Philips: Philips prioritizes consumer needs and wishes, resulting in new business models

Consumer behavior continues to shift and change, disrupting how people buy products and services and how brands sell today. More informed and conscious than ever, many consumers are prioritizing convenience, flexibility, long-term value, and access to the things they want and need over owning them. From streaming and renting to borrowing and sharing, non-traditional ways of paying for and using products and services are becoming increasingly popular. People today also want to consume in more meaningful ways; doing the right thing has never been more important to them – and they expect the brands they buy from to do the same.

Prioritizing consumers’ needs and wants
At Philips, our purpose is to improve people’s health and well-being through meaningful innovation; people are at the heart of everything we do. We continuously challenge ourselves to deliver value to our customers in the right place, at the right time – informed by data. As part of our response to today’s consumers’ needs and through our commitment to driving a more circular economy, we now provide different subscription models that allow people to access our products and services in more flexible, affordable, convenient, and sustainable ways.


Affordable access to high-end solutions
Only by putting people’s needs first can Philips deliver a powerful brand and product experience. For us, it is about leading the way in personalized care by developing human-lead, adaptive health technology that meaningfully contributes to each person’s unique health and well-being journey. By thinking out of the box, we are able to tackle barriers consumers face around affordability, convenience and access to personal health and wellbeing solutions, such as by offering select products as a ‘service’. For example, our customers now have the option to pay a monthly fee to rent instead of buy one of our IPL Lumea devices, Avent breast pumps or Sonicare toothbrushes, giving them more affordable access to the products, often which they only need for a short amount of time. When the rental period is over, we take the product back, then refurbish it so it can be used by another customer.

Sustainability at our heart
We also know that changing the way we design, make, and sell our products really has an impact on the world – and that making more use of a circular economy is not only a business model, but also the way forward. As a responsible health technology leader that constantly listens to and learns from our customers, we recognize a growing number of consumers have a deep desire to access the products and services they need to stay healthy and well, in more sustainable ways. In response, we innovate every day to develop products that use less energy, last longer and use less materials to produce and refurbish. We aim for all our products and services to be designed in line with our EcoDesign requirements by 2025, and we’re aiming for 25% of our revenue to come from circular products and solutions by 2025.

Convenience and prevention at home
Taking the hassle out of re-ordering, we now offer replenishment subscriptions, where customers with a Philips Sonicare toothbrush can sign up to regularly receive replacement brush heads delivered directly to their home. This way, customers are ensured to automatically receive their replacement brush head every 3 months, without having to think twice about it and to always get the best results.
Philips new business models

In addition – and armed with the knowledge that oral health has strong links to overall health – Philips partners with health and dental insurance providers who offer insurance packages focused on prevention, encouraging them to maintain good oral health at home between visits and to prevent oral diseases before they develop.
Philips new business models

At Philips, our customers always come first. By working every day to understand their needs, we’ve been able to rethink and provide new business models that make health and wellbeing at home more accessible, affordable, convenient, and sustainable, for more people.