Assignment essay paper

Netflix and Blockbuster

In the modern world, technology has evolved and consumer preferences have changed. A popular trend shows us the fact that people are more inclined to watch movies and other TV shows at home or online. In more details, movies, as one of the greatest inventions in human history, have always fascinated people. In the earliest days, the process of watching movies was relatively time-consuming. People needed to go outside to watch black and white movies outdoors. Then later, in the 1980s, physical video discs and videotapes became popular. People needed to go to a physical video store to rent a movie and return it on time or pay an expensive default fee. Therefore, today, I will mainly talk about the story about Netflix and Blockbuster. Netflix gradually transformed from an unpopular small business to an equal competitor with Blockbuster. Eventually Blockbuster went bankrupt, but Netflix became the most popular online movie platform today.Assignment

Netflix, one of the world’s leading online streaming service providers, which enjoys a high reputation worldwide. Currently, it has a huge user base of more than 167 million people. One aspect of Netflix’s growth is that it can provide users in 190 countries/regions with a large amount of raw data content. On the other hand, it focuses on using technology to provide users with a superior experience. In 2019, Netflix’s net income grew to US$20.15 billion, compared with US$15.8 billion in 2018. Therefore, this section will explore the Netflix marketing mix, including the product, price, place, promotion, process, personnel, and physical evidence. Netflix has an extensive list of shows, including movies, TV shows, documentaries, Netflix original shows, etc. In addition, Netflix adds new TV shows and movies every week to meet subscribers’ viewing needs (Netflix, 2019). Netflix also provides three plans for users to register and pay for use, namely the basic plan, standard plan and advanced plan. These movies and shows make it widely welcomed in the global market.Assignment

Netflix uses almost all media channels to attract and retain its subscribers. Its first-month free trial policy is a promotional activity, which can first establish brand awareness and retain subscribers. In addition, it also uses social networking sites, TVC and print ads for advertising, which shows the various programs and latest movies those users can watch with the app. It uses commercial billboards offline to convey its information to the target audience (Weprin, 2019). These channels have allowed more brands to gain more exposure. The online platform is the main place where Netflix is used, so the company’s marketing team and social media team are the most important departments of the organization. As of May 2019, it employs approximately 7,100 full-time employees with different backgrounds (Watson, 2019). This ensures that global customers can easily obtain services online, and respond quickly and solve problems as quickly as possible. Netflix also has an online help center, which is an online live chat handled by the organization’s employees. Good customer service allows the brand to gain higher customer loyalty and build a higher reputation. Since Netflix is a streaming service, its apps and websites are its biggest physical evidence, which must be updated in time and kept user-friendly. Of course, its offices and data centers are also part of it, which has offices and data centers in many countries/regions, such as the United States, the Netherlands, Brazil, India, Japan, and South Korea. This is true for all streaming media, social media and gaming services, which enables users to easily complete online purchases and use various services.Assignment

The goal of branding is to develop a unique corporate name for a company, product or service, and a custom logo design. Customers choose certain brands for various reasons, such as high-quality products or high-quality services. But if a brand wants to attract and maintain the development of customers forever, branding is a necessary way for it.

One of the core steps of branding is brand recognition, which digs out the company’s vision (why the company exists), mission (the company’s behavior) and values (the belief that guides the company’s actions). In other words, a characteristic of such an organization is that all-important decisions are made by the one who has the most power (Cameron & Green, 2015). After the company understands the current impression of its brand and its position in the market, it can begin to define the company’s new identity. By unifying the brand voice, companies can clearly and consistently reflect their unique brand image in future digital marketing and traditional marketing. For example, when users think of Apple, it means innovation, technology, and difference.

After entering the era of digital marketing, and today when content production and dissemination have become increasingly fragmented and socialized, traditional face-sweeping advertising can no longer continue to brainwash consumers. According to the textbook, “Leaders of change should concentrate on scanning the environment, and drawing people’s attention to the adaptive challenges that the organization needs to address, such as culture changes, or changes in core processes” (Cameron & Green, 2015). The biggest feature of branded content is to appeal to emotions, values and lifestyles, and subtly convey brand culture, thereby turning customers into fans and turning the brand into faith. This enables users to complete the self-satisfaction of consumer behavior in a strong sense of value identity. This is actually connecting more consumers with brand value. In particular, I also realized that digital marketing strategy is a new marketing method that assists in achieving marketing goals. It can be based on user value data and use the interactivity of information media to cover marketing scenarios in many ways. Netflix has adopted excellent computer network technology and excellent content products to save marketing costs to a large extent, and thus allocate more energy to develop a new global market and fully meet the diverse practical needs of different users.

In addition, content marketing is an indispensable key point in digital marketing strategies. For example, Netflix’s interesting stories and value messages are more commonly used forms in marketing. It pays attention to using brands or products as content carriers and handing these product content to consumers to digest and understand. “Senge says that successful leadership of change does not have to come from the top of an organization. It comes from within the organization” (Cameron & Green, 2015). This is actually a warning to us in the future to pay attention to the cultural connotation and profound significance of current brand products. In this way, enterprises can meet the needs of users at different levels while conforming to their own product development. In my future work, I can deeply grasp the impact of market changes and the new marketing situation, and look for brand breakthroughs from the changes, which show users extraordinary ideas and values.

