Work · Research Study
Functional Energy Brand: From One-Time Buyers to Subscribers
A caffeine-pouch brand with 26,369 customers and almost no subscribers. Order data, a survey, and a hundred hours of interviews found the two people worth designing for. 95.9% one-time. That was the opportunity.
Anonymised client work, 2025. Figures are real; the brand is not named.
Context
Sales were healthy and recurring revenue was not: 28,010 one-time buyers against 1,205 subscribers. The brand wanted to know who would subscribe, and what the site had to become for them to do it.
My Role
Research design, the interviews, the segmentation, the personas, the website comparisons, and the recommendations, delivered as a 57-page report with a CRO audit alongside it.
Method
- Segment the base. 26,369 customers cut by age, occupation, education, spend, geography, and gender, one-time against subscription.
- Interview. More than a hundred hours of calls and transcripts. Every respondent named quick energy as the goal; 90% used at least two energy sources.
- Test the competition. Participants walked competitor sites. One brand felt grounded and intuitive; ours evoked little emotion and read as a hacked-together template.
- Map the market. Twenty caffeine-pouch brands scored on market share against market fit, so the client could see who to learn from.
What the Data Said
- Subscribers cluster at 35 to 44, college-educated, spending $26 to $100, in Utah, Washington, Idaho, and Colorado.
- Professionals were the largest one-time group and the least converted. That is the gap.
- Reviews decide trial. 93% of one persona and 78% of the other had bought after reading one in the past year.
Two Personas
- The busy tactical professional. Twelve-hour shifts, two jobs, buys on speed and flavour. Wants the facts, not the story.
- The skeptical functionalist. An EMT who reads ingredient lists. Wants caffeine per pouch, clinical evidence, and a pack he can build himself.
Recommendations
- Two content paths. A performance mode for the first persona, a proof mode for the second, from the same product pages.
- Tiered subscriptions. Entry trial for $0 to $25 spenders, value bundles for $26 to $50, personalised offers above that.
- Fix the hierarchy. Starter kits, single pouches, and flavours separated; caffeine dose shown visually against coffee and energy drinks.
- Play to the persona. Six game concepts: fast runners that reward efficient choices, and match and focus games that teach the ingredients.
26,369
Customers analysed
95.9%
One-time buyers
100+
Interview hours