Monday, September 19, 2011
Netflix Blog
Netflix has been using its blog to explain and launch new products since 2007. Recently Netflix has lost market share due to a change in pricing structure. Since the announcement in July the company has lost almost 50% of its value. Yesterday's blog was written by Netflix CEO, Reed Hastings and was used to comment on the reasons the company decided to change its pricing figure and apologize for lack of explanation regarding the changes. The entry also announced the creation of a new company called Qwikster. Interestingly Reed Hastings not only wrote the post but has replied to several comments on the blog throughout the day in hopes to appease angry customers. Here is the link to the Netflix Blog: http://blog.netflix.com/2011_09_01_archive.html
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3 comments:
Darn, you beat me to this post...
Nonetheless I have mixed feelings about Reed Hastings blog post. On the one hand, I admire that Netflix was actually paying attention to the complaints from the online community about the price hike, and that Reed Hastings was modest enough to recognize their mistake.
But on the other hand, Quikster? Really!? I think this is a terrible move on Netflix's part. You can already see the staggering number of negative comments in response to the post. If they want to split the company up to focus on individual services, fine, but call it something that people can adjust to more easily like "Netflix-DVD" and "Netflix-Streaming". By changing the name and service you lose a lot of brand loyalty. People were already PO'd about the price change, and now your giving us the task of creating a whole new account on another website to enjoy the same features? That's a no no, Netflix.
I agree with you Matt. I think no amount of PR and social media wizardry can make up for the completely insane idea of breaking up the company.
Here's an interesting look into the reasons for Netflix's decision.
http://abovethecrowd.com/2011/09/18/understanding-why-netflix-changed-pricing/
Basically, Hollywood has been strongarming Netflix for awhile, and the company had to make some drastic changes for some leverage just to keep profitable. I don't think the changes are the best, but they just may not have any choice.
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