Unravel the journey of Calm, a wellness app that transformed the landscape of digital health. Discover how it harnessed the power of mindfulness and meditation to emerge as a beacon in the wellness industry.
Good Better Best is a weekly deep dive on pricing and packaging strategies written by Rob Litterst.
Meditation has been my white whale. No matter how hard I’ve tried, I haven’t been able to build a consistent habit
- Tim Ferriss has this quote: “If you can’t carve out 10 minutes to meditate every day, then you really need 20.”
- This habit was supposed to be helping me, but my inability to stay consistent made me more stressed out
- Another reason I was inconsistent is the Headspace packaging model: the first 10 sessions were free, but then you had to upgrade to a paid subscription.
Packaging: Commoditizing the Basics
Headspace offers a free trial that includes the first 10 sessions from the Headspace Basics series
- The goal of Basics is to help beginners build momentum towards a meditation habit through guidance from a professional
- They charge $12.99 monthly or $69.99 annually ($5.83 per month).
- Calm takes a different approach
- While users need to pay to access premium features, Calm gives the basics away for free
- This not only helps fuel their acquisition funnel but also sets customer value expectations
Conclusion: The Future of Wellness Apps
In the mindfulness space, it’s a fool’s errand to chase Calm and Headspace
- Their success comes down to alignment between three factors
- Positioning
- Product and packaging
- Looking forward, the best opportunities for new wellness apps will likely be derived by unbundling one component of wellness and tailoring a product to serve that specific niche
Positioning: Inputs vs outcomes
Calm pivoted their messaging to capture a broader target
- In August 2017, their hero copy shifted to “Welcome to Calm”
- Switching focus from meditation to the desired outcome appealed to an idealized state
- By incorporating Sleep Stories and Soundscapes, they were not solely focused on meditation
- Retaining paid users also requires a quality product
Product: The Art of Bundling
Calm offers multiple entry points to wellness, allowing users to chart their own path to inner peace
- Sleep Stories, a professionally narrated tale, helps listeners fall asleep
- In 2018, Headspace released their own version of Sleep Stories called Sleepcasts
- The difference between them is how they approach packaging
