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Essay / Netflix's survival in the new generation
As technology advances, so does our form of daily entertainment. For many years, people would rush home to watch their favorite cable TV shows. In fact, the average American household watches at least eight hours of television every day (Chatterjee, Berry, & Hopkins, 2016). In this new era of entertainment, people want to watch what they want, when they want. As more people begin to cancel their cable TV contracts and purchase streaming subscriptions, companies such as Netflix have begun to thrive. In the past, Netflix has risen to the top and stayed above all competition. Today, competition for streaming and television services is starting to get tougher, and Netflix is facing some dilemmas. With a very strategic plan, Netflix could overcome these problems. If Netflix does not create a solution, these problems can be very detrimental to the success of the brand. Overall, everyone will be watching if Netflix will survive in this new generation.BackgroundIn 1997, Netflix was founded by partners Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California. The two developed a relationship at Hastings company, Pure Software. Reed Hastings was a software designer. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay He sold his company Pure Software for $700 million. Marc Randolph was co-founder of a computer mail order company, MicoWarehouse, and also worked as vice president of marketing for Borland International. Using Hastings' software expertise and Randolph's marketing experience, they launched Netflix with $2.5 million in starting cash. The company was introduced to the world as an unlimited movie rental service ("A Background and History of Netflix - Netflix As A Modern Technology", 2015). Netflix has eliminated traditional pay-per-rent methods and late fees by offering users monthly subscriptions. The company built its reputation by offering a “bundle” for unlimited movie and video game rentals. Netflix has eliminated the hassle of due dates related to late fees and shipping and handling fees ("A Background and History of Netflix - Netflix As A Modern Technology", 2015).Netflix's First DilemmaWhen it started offering streaming services, Netflix decided to separate its streaming and DVD services. service. This was one of the company's first mistakes, and is still ridiculed to this day. Qwikster was its DVD mail order service and Netflix was its video streaming service. Although it made sense for the two services to be marketed differently, their separation caused a lot of confusion. Netflix intended for the two to grow and operate independently. In 2011, the company realized its mistake and decided to discontinue Qwikster. All DVD mail order services would operate under Netflix again (Chatterjee, Berry, & Hopkins, 2016). Some people thought the end of Qwikster would mean the end of the DVD service. They were wrong. As of 2018, more than 3 million people still receive DVDs by mail from Netflix. Netflix has been proud to offer this service for over 20 years. You would think that the drop from 9 million subscribers in 2008 to 3 million in 2018 would raise red flags (Bonazzo, 2018). DVD RecommendationEven though it is a great achievement, Netflix should seriously considerto terminate its DVD mail service. Netflix currently has over 118 subscribers worldwide. If only 3 million subscribers use the DVD mail order service, the majority of users are satisfied with the streaming service alone (Bonazzo, 2018). Due to wireless technology, most users prefer streaming services. People all over the world have stopped using DVD and Blu-ray players because they feel that their price is too high for their use. Most televisions or video game players allow users to use TV applications as a source of entertainment. Netflix should end this service because it is more harmful than good. If Netflix discontinues this service, they can save on overhead costs related to storage and maintenance of the product. The company will also save on shipping and handling costs. To solve this problem, Netflix can create a marketing campaign called “Streaming is good for the environment!” This campaign will show that the company is moving away from paper and products. They can announce the end of their DVD mail order service and encourage all mail order subscribers to use their streaming service. The company could even offer mail subscribers a 50% discount for the first year. This would be a great incentive and marketing strategy that would help the company save huge amounts in the future. Who Wants Rerun Tv?Customers are starting to notice that most of Netflix's content can be watched elsewhere. Netflix benefited from its recognition as a place where any subscriber could watch their favorite TV shows in reruns. While this has been a great strategy in the past, subscribers will be asking for more in the future. Competitors such as Hulu offer both new shows that air on television networks as well as their streaming service as well as their reruns. Netflix should consider doing the same (Chatterjee, Berry, & Hopkins, 2016). A solution to the rerun dilemma Netflix may not want to spend millions of dollars buying active TV shows because they already spend millions acquiring rerun content. Instead of spending more to compete with companies like Hulu, Netflix should spend more time marketing its Netflix Originals. Netflix Originals are original shows and movies released exclusively on Netflix. It would be very beneficial to market this content on other television networks. Netflix should create social media marketing for YouTube, Instagram and Facebook. The company is also expected to market the content to television networks such as Fox and/or ABC. These marketing efforts could potentially attract new subscribers to the company interested in the shows, especially if the company offers the first month of subscription free. Unlike other rebroadcast series, each show could be broadcast weekly to build anticipation. This solution will also help businesses pull content from Netflix. In 2018, Disney released a statement announcing to the public that it would launch its own streaming service and remove its content from its competitors (Spangler, 2018). Instead of trying to find another network to fill this void, Netflix should instead start creating their Netflix Originals so they don't have to rely more on content other than their own. Unique contentNetflix spends millions of dollars to create one. unique content of its kind for its subscribers. The company believes that “if they have more subscribers, they can buy more content; More than),