I. Introduction.....................................................................................1

A. Services Marketing Concept……………………………………………..….1

B. Netflix………………………………………………………………….….…...3

1. About Netflix…………………………………………………………….…..5

IV. Review of current Services Marketing Literature……………………………..…6

V. How does Netflix implement the concept of Services Marketing…................. .

VI. How could Netflix Do it better..........................................................

VII. Summary/Conclusion.........................................................................

VIII. References..................................................................................13

i

Introduction to Netflix

With more than 13 million members, Netflix, Inc. (Nasdaq: NFLX) is the world’s largest

subscription service streaming movies and TV episodes over the Internet and sending DVDs by

mail. For $8.99 a month, Netflix members can instantly watch unlimited TV episodes and

movies streamed to their TVs and computers and can receive unlimited DVDs delivered quickly

to their homes. In February 2010 the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ASCI) named

Netflix the number one ecommerce company for customer satisfaction. Netflix has been named

the number one retail Web site for customer satisfaction in ten out of eleven surveys since 2005

by ForeSee Results. In December 2007 Netflix was ranked the number one online retailer by

Nielsen Online. In January 2007 Netflix was named the Retail Innovator of the Year by the

National Retail Federation. In the fall of 2005, Fast Company magazine named Netflix the

winner of its annual Customers First Award. In December 2008, Time Magazine named the Roku

Netflix ready device one of the top ten gadgets of the year. (1)

1997- Netflix is formed

1998 – Begins offering DVD sales and rentals

1999 – Moves to subscription model

2000- Deals signed with major studios

2001 – Partnership with BestBuy

2002 – Netflix goes public

2003 – Subscribers top 1 million

2006 – Netflix prize is announced

2009 – Netflix prize winner is announced, subscribers top 10 million

2010 – Agreements reached with equipment companies to develop Netflix-enabled web devicesii

(66)

Introduction to Services Marketing Concept

Services play an increasingly important role in the economy and in individual

organizations. Services are particularly relevant in industries where competitive pressures are

forcing companies to find ways to create competitive differentiation. (Davey) Marketing a

service is not exactly the same as marketing physical goods. It has been called "selling the

invisible" - delivering intangible services as a core "product" offering (Coldren, 2006).

However, invisibility, or intangibility, is just one factor that distinguishes services marketing

from product marketing. Other factors include inseparability, heterogeneity, and perishability.

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These four characteristics affect the way clients behave during the buying process and the way

organizations must interact with them.

1. Intangibility - Services are not physical and cannot be "possessed." Because they can't

be seen, touched, or made tangible in some way, assessing their quality and value is

difficult.

2. Perishability - You can't store services for future use. When a client misses an

appointment with his attorney, that time can never be recaptured. When hotel rooms are

empty and theater tickets go unsold, the inherent value vanishes.

3. Heterogeneity - Services quality and consistency are subject to great variability because

they are delivered by people, and human behavior is difficult to control. Personal

performance and quality can vary by time of day (people get tired), time of month or year

(during tax time for CPAs), workload, experience, attitude, knowledge, and other factors.

4. Inseparability - The production of the services can't be separated from its consumption.

For example, the production and consumption of a medical exam happen together, as do

many consulting services and IT maintenance contracts (13).

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When marketing services, it is imperative to focus on the benefits that a service provides

to a customer. Traditionally, marketers have used a product marketing approach to services,

focusing on a careful balance of the well-known Four P's of the Marketing Mix: Product, Place,

Price, and Promotion. (Davey) However, because of the nature of services, the additional P's of

"People," "Process," and "Physical Evidence" take on a greater importance. Recruiting and

training the right staff is essential if the organization wants to obtain a form of competitive

advantage. Consumers will make judgments and will deliver perceptions of the service based on

Inseparability Perishability

Intangibility

heterogeneity

Challenges of Services Marketing

v

the employees they interact with. The staff should have the appropriate interpersonal skills,

aptitude, and service knowledge to provide the service that consumers are paying for. Process

tools and management capability will need to be in place in order for an organization to respond

to changes within the market and capitalize on them. Processes also need to be able to obtain a

consistent level of service delivery. These process factors contribute to the efficiency and

quality management of an organization and can be seen directly from the customer. Badly

designed processes are likely to annoy customers when they experience slow, bureaucratic, and

ineffective service delivery. Services also need to become more tangible so that customers can

see the service as something to be purchased. For example, when you walk into a restaurant,

your expectations are of a clean, friendly environment.

