How Netflix Put Itself Out of Business

No. 44: Failures are all around. Are you protected?

3 Quick Takes

1. Choice Hacking: The Psychological Failure of New Coke. I love the study of behavior and this article has some strong nuggets related to marketing and product development. It is well worth looking through this with a lens as it relates to your business.

2. Bloomberg: Everything You Need to Know About Netflix’s Big Miss. Netflix’s stock took a phenomenal dive after its subscriber count announcement last week. As a subscriber, I have my own opinion (which I give below in “Something to Consider”). What is yours?

3. MarketingWeek: Earning trust means brands must consider every customer experience. I spend a lot of time thinking about how we can develop great user experiences, while gaining intelligence, with the least amount of effort from the customer. The centerpiece of that: Trust.

My Top Tweet Last Week

Well, this reply escalated quickly. Not only did Elon Musk go from majority Twitter shareholder to full-owner in two weeks time, I responded to one of my favorite Ukrainian reporters today which quickly became the top Tweet of the week. What are your thoughts on Elon taking over Twitter?

Richard Dedor 🇺🇦 @RichardDedor

@natureofthings7 @IAPonomarenko This. This is why.

A Number to Consider: 25%

That is the number of people who remain (after the pandemic made us all podcast listeners) regular podcast listeners. This is the same figure as 2021. This is all to say, podcasting production and consumption is here to stay.

The largest swatch of customers are younger Millennials (25-34). I was a podcast listener before the pandemic, and I am one after.

In fact, I rarely hit the FM dial in the car. Which, while I get made fun of because I never know the latest hit song, I feel better about the content I am consuming.

What is the future of podcasting in your view?

Tweet of The Week

As I work through some larger projects, I have been focusing a lot on user experience from all angles: Website, social, email, and calls to action. This Tweet from Drew caught my attention and it reflects the importance of have tentacles in a lot of places but never ever losing sight of the direct connection you can (and need to have) with your customers.

Drew Sanocki @drewsanocki

Your own audience > everything else. Every other marketing channel is pay-to-play. You get taxed to talk to your customers. Screw that. Winning brands lean into your own first party data. The best way? Email + direct mail.

TikTok Tip

I can’t tell you how many times I have gone to a website or a form or some other marketing experience and quit engaging when I realized they didn’t care about my experience; they cared about theirs. What do I mean? Check out my latest TikTok tip:

Something to Consider

My household has been subscribers to Netflix since the days of House of Cards. We love their original content and they frequently change out their shared / purchased content libraries. And while it can be hard to find new material (with over 50,000 titles, how can you possibly show me great new stuff?), the service has always been a staple in our house since cutting the cord.

But why the loss in subscribers now, and what can they do about it? I think subscribers are fading for one main reason: Viewership (choice) fatigue - we have SO MANY options. We have a rule in our house: no more streaming services. If we add one, one goes away.

But for Netflix, who has invested over $18 billion in original content (and been rewarded at awards shows), they have set themselves up for this problem. If subscriber numbers had fallen but they had shown new, growing revenue, Wall Street would not have dropped the stock to the tune of $54 billion.

Netflix is in a precarious position because they relied on their flagship product for too long (remember how they beat Blockbuster?). They forgot an important rule in marketing and business: Always try to put yourself out of business before someone else does.