Hey, I’m Michael Culp, and today, I’m going to show you the Netflix marketing tactics.
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Netflix is a market leader followed by its competitors Amazon Prime, HBO, Disney, and Hulu. You can even check out this article about Hulu cons.
Netflix is at the top of the minds of consumers. Netflix is so top of mind that we even have a phrase that became part of our culture: “you want to come to my house to Netflix and chill?”. And we all know what that means haha
This shows the extremely high levels of brand awareness Netflix has achieved. But how Netflix became so successful and popular?
Let’s dive into its marketing strategies and business model!
1 – Personalization
Netflix has a very wide audience ranging from men to women, from 18 to 54 years old. Netflix has enough content to fit everyone’s tastes. From horror movies to teenage romantic comedies, and documentaries.
The platform follows a customer-centric approach to deliver a great experience for its users. Their algorithm and the data they gather allow them to engage with users on a deep level, by personalizing their experience.
The Netflix movie suggestions will adapt depending on the user’s tastes. Based on the data from the movies we watch, Netflix will make recommendations that fit our interests.
Another personalization feature is the option to add different channels to the same account. This is valuable because you can stop to watch an episode from a show or a movie and don’t need to remember exactly the time you left.
Personalized services are very powerful for companies. The more personalized your message is, the more attention the user will pay.
2 – Social Media Communication
Netflix is also very clever with its content on Social Media. Netflix communicates with its target audience as if they are talking with just a friend and in a very humorous way.
Using humor in your brand communication can be very effective, but also risky. And Netflix has mastered this style.
They make promotions and publicity without making us feel that we are being promoted. Netflix connects directly with people.
3 – Extremely Innovative
Netflix was so tactful and strategic about navigating competitive situations in the past. They literally disrupted a whole industry several times, and successfully changed their business model whenever they needed it.
In 1997, Blockbuster was very popular. Blockbuster was a movie rental service, which had physical stores of DVDs all over the US. And it worked by people renting a movie on Friday and giving back on Monday.
A lot of Blockbuster’s revenue came from late fees, which annoyed most of the customers. This is what motivated the beginning of Netflix.
So, Reed Hastings founded Netflix based on the premise of no late fees. It started as a subscription-based DVD in-mail service. You just needed to make a list online, send it to them, and they would send it to you after 2 days. After you sent it back, they would send you another one.
Then Blockbuster decided to start in this same DVD in-mail business model as Netflix. They started to grow very fast and they had the competitive advantage of having a huge network of stores, which allowed them to send the DVDs on the same day. Netflix also faced difficulties with Walmart renting DVDs at an extremely low price, just to entice customers to come to their store and buy other products.
This is when Netflix pivoted to online streaming services and invested heavily in data algorithms, to provide a personalized experience to their customers. Then, Netflix became one of the fastest-growing companies in the world.
To create a competitive advantage, Netflix started to produce its own content, instead of just reselling existing content. This is what is allowing their subscribers to stay, even when every other streaming is pulling content from their platform.
But now, the only source of revenue for Netflix is the subscription fee. And they are competing with giants that have other sources of revenue, such as Amazon prime. Amazon is using the same tactic as Walmart used before. They are attracting people to Prime Video at a very low price so that people spend more money on their other more expensive products.
Conclusion
Netflix is a streaming giant that revolutionized the market to remain competitive. Now it’s facing new challenges that can cause new disruptions or take the company out of business. So, let me know in the comments, what you think it’s going to happen…
AUTHOR BIO
Michael Culp is a Business Master’s Student and founder at Ambition Yard. He is a business enthusiast and on his site, he teaches the best ways to make money online.