There are a lot of different types of industry in the world, some of them may develop successfully but some of them were failed. During a period of technological transition, one of the examples of business was thrived which is Netflix, and another one of the examples of business was declined which is Blockbuster. Therefore, why Blockbuster declined during a period of technological transition is a significant topic that need to consider and discuss, and how this relates to individual change, team change, organizational change and leading change. Moreover, there also need to consider that how does Blockbuster failed to do these changes and lead to bankrupt.

​Blockbuster also called Blockbuster Entertainment Inc. It is an American provider which normally provide home movie and video game rental services. Moreover, Blockbuster was in Clermont, Florida, and the services of Blockbuster were offered at video rental shops at the beginning. Customers may rent the movies and DVD that they want, so Blockbuster became famous in the 90s and the early 20s. In the early 2000s, blockbusters’ influence on the market was still significant. Many stores were located near residential areas, which made it easy for people to visit them if they wanted to borrow or rent a video. They also had machines that allowed customers to return their rental videos and receive a new one, which lowered the risk of store shopping. Blockbuster had a high number of locations and was generally available throughout all major cities in the US; this created loyalty among customers who enjoyed a certain level of convenience. The Blockbuster’s team failed to change as an organization with changing technology (Cameron & Green, 2012). However, over time the company began to lose many of its customers since it was becoming common for people to rent videos from digital outlets with online streaming services. There are lots of Blockbuster’s rental stores were closed because of their biggest rival Netflix became thrived, and the digital movies was kept rising. Therefore, Blockbuster lost competitive advantages and go bankrupt in the end (McKinnon, 2022).

​In addition, the poor leadership also is an important factor leading to Blockbuster’s decline. The activist investors in Blockbuster did wrong decision. Although the period of technological transition was coming, the investors still choose to keep bricks and mortars instead of online rental business. This is a big mistake to make them suffer loss. In chapter 3, Gareth Morgan describes those organizational metaphors help people to expand thinking and think deeper. Moreover, it also let people use new way to see things and to act (Cameron & Green, 2012). Blockbuster’s management did not use a new way to face organizational change, and they did not do anything news to treat technological transition. They were stereotyped so that they missed the best time to do the technological transition. Furthermore, the investors in Blockbuster also ignored the potential development trends which was they should focus on online business. This made the Blockbuster lost advantages to their rival Netflix.

​In addition, the reason why does Blockbuster failed to do business during the period of technological transition is because the leaders in Blockbuster did not have visionary leadership. In chapter 4, the authors Cameron and Green explain that visionary leadership is a basic factor of leadership. Moreover, today’s leaders pay more attention on visionary leadership, they think visionary leadership is important and helpful for organizational change (Cameron & Green, 2012). However, the leaders in Blockbuster failed to do visionary leadership, they did not know what they want or what they decide to achieve. Moreover, they did not have the ability to forecast future trend, and they were not visionary to do transition. This also led Blockbuster to go bankrupt.

​Next, Blockbuster was declined because they gave up a good deal. In the early 2000s, Netflix which is a potential company hoped to sell their company to Blockbuster and they will be able to manage Blockbuster’s online services. However, Blockbuster refused this deal, and they ignored the ability of the Netflix. Moreover, Blockbuster also underestimated the demand of online marketing. They did not need the cooperation with Netflix, so they also lost a good team (McKinnon, 2022). A team is a key factor to decide a business success, and an effective team is also significant to the company. Recording to chapter 2, the author Cameron and Green describe the significance of a team to a company. Casey who is from Ashridge Management College also describe that uncertainty decides teamwork. Moreover, the teamwork is being agreed for the team is also important to decide a company’s success (Cameron & Green, 2012). Therefore, it means that if a company want to be successful, it needs to have a good team, cooperate with others, share ideas and solve uncertain things. Netflix is a good teammate for Blockbuster, and it also may help Blockbuster to solve the uncertain problem which was online rental stores. Nevertheless, Blockbuster did not catch this chance, and it made teammate became rivals. This also led Blockbuster to be failed to do business.

​In addition, the next reason that why blockbuster declined during a period of technological transition is their business model was defective due to no capable leader. In most of time, Blockbuster focused on their financial issue. They paid a lot of time to solve this issue. Therefore, they were hard to be profitable. Moreover, Blockbuster could not adapt organizational change, so this also is the reason that why they were hard to be successful as well. Referring to chapter 3, the authors Cameron and Green also list that organization as political systems. In the organizations, there might have three key different of power rules, they are “democracies”, “autocracy” and “anarchy”. All of them may reflect how power is apply to organizational life (Cameron & Green, 2012). Blockbuster did not have an autocrat to make a wise decision for their company, this caused failure.

Therefore, these are the reasons why Blockbuster declined during a period of technological transition.