Facebook Marketing Lifecycle

Plated (now part of Albertsons) started as a meal kit delivery service in 2012, built through scrappy operations and strategic customer acquisition methods.

Core Business Model:

• Fully functional e-commerce site selling meal kits
• Initial operations run from co-founder's apartment
• Focused on direct-to-consumer food delivery

Early Customer Acquisition Strategy:

• Primary channel: Facebook advertising
• Key advantages in 2012:
  • Facebook had just gone public
  • Ad costs were extremely low
  • Could spend $5-10/day to drive ~100 visits
• Customer interaction:
  • Used Olark chat plugin on website
  • Founders directly chatted with visitors
  • Real-time customer research through chat
  • Used feedback to improve website copy and signup flows

Early Operations:

• Extremely bootstrapped approach:
  • Found recipes online or wrote them themselves
  • Packed boxes from apartment
  • Handled all customer service internally
  • Built website in-house

Growth Pattern:

• First 3-4 months: Tens of customers per week
• Scaled to eventually having 1,200 employees
• Customer acquisition evolved constantly:
  • New Facebook tools would work great for 1 month
  • Decent results for 3 more months
  • Then effectiveness would drop significantly
  • Required constant adaptation to new channels and tools

Market Approach:

• Focused on customer service over competition
• Operated in large enough market to succeed despite competitors
• Six major competitors emerged within first 2 years
• No major competitors successfully entered after year 3