Review of Current Literature

Current Literature on Intangibility

Word of Mouth

“Intangibility is not only the most widely cited difference between goods and services but

has also been described by Bateson (1979) as the critical distinction from which all other

differences emerge” (Lovelock, 2004). Intangibility refers to lack of a physical object for the

consumer to own or purchase. This is viewed as a challenge because the lack of a physical object

makes it hard for customers to try out a product or see a product in action prior to purchasing.

Because of this, “Word of Mouth (advertising) can play a particularly important role for service

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organizations” (Sweeney, et al, 2007). Word of Mouth provides an excellent vehicle for service

organizations to increase customer awareness, and “the primary impact of Word of Mouth,

which may mediate these relationships, is on perceived risk. Positive Word of Mouth reduces

risk during the evaluation stage of the consumer purchase cycle” (Sweeney, et al, 2007). Word

of Mouth advertising has always existed in some form, however the internet is making it easier

to communicate to millions of individuals which, in turn has increased the importance of this

form.

IMC

In addition to WOM advertising removing some of the difficulty firms have advertising

their services, Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) may also play a role in making it

easier to sell services to the general public. “IMC may be a means by which tangibility of the

service offering can be assessed as well as improved, particularly with respect to services

advertising” (Grove, 2002). The study which that result came from looked at how a services firm

can use integrated marketing through advertisements, direct marketing, brand advertising, and

sales promotion. The authors of the study believe that “the synergy and focus derived from

effective IMC can provide valuable information (Lane and Russell, 2001) and add tangibility to a

service offering.

Neuromarketing

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Neuromarketing research may be able to assist in finding ways to add tangibility to a

service offering, recent research in that field has found that “While consumers may attribute

human-like characteristics to service brands and products, neural research suggests services

attributions based on non-human tangibilization are not made in the same region of the brain or

in the same way as attributions based on exposure to people” (Fugate, 2008). That research was

geared specifically to branding of an intangible service with a tangible entity to create some type

of brand recognition; however, future neuromarketing work may be able to assist in closing the

gap between tangible and intangible products.

Moving away from Intangibility

The previous sections dealt with using Word of Mouth to inform customers of services,

using IMC to add tangibility to services, and how neuromarketing may change how we answer

the tangible/intangible question. Other academic papers on the subject of services marketing are

looking to get away from the four distinguishing factors as defining services marketing. In

relation to intangibility, an argument is discussed along the lines of “the observation that

essentially all goods have a service component, whereas essentially all services have some form

of tangible representation” (Vargo, 2004).

Current Literature on Perishability

As previously mentioned, perishability deals with when organizations cannot store

services for future use. Marketers main concern would be the procedure for when things do not

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go as planned. Customers cannot simply return a certain service and ask for another one. It is up

to the service provider to offer the customer some kind of compensation. When a client misses

an appointment with his attorney, that time can never be recaptured. When hotel rooms are

empty and theater tickets go unsold, the inherent value vanishes. Perishability also affects

performance as balancing supply and demand can be difficult. Demand may be seasonal, time

sensitive, or crisis driven.

When demand fluctuates, it can be a challenge to maintain high performance levels. For

example, In the 1980s, movie theatres dealt with perishability by launching $2.50 Tuesdays,

which helped shift demand away from more popular weekend screenings. (Lichti, 2008) Today,

companies like Cineplex maximizes capacity through alternative program offerings such as

professional wrestling, World Cup soccer, and NHL games, which bring in new audiences,

smooth out demand, and boost revenues. (Lichti, 2008) Organizations who display their

presence in front of customers throughout the off-season will help them market their services

later on. Cineplex found a way to bring customers in when the demand for its service was down

by finding new ways to appeal to consumers and compensate for the decreased demand.

Current Literature on Heterogeneity

Good heterogeneity is the opportunity in the interactive service encounter to tailor the

service provided to suit a customer needs. Bad heterogeneity is error (Iacobucci, 2001).

The various areas in the services marketing where variability could occur include:

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Customer Service:

Customer services where the front line customer directly deals with the customer

over the phone or electronic chatting (Gummesson, 2007).

Due to nature of customer service involves humans things can and do go wrong,

the services producer should know how to deliver a professional client response.

How quickly the response is delivered is critical. The objective is to maintain

client trust so shifting blame, explaining it away, or ignoring it can further

damage the relationship. The services producer should provide an apology, fix the

problem or situation quickly, makes up for the inconvenience with additional free

services or a token of appreciation, and determine the reason for the error and fix

it at the root – even if it means people or process changes (Coldren, 2006).

