP and GM Whitney Pegden told Good Morning America, “Blue Apron has always been about helping people cook and eat well at home but the way families manage mealtime has changed.”
In addition to overhauling their purchasing model, the company has also doubled its menu options. Other new options include “Assemble & Bake” meals that families can cook in just 10 minutes and “Dish,” a single-serve option that comes oven ready.
For customers who are committed to their subscription model, Blue Apron+ offers free delivery and Auto Ship options.
“We’ve been working on this for the past year, listening to customer feedback on what the market is moving towards, and we really thought about this as all encompassing from every aspect of the business,” Enand said. “Calling it a rebrand is actually doing it a disservice. It’s really a relaunch of the company.”
