Netflix Inc Case Study

The movie rental industry is a living industry; there are constant changes with advances in technology, rights management, and the slow, but steady, move away from physical Media. Companies such as Netflix, Hulu, RedBox, and Blockbuster are being forced to look at new business models and try to keep up with these changes.

Netflix was founded in 1997 with the intent to revolutionize the way in which consumers watch movies and television shows. Their accomplishments both in innovation and in customer base for their service indicate that the firm has been, and continues to be, successful in doing so. Currently, the

Netflix finds its competition and strategic challenges against big names in the market –Google, Apple and Amazon to name a few (Roberts & Zahay, 2012). The challenge for Netflix lies in maintaining the innovative streak, which will add creativity and youth to its brand image and the brand itself. This innovative streak has to be continual and has to match the demands and preferences of the customers in their taste and liking. The brand and the company cannot afford to remain stagnant and rigid in the ever changing and demanding market place. The core competency that Netflix will have to focus on to meet this challenge is to develop and train its human resource. Effective and efficient human resource management will allow the company to tap into present and potential customers, as well as, allow the company to serve them appropriately.

To combat the issue of cancellations we recommend that Netflix implement some form of a loyalty program and/or a referral program. If Netflix were to begin to offer deals such as a free month after a customer has subscribed for a year or rebates for customers who use their Netflix account frequently, they would be able to improve brand loyalty and increase the average time of a subscription. Our second recommendation is to implement a referral program. For example, if a subscriber refers three people in a months’ time to Netflix, and those three people begin a subscription, that customer would receive a free month. These programs or another form of them would increase customer loyalty and have a positive effect on the amount of cancellations.

1. Netflix’s original marketing strategy offered several flat-rate monthly subscription options; in which, members could stream movies and shows via the Internet or have disks sent to their homes in a pre-paid and pre-addressed envelope. Free from the despair of due dates and late fees, members could keep, up to, eight movies at a time. Upon the return of a disk, Netflix would automatically mail out the next movie from the customer’s video queue. Members were able to change and update their queues as frequently as they liked. The sheer innovation of Netflix’s strategy encouraged several competitors to enter the market to compete directly,

First formed in 1991, Netflix has become today’s predominant video rental service. They offer a hybrid service allowing DVD delivery by mail as well as streaming movies and TV shows via their company website or access on 200 other devices. Their unique business process has netted them over 16 million subscribers and revenue around $500 million annually. The reason for their growing success can be attributed to a good business model and just as important, properly implemented systems. An extremely efficient supply chain management system (SCM) and customer relationship management system (CRM) have helped Netflix become the world’s largest video subscription service.

Entering and transforming the video rental industry was a large undertaking for the start-up company. The first marketing objective the company undertook was the process of building a brand. Netflix’s identity was crucial to future growth and success. Without a strong brand, competitors with deep pockets could have easily duplicated the company’s business model. Secondly, leveraging technology was critical to establishing the business and infrastructure growth. The consumer base was the final objective Netflix sought to achieve. Retaining and growing subscribers were fundamental to revenue and marketing goals.

Netflix has around 75 million subscribers today which suggests that it is a very popular organisation. Netflix at the moment serves many markets across the world whinch included the US and Europe. Netflix suffers from competition from companies such as Amazon prime. Both of these companies compete to gain customers in this compact market. Netflix's corporate strategy fits in with their business level strategy as they deal mainly with DVD rental via online streaming. The deal that is in place with Warner bros has a major impact on how Netflix conducts itself. If other online streaming companies don't face this deal of not being allowed to stream their contents untill 28 days after the public release date then other companies have a competitive advantage which would lower Netflix's revenue. This would cause customers to leave Netflix as they may be able to see films at an earlier date with rival

The following is a case study of Netflix, Inc. an American-based company that provides the streaming of online media to consumers in North America, South America, and parts of Europe. This case study will provide a brief overview of the company’s history along with four present-day challenges that the company will face as it tries to stay ahead of the competition. In its discussion of the present-day challenges that Netflix, Inc. faces the discussion will also relate the proposed challenges to the managerial challenges of globalization, diversity, and ethics. After each of the four anticipated challenges have been addressed then this paper will provide an analysis of the steps that Netflix, Inc. has already taken to keep the

Netflix began in 1997 as a revolutionary idea by CEO Reed Hastings and software executive March Randolph. Before long, in 1999 Netflix launched its major line of business, the online subscription service, which radically changed the way consumers viewed movies and television. For a young company in an innovative and growing industry, Netflix has set itself up for a tremendous journey. The company has had much success due to its adaption of a modern business model and strength in operations management. Its continued reliance on and improvements of operation management principles is necessary to continue growing and bringing in profits.

The video rental industry began with brick and mortar store that rented VSH tape. Enhanced internet commerce and the advent of the DVD provided a opportunity for a new avenue for securing movie rentals. In 1998 Netflix headquartered in Los Gatos California began operations as a regional online movie rental company. While the firm demonstrated that a market for online rentals existed, it was not financially successfully. Netflix lost over $11 million in 1998 and as a result significantly changed the business model in 2000. The new strategy included focusing on becoming a nationally based subscription model and focusing on enhancing the subscribers experience on their website. The change in

To understand Netflix’s positioning in the home video industry - offering of movies in the comfort of the home - it is useful to employ Porter’s 5 forces framework to identify the gap they are filling and their strengths and weaknesses.

Netflix exhibits dominant economic characteristics in the online movie rental business. They enjoy strong market size and growth rate when compared to rivalry competition. The number of rivalries are increasing, and the market remains dominated by only a few sizeable rivalries like Blockbuster Video, Wal-Mart, Walt Disney Movies and Movielink’s Downloadable Movies. Netflix is determined to offer new and innovative technology to sustain their competitive advantage.

Many of their competitors have longer operating histories, larger customer bases, greater brand recognition and significantly greater financial, marketing and other resources than Netflix does. Some of their competitors have adopted, and may continue to adopt, aggressive pricing policies and devote substantially more resources to marketing and Web site and systems development than Netflix does. The rapid growth of their online entertainment subscription business since their beginning may attract direct competition from larger companies with significantly greater financial resources and national brand recognition. For instance in 2003 the extremely wealthy Wal-Mart used their online site to launch an online DVD subscription service, Wal-Mart DVD Rentals. With increased competition reduced operating margins may result as well as a loss of market share and reduced revenues. In addition, our competitors may form or extend strategic alliances with studios and distributors that could adversely affect our ability to obtain titles on favorable terms.

Video-on-demand or VOD, a service that allows users to select and watch videos over the internet, will be one of the greatest innovation as stated in the Netflix case study. It will be a great opportunity for Netflix, but it will also be a challenge to integrate or do away with its current business model. Its current business model is one that relies on the internet and the post service to deliver DVDs to its subscribers. Netflix should carefully enter the VOD market without doing away with its current model. This will allow it to maintain its growing position as a giant in this media industry. In order to better understand Netflix and the problems it faces, we must first identify its strengths. What does Netflix offer its customers that its competitors do not? What differentiates it from its competitors?