Within the provider system and organization there are also support staff (back

office, back-room, backstage) management. They are not normally in contact with

external customers but only interact with internal customers. They indirectly

affect customer service (Gummesson, 2007).

The service production system should be such that customers understand it, accept

it, and are attracted by it. If the customers feel that a system is too complicated or

feel insecure, they will avoid the purchase or find other ways. This is especially

x

important as customers increasingly operate the systems themselves. Examples -

Websites and ticketing machines (Gummesson, 2007).

E-Services:

E-services encompasses web sites, portals, ordering systems, email interaction

and other electronic communication means like fax, blog etc. (Gummesson,

2007).

E services minimize variability to large extent since they are electronically based,

and are often provided on a machine-to-machine basis and can be thoroughly

tested before they are introduced into the marketplace to minimize the occurrence

of mistakes in real time (Hoffman, 2003).

E Services purposely monitor customer-service conversations to assist customer

service training initiatives as typical problems are identified, resolved, and

appropriate responses to customer complaints and inquiries are formalized

(Hoffman, 2003).

E Services have advantages of being flexible, extensible, easily customizable,

highly interactive enriching the customer experience at a relatively smaller cost

since system related changes can be done without the involvement of humans

(Hoffman, 2003).

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E Services has the flexibility to differentiate services for segmentation needs with

standardized elements (Lehtinen and Järvinen 1996; Vuorinen et al. 1998;

Järvinen et al 2003).

Human Resources:

Research shows that employee satisfaction is the most important factor in

providing high quality service. Potential client interaction problems can be

minimized through adequate training, empowering employees to make more

customer-focused decisions, and rewarding them for positive customer-oriented

behavior (Coldren, 2006).

Establishing employee feedback mechanisms so that management can hear and

take action on issues of concern will strengthen employee perceptions of the

company, increase satisfaction, and result in better and consistent client

interactions (Coldren, 2006).

When promoting services, marketers can overcome client concern about service

consistency in two ways— through team introductions and through positive

referrals. The sales leader should make it clear that a qualified team will work

with the client, and schedule face-to-face introduction and discovery sessions to

smooth the next-phase transition process. Additionally, positive word-of-mouth

referrals, written testimonials and case studies, or referencing accounts can dispel

client concerns about variability (Coldren, 2006).

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Systems, Standardization & Contracts:

Standardizing some service offerings enables the organization to be very specific

in noting service and quality deliverables, thus decreasing variability and meeting

client expectations simultaneously. When this method is used, variability can

become a point of differentiation as it enables flexibility and services

customization (Coldren, 2006).

Back End processes involved in the delivery of services which may include

hardware, software processes, logistical support (mail, delivery system), material

handling

IT maintenance contracts frequently offer a range of service packages (e.g., from

“basic” with response in 4-6 hours, to “premium” with immediate, on-call

support). Service contracts which offer a range of tiers of service offerings like

basic, premium, elite etc which may drive priority of delivery/availability of

services (Coldren, 2006).

Current Literature on Inseparability

Inseparability means that most services are sold first and then produced and consumed at

the same time. Some examples of inseparability are obtaining investment advice, being an

airline passenger, or watching a movie. (Rahman, 2010) As a result, customers can be viewed as

“partial employees” in service exchanges (Skinner, 1992). Due to the inseparable nature of

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services and the involvement of the customer in the production process, there are many

opportunities to tailor the services to a particular customers needs. For example, based upon past

purchasing behavior, a service can recommend additional services which a particular customer

could find beneficial.

Inseparability can involve a service which is done to a customer’s body, such as a haircut.

It could also be a service which is done to a persons mind, such as watching the news on T.V.. It

can also include services done to possessions of a customer. For example, service performed on

a customer’s car. Although the customer is not physically involved in the production, the

customer is spending time waiting while the service is being performed to their possession.

(Keh, 2010) Table 1 illustrates service separation in different service categories.

Implementation

How Netflix implements Intangibility

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Netflix is takes on intangibility very well in multiple aspects. First,

they have become excellent in managing word of mouth advertising.

Second, they continue to use targeted IMC to their advantage. Third, their

unique business model helps allows them to straddle the tangible/intangible

discussion, and finally, they have used embraced the idea of intangibility

and are working to move toward less product.

