Netflix’s Communication Style: A Study in What NOT to Do

I must confess that I have a soft spot for Netflix. I worked there briefly eons ago when the company was in its infancy and I had briefly toyed with joining the dark side and leaving consulting. 😉 Back then, Marc Randolph was CEO. I liked Marc. I liked the product. And I just knew the company would do well, and it did—something my husband likes to remind me of from time to time, since I didn’t stay long enough to vest.

So, given this fondness, I was sad to see Netflix make such a muck of things these past few months. Some say its arrogance. Some say its greed. Some say Netflix is just moving too fast. The latter is not new.

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Communication Strategy: “A” Is for Audience

Whenever I hear “social media should be real, transparent, and audience focused,” I find myself nodding and wondering at the same time. I agree. It should. But why stop there? All communication should be that way. If it were, it would be way more successful.

Fresh from graduate school, where all I studied was communication—how we humans communicated, what worked, what didn’t—I approached every marcom project as a communication vehicle. My view: it didn’t matter how snappy the writing was or how cool the design looked, if it didn’t resonate with audience—if it didn’t communicate—the chances of success were slim.

Fast forward 15 years, and the mantra of “real, transparent, and audience focused” is heard everywhere—but only for social media. It’s a start, and I love it. But let’s make it the mantra for all communication.

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