The Script for Netflix Success
For 13 years, Netflix has been a dominant focal point of the television and film streaming war, moving from being the home of your favorite sitcoms to creating their own movies and series to attract customers away from other streaming services. Though their business strategy has changed as the streaming service competition has grown, their company objective has remained the same: “To continue being one of the leading firms of the internet entertainment era.” They don’t just want to compete with streaming services like Hulu and HBO, they also want to push their “strategic objective of being at the top of the competition, considering large players like Amazon and Walmart.”
Given this lofty objective, there are a lot of different conclusions you can draw about how they will proceed with their business. But instead of predicting these directions, let’s focus on their mission statement which reads as follows: “We promise our customers stellar service, our suppliers a valuable partner, our investors the prospects of sustained profitable growth, and our employees the allure of huge impact.” As you can see, Netflix’s objectives are to provide the best service to keep customers happy, to keep an attractive outlook for their suppliers and investors, and to make themselves an impactful company that employees are excited to work for.
It’s also important to note their vision statement, which is different from their mission statement in that it indicates a big picture objective rather than objectives that they can tend to here and now. Netflix’s vision statement reads as follows: “Becoming the best global entertainment distribution service.” By keeping their mission statement objectives, Netflix will keep themselves on track to reach for this vision statement objective. But it’s important to note this vision statement because Netflix will have to adapt and grow in order to achieve this lofty designation.
So let’s think about Netflix’s mission statement in terms of SMART goals to analyze how Netflix can reach this objective.
S is for Specific
What specific goals can Netflix set in order to effectively plan to meet their mission statement objectives? In my eyes there are different specific goals to be set for the different groups of people they are trying to cater to. For their customers, the goal is to offer a equal balance of self-generated work (i.e. Netflix series and original movies) and work to distribute as much high-quality material as possible. For their investors, it should be to keep subscriber numbers competitive with the other top streaming services. For their employees, it should be to provide an effective channel for all employees to introduce new ideas for growth to upper management, so that all employees can contribute to the company in more ways than just fulfilling their occupational duties.
M is for Measurable
What measurable evidence can Netflix use to analyze whether or not they are meeting their mission statement objectives? This is a simple, two-fold answer: subscription numbers as a whole and subscription growth/decline in comparison with other streaming companies. Subscription numbers as a whole (on a month-per-month basis) will help Netflix compare their current campaign performances to those they’ve enjoyed in the past, and will help Netflix determine whether or not new company initiatives are keeping the company as successful as previous months and, hopefully, making Netflix even more successful. Subscription growth/decline rate in comparison with other streaming companies is a measure that will help Netflix determine how they are performing in comparison with other streaming companies, both in terms of whether Netflix is outperforming the top competitors and whether Netflix is underperforming in comparison with their top competitors. Both types of measurable evidence will help Netflix convince their investors of their sustainable growth profitability, which is a big part of their mission statement objectives.
A is for Attainable
Are the objective goals for the mission statement attainable? The answer is yes! Using the specific plan that we previously described, Netflix can satisfy its customer base, continue to convince investors of viability, and promote employee loyalty. Netflix’s main objective involves staying at the top of the streaming service war and increasing their profitability and sustainability to one day compete with Walmart and Amazon. Immediately jumping to beating Amazon or Walmart in their retail territory would be unattainable in the current timeframe, but by focusing on the goals that are focused on customers, investors, and employees, Netflix can position itself to better reach for that elite status in the future.
R is for Relevant
Are the goals set by Netflix relevant with their long-term objectives? The answer is yes! Netflix’s objective is clearly to stay in the upper echelon of streaming services worldwide, so keeping customers and investors satisfied is in line with this objective. To remain relevant, Netflix must continue to ask itself: are my current projects keeping customers satisfied? Are my current projects convincing my investors of my sustainable profitability? Are my current projects instilling the belief that employees can have an impact at Netflix? So long as short-term goals answer these questions in the affirmative, relevancy will be met.
T is for Time-based
Are the goals achievable by a certain end-date designation? They can be! In order to best consider how a current campaign change is effecting the company, Netflix should set the end of March 2021 as a checkpoint for these goals. With the measures we set up previously, Netflix should examine whether Netflix is at least matching, preferably outperforming its previous 2 quarter performances and Netflix is at least matching, preferably outperforming its competitors current performances, by the March 2021 deadline. This is a decent 4 month quarter in which enough time is allowed for projects to be evaluated based on profitability and popularity with customers and investors. It’s not too short where any evaluation wouldn’t tell the whole story, and it’s not too lengthy where the evaluation would come too late to have saved the company from possible profit loss invested in an unsuccessful campaign. With the four month quarter, tasks can be prioritized and motivation can be channeled towards the spring.
One method of checking in on Netflix’s current performance is through social media analysis. Brands live and die on social media in this current age, and in order to promote their brand and boost sales Netflix will have to have a strong, consistent, and attractive social media presence. By doing this, Netflix can also track KPIs to determine whether or not they are meeting their objectives in the social media sphere.
Customers
In order to ensure that customers are satisfied with their streaming services, there are a couple of social KPIs that should be measured. Social share of voice will measure how much Netflix is mentioned versus its competitors, which will in turn measure how satisfied customers are with Netflix in comparison with other streaming services. Amplification rate will measure the rate at which Netflix’s social media audience is sharing Netflix content to their own followers, providing a measure of customer excitement. Conversion rate will take call-to-action initiatives that Netflix employs and measure how responsive the social media audience is to these initiatives. This way, Netflix can have a reliable measure of the effectiveness of their social media efforts as opposed to simply likes and comments.
Investors
Dealing with investors is different than dealing with customers, because investors only care about the money being spent and the money being earned. So one reasonable KPI to measure to ensure investor security would be cost-per-click, which measures how effective social media ads are in comparison to how much money is being spent on them. Another KPI to measure would be social media conversion rate, which would provide a measure of how social media efforts are directly leading to conversions-based profitability. These two KPIs can be shown to investors as proof of relevancy of social media efforts and net monetary gain on social media on a broader scale.
Employees
Social KPIs to measure for employee satisfaction are harder to determine, because they are working for the company rather than buying from it. But Netflix could create a sort of alternative average engagement rate KPI to measure, in which the social media engagement of employees is measured to determine loyalty and excitement of their workers. If employees are actively sharing and promoting Netflix content on social media, this is a clear indicator that they believe in Netflix’s brand past their employment status.
Through the SMART goals set for Netflix and the KPIs measured for their social media efforts, Netflix can successfully achieve its objectives of remaining at the head of the pack when it comes to globally popular streaming services. Social media will be a big part of achieving SMART goals, because the best way of analyzing how your audience is reacting to your brand’s different campaigns is directly where they communicate with the world on the various social media platforms. Given that one of Netflix’s major objectives involves keeping customers satisfied with their service, they must invest in social media efforts to know how they are trending with consumers. Furthermore, KPIs can help Netflix achieve their SMART goals because they will provide measurable data to analyze and utilize to promote and configure future campaigns that will benefit them in the streaming service war. KPIs also provide Netflix concrete numbers to show to investors rather than just telling them to trust the company based on their word.
Through their social media efforts, Netflix can stay in line with the consumer, predicting trends and resolving any unsuccessful company efforts both social media-based and otherwise quickly and efficiently. Social media allows Netflix to truly engage and analyze the customer experience, which will take them far in achieving their aspirational goals as where as their more immediate ones.