Implementation – Word of Mouth

In his book, Word of Mouth Marketing, Andy Sernovitz mentions

several different strategies, tactics, and processes a company could start up

to harness WOM. One these strategies was to make it easy to evangelize the

product to get more people to sign up for it. Netflix has done this through

their frequent emails they send current customers inviting them to forward

those emails to friends and family. If an individual takes advantage of the

offer, usually the member that passed the email along will get an extra

bonus for signing the individual up. In addition to creating an easy

electronic pass along, Netflix realizes the value of customer satisfaction and

value they are creating. There focus on customer service has resulted in

eight consecutive #1 ranking in a ForeSee survey(66). As a result of their

focus on customer service and providing value, Netflix claims that more

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than 90% of their subscribers have eveangelized Netflix and more than 70%

of subscribers had an existing subscriber recommend them(67).

Implementation – IMC

Netflix has managed to put together a very impressive Integrated

Marketing Campaign involving several mediums. As discussed above,

Netflix has been very successful using their sales promotions in the form of

free trials and email-marketing to their existing customer base. Netflix also

uses direct marketing techniques through the mail to both new and existing

customers. Existing customers are given tickets that they can pass on to

friends or family to try the product.

Other forms of communication Netflix uses are: PR, through various

competitions they host, web advertisements, affinity marketing, and social

media through their own blog and integration within popular social

networking sites.

How Netflix implements Perishability

There are many ways in which Netflix has implemented perishable services. Let’s take a

look at a few examples:

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In June of 2010, Netflix offered a 2 week free trial plus unlimited DVD downloads. This

also included free shipping both ways, access to TV releases, allowed you to watch

movies instantly on your PC, and you were able to cancel at any time.

www.howto

seek.com

May 2010, Netflix offers free month trial for friends and family. Customers who

forwarding the Netflix offer along to family and friends gave them the opportunity to

experience what Netflix has to offer. (www.hackingnetflix.com, 2010)

September 2009, Newman's Own, Inc. and Netflix announced the kick-off of its "Pizza

and a Movie" promotion. The double billing features Netflix-delivered movies and

home-baked Newman's Own Thin & Crispy frozen pizzas. The promotion was to begin

March 2010 with consumers in eight select regions of the country that can receive two

free Newman's Own Thin & Crispy frozen pizzas when they join this offer on the Netflix

website. More than three million Newman’s Own Thin & Crispy frozen pizza product

packages contained the program details. (www.newmansown.com, 2009)

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November 2008, Netflix teamed up with Xbox and offered free 48 hour trials of their

internet streaming service inside the new James Bond Xbox360 game. This was the

beginning of what was expected to be some massive marketing efforts by both Netflix

and Microsoft for the new service. While both companies have spent a lot of money on

marketing, they should be able to leverage each others distribution and wide reach to

create some very compelling programs without having to spend tons of money. With the

new trial offer, Netflix is also reaching out to a much younger demographic for the

service than their typical subscriber to their DVD service. (Rayburn, 2008)

www.techaboon.com

Both Netflix and Redbox use ingenious pricing gimmicks to convince us we're paying a

little for a movie even if we're really paying a lot. Because one additional day at either

service doesn't cost very much (just $1 at Redbox, and about a quarter per day at Netflix,

depending on your plan), you keep your DVDs at home for days or months on end,

racking up profit for both companies. This marketing strategy allows them to profit

during times when demand is lower than anticipated. It can be seen as an unpopular

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strategy in consumers eyes, but it has proven to be very beneficial for the company and it

ultimately is an improvement over what Netflix’s competitors charge for late fees.

How Netflix implements Heterogeneity

“We named the company Netflix for a reason; we didn't name it DVDs-by-mail” Said

Reed Hastings, CEO of Netflix (Gallaugher, 2008). First and foremost, Netflix delivers their

services through one and only one channel, the web. Ordering DVD’s or streaming, is all done

through the web. This in itself drives down variability to a large extent as opposed to other

competitors who serve though multiple channels leading to heterogeneity in logistical & process

efficiencies.

Netflix has simple, well documented steps to obtain service. (Figure 1) Every incidence

of service follows through a series standardized steps. There's nothing more important than the

landing page for a website and Netflix has done a brilliant job designing it. They kept the

message simple, provided the price up front and made access to information as easy as a click of

a tab. Aside from looking great the photo actually helps demonstrate what their product is. From

top to bottom they have made it easy for any segment to understand and order. (Wright,2003)

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Figure 1: Source Netflix.com

Customers “interfere” with their operations. To deliver consistent quality at sustainable

cost, companies must learn to manage that involvement. While incumbents were trying to strong-

arm their customers into “behaving,” Netflix built a winning business model based on a deeper

understanding of the true drivers of customer behavior by making its subscription model, which

makes late fees obsolete by allowing people to keep movies for as long as they want. This has

helped Netflix not needing to deal with service quality/variability issues but also avoid a

significant source of customer dissatisfaction in one stroke. (Frei, 2006)

Embracing Technology, Process improvements & Superior logistics lies at the heart of

most operations at Netflix minimizing variability and enhancing customer experience.

