‘Netflix is a streaming service that allows its customers to watch a wide variety of award winning TV shows, movies, documentaries and more’ without any advertisements. (Netflix, 2018).
The digital business was founded in 1997, by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph who birthed the concept of online movie rentals. (Rodriguez, 2017). Currently, Netflix is the worlds leading entertainment service with over 130 million paid memberships in 190 different countries, bragging a staggering:
- 52.5 million likes on Facebook
- 5.4 million followers on Twitter
- 11.6 million followers on Instagram
- 6.3 million subscribers on Youtube
The companies main competitors are known to be Amazon Prime Video and Hulu. (Moskowitz, 2018). These two highly digital companies provide similar services to Netflix when it comes to a subscription plan for unlimited video streaming. A recent survey in the United States studied 1,500 different consumers with the objective of finding the most popular service. The results highlighted that 59% of the sample used Netflix, 46% used Amazon Prime Video and 33% had accounts with Hulu. (Vena, 2018). The main reason Netflix has been attracting so many new customers comes down to its thorough social media marketing plan.
Netflix’s main social media platform is Facebook. The company uses geo-tagging marketing techniques as its primary tool, which means the brands content can be found by ‘users looking for information relevant to a particular location’. (Carmon, 2017). 89% of their target group are between the age of 18 and 24 (Yang, 2017) which is why it is important for Netflix to adapt to a more up to date social media platform in order to cater to the needs of their millennial consumer group. The three ingredients to effective advertising are relevance, originality and impact. Influencer marketing techniques such as celebrity endorsements can help in the process of attracting new consumers, whilst also keeping their large number of loyal fans actively engaged. (Choi, Lee and Kim, 2013). Furthermore, planning and structuring their promotional campaigns originally can encourage consumers to click on their constantly updating content.
Netflix’s customer journey map is tailored to all of its subscribers and personas. Whether the consumer is a child, a teenager or an adult, the process from having the desire to watch a movie to actually being able to watch a movie can be done within seconds, as long as the customer has a working internet connection.
Netflix relies heavily on word of mouth advertising, especially through social media. However, a significant proportion of their own members are able to recommend and market the service to their friends and family face to face for them. Loyalty deals are also a fundamental aspect in the company luring in ex customers as they include special perks such as 1 month free trials and constant email updates which can be too mouth watering to turn down.
Reference:
Carmon, N. (2017). 5 Ways to Use Location Based Marketing For Your Brand. [online] Digital Branding Institute. Available at: https://digitalbrandinginstitute.com/5-ways-use-location-based-marketing-brand/ [Accessed 1 Dec. 2018].
Choi, S., Lee, W. and Kim, H. (2013). [online] Tandfonline.com. Available at: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00913367.2005.10639190 [Accessed 7 Dec. 2018].
Moskowitz, D. (2018). Who Are Netflix’s Main Competitors?. [online] Investopedia. Available at: https://www.investopedia.com/articles/markets/051215/who-are-netflixs-main-competitors-nflx.asp [Accessed 13 Dec. 2018].
Netflix. (2018). What is Netflix?. [online] Available at: https://help.netflix.com/en/node/412 [Accessed 1 Dec. 2018].
Rodriguez, A. (2017). Netflix was founded 20 years ago today because Reed Hastings was late returning a video. [online] Quartz. Available at: https://qz.com/1062888/netflix-was-founded-20-years-ago-today-because-reed-hastings-was-late-a-returning-video/ [Accessed 1 Dec. 2018].
Vena, D. (2018). Netflix’s International Penetration Is Soaring — The Motley Fool. [online] The Motley Fool. Available at: https://www.fool.com/investing/2018/09/07/netflixs-international-penetration-is-soaring.aspx [Accessed 13 Dec. 2018].
Yang, L. (2017). A Look Into a New Target Audience: Netflix Subscribers. [online] Business2community. Available at: https://www.business2community.com/marketing/look-new-target-audience-netflix-subscribers-01813457 [Accessed 8 Dec. 2018].