Location & Warehouse operations that deliver customer satisfaction and enhance brand

value. Brand is built through customer experience, and a critical component of customer

experience is for subscribers to get their DVDs as quickly as possible. In order to do this,

Netflix has blanketed the country with a network of over 50 ultrahigh- tech distribution

centers that collectively handle in excess of 1.8 million DVDs a day. These distribution

xx

centers are purposely located within driving distance of 119 U.S. Postal Service

processing & distribution facilities. First-class mail takes only one day to be delivered

within a 50-mile radius, so the warehouse network allows Netflix to service over 97

percent of its customer base within a two-day window – one day to get in, early the next

morning to process the next item in their queue, with arrival of that new title at the

customer’s address by that afternoon. (Gallaugher, 2008)

By paying attention to process improvements, and designing technology to smooth

operations, Netflix has slashed the number of customer representatives even as

subscriptions ballooned. In the early days, when the firm had 115,000 customers, Netflix

had 100 phone support reps. By the time the customer base had grown thirty-fold, errors

had been reduced to so that only 43 reps were needed (McGregor, 2005.)

Netflix also offers a web portal with powerful features such as a proprietary

recommendation system that was very accurate in recommendations, due to exploiting

the knowledge of the choices made by the masses in its web portal as well as having the

largest collection of movie ratings. This is the same interface that all customers see, use,

and experience when ordering services every single time. (Gallaugher, 2008)

Netflix Selects Amazon Web Services (Cloud computing) to Power Mission-Critical

Technology Infrastructure – This gives Netflix the following advantages to address

availability and reduce variability in content delivery.

o Delivering content to members faster and on more devices

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o Maintaining a highly available and resilient member-facing website

o Analyzing data to improve streaming quality

(BUSINESS WIRE, 2010)

Most studies reveal that employee training and incentives are a critical component in

ensuring consistency in service levels. At Netflix, everyone on staff is expected to have an eye

on improving the firm’s processes. Every warehouse worker gets a free DVD player and Netflix

subscription so that they understand the service from the customer’s perspective, and can provide

suggestions for improvement. Quality management features are built into systems supporting

nearly every process at the firm, allowing Netflix to monitor and record the circumstances

surrounding any failures. When an error occurs, a tiger team of quality improvement personnel

swoops in to figure out how to prevent any problems from recurring. Each phone call is a cost,

not a revenue enhancement, and each error increases the chance that a dis-satisfied customer will

bolt for a rival. (Gallaugher, 2008). It's a portrait of speed and efficiency that Netflix

spokeswoman Steve Swasey said takes months of training. An average employee can go through

650 discs in an hour. (Horowitz, 2009). Netflix employees are treated very well—high salaries,

unlimited vacation, and empowerment to structure their compensation packages. (NCEO, 2007)

How Netflix implements Inseparability

The production and consumption of Netflix’s services are completely inseparable.

Essentially, the customer performs all the processes involved with the rental of the videos of

xxii

their choice. This starts from the time the customer selects, watches, and returns the videos of

their choice. The customer can simply sign onto their account at Netflix.com and point and

click the movie of their choice. They have the choice to receive DVDs by mail as well as

instantly watch movies and TV episodes on their computer, mobile device, or streamed instantly

over the internet right to their TV via a Netflix ready device. (http://www.netflix.com/)

Illustrated below is the process of how movies can be ordered and viewed.

(http://www.netflix.com/)

However the customer chooses to view the video of their choice, the customer has been

involved in the entire production and consumption of the service. As Netflix continues to grow

its streaming option, more and more consumers will be selecting and using the Netflix services

on their own, thus inseparable. During the 4th quarter of 2009, 48% of Netflix subscribers

watched streamed content. This is up from 41% in the 3rd quarter. (Bulik, 2010) Netflix took a

calculated risk by adding the option of streaming content. Some analysts warned it could

cannibalize it’s own business, but Netflix was looking towards the future. (Bulik, 2010) This is

proving to be a key advantage to Netflix’s strategy. The ability to offer a payment plan-a hybrid

http://www.netflix.com/

xxiii

between pay-as-you-go and subscription, with different levels of use-that not only fits with

consumers' sensibility to pay only for what they watch, but can also evolve as customers become

streaming users. (Bulik, 2010) According to Netflix CFO, Barry McCarthy, “Many of Netflix’s

new subscribers are previous customers lured back by the video streaming option”. (King, 2009)

The service which Netflix provides also supports the introduced fifth characteristic of

lack of ownership. The consumer does not own this service. The service is being rented and

used for a period of time.

Improvement

How Netflix Can Improve Intangibility

How Netflix Can Improve Perishiability

Netflix has proven its success within the DVD market and has recently introduced itself

to the video game industry as well. Their free trials have proven to be a success in that they

continue to grow their customer base year after year. Now that Netflix has recently teamed up

with Xbox and Nintendo Wii by offering their movie downloading service on their consoles,

they should begin offering free trials and access to videos games as well. Netflix could market

this new product in the same way that they have done with their DVDs and movie downloading.

They can offer free month trials to friends and family, or just simply offer a free 2-week trial in

order to see how customers would react. There is a significant customer base that plays video

xxiv

games such as Halo or Call of Duty via Xbox online, and that market has yet to be tapped into by

Netflix. Giving that customer base the opportunity to test new games out online and potentially

purchase them would add to Netflix’s increasing popularity and would ultimately give them an

opportunity to increase their overall profits. Their competitors would have a difficult time

competing with that strategy and it would further separate Netflix from the competition.

How Netflix Can Improve Heterogeneity

One of the areas where Netflix could do better is the availability of latest movies: Due to

the nature of the agreements signed between the studios and Netflix, the availability of new

movies for distribution could impede some of the gains that Netflix has made in capturing the

consumer base. Netflix needs to more aggressively pursue exclusive deals with studios and

provide new releases for customers who can afford premium prices via tiered structure.

Alternately, if a movie is not available via a physical DVD the customer could be prompted to

take the streaming route, thus luring the customer to utilize the Video on Demand where the

margins are higher due the lower costs of delivery.

Given the fact that Netflix has already built a huge network of warehouse they could

leverage the warehouses and provide another channel of distribution to counter the competition

of Red Box and serve the market segment for people who may want to get a DVD when they go

out to the grocery of feel like watching a movie after dining out. This option could serve multiple

purposes, one of returning the DVD rented via the internet and not waiting for one to arrive via

xxv

the USPS as well as satisfy the craving for individuals who may want to watch a movie

instantaneously. This has an added advantage of serving customers not served on Saturday &

Sunday by USPS.

If Netflix has to stay ahead of the game in the next few years they need to extensively

invest in a lot more sophisticated hardware & software solutions to ensure high availability due

to streaming via desktops devices of cable top devices. They need to think more into the cloud

infrastructure for handling peaks and low demands. This will ensure minimal variability in

service delivery and maintain consistency.

How Netflix Can Improve Inseparability

Improved Streaming quality

As the demand for online video streaming increases, Netflix has an opportunity to capture

additional customers and increase their market share. Netflix already has a distinct advantage

over its competitors by offering the streaming service, but they will need to continue to improve

on the quality of that service to retain existing customers and adding new ones. Below are some

concerns voiced by users of Netflix’s streaming service:

“The video quality is not very good. Is there any way to improve the quality of the

streaming video?” (http://forums.cnet..com)

xxvi

“The buffer is 1mb, that means it's downloading 1mb worth of content, dumping it as it's

watched, and perpetually downloading the next segment.  So when I back it up to change

scenes, I have to wait for it to download all over again.”

(http://www.hackingnetflix.com)

"It’s difficult to know whether to add a movie to the “watch instantly” queue or to the

DVD queue because the watch instantly version can be any size (cropped) or quality, and

the users do not know at the time of selection.” (http://www.hackingnetflix.com)

“I just activated this service today and the video quality isn't that great.”

(http://answers.yahoo.com)

Tips for Improving Streaming Quality

Some customers who have streaming quality issues tend to believe the quality issue is a

result of Netflix’s services. However, the issue could be related to the customers own devices

which are not functioning at their maximum capacity. No matter what the reason is, Netflix can

be prepared to help the consumer overcome these obstacles by providing tips to improve the

customers’ computer or device so the customer can have the highest streaming quality. The table

below is an instruction sheet from e-How.com with tips on how the consumer can improve the

quality of their video streaming.

xxvii

“Improving Streaming Quality “– e-How.com

xxviii

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