"How I Screwed Up A Great Brand" Starring Netflix

Netflix has really pissed off the people in my neighbourhood. Almost universally - with a little prodding and evangelizing from some of them - almost all of the people have the standard account. Unlimited streaming and one DVD at a time.

Then they go ahead and split the service announcing that they will let you do the same but in 2 separate programs and it will cost you 60% more at least.

Here is the email they sent out:

Dear Professor Sabena,

We are separating unlimited DVDs by mail and unlimited streaming into two separate plans to better reflect the costs of each. Now our members have a choice: a streaming only plan, a DVD only plan, or both.

Your current $9.99 a month membership for unlimited streaming and unlimited DVDs will be split into 2 distinct plans:

Plan 1: Unlimited Streaming (no DVDs) for $7.99 a month
Plan 2: Unlimited DVDs, 1 out at-a-time (no streaming) for $7.99 a month

Your price for getting both of these plans will be $15.98 a month ($7.99 + $7.99). You don't need to do anything to continue your memberships for both unlimited streaming and unlimited DVDs.

These prices will start for charges on or after September 1, 2011.

You can easily change or cancel your unlimited streaming plan, unlimited DVD plan, or both, by going to the Plan Change page in Your Account.

We realize you have many choices for home entertainment, and we thank you for your business. As always, if you have questions, please feel free to call us at 1-888-357-1516.

–The Netflix Team

WTF???

Well let me show you what I think of Netflix now....

Oops this is a family website I can't do that. But let me show you what it did to Netflix's brand.

Image courtesy of BrandIndex.com

Will I be using Netflix quite as much as before... no.

Redbox is laughing all the way to the bank. Blockbuster deserves to be shot as they were really stupid in how they responded. Special pricing to bring me - a lesser service than Netflix at the same price.

Are these people drinking from the same water fountain. Back to school chaps.

Cheers

Are Tablets A Guy Thing?

I am a bit of a geek. It drives my family nuts when they see if I have the latest gadget. Latterly I have tried to moderate the number of devices I have. Consuming precious electricity and scarce resources - especially rare earths. But I still like them. The one I am having a lot of travel with is the iPad. Yes I have one. Its pretty cool. However I have tried to get used to it by playing games and reading books on it. Not that great an experience but these are early days. Finding the right apps that will be appropriate for me - is an interesting process. So far I use about 10 apps on a fairly regular basis. Some of the same that I use on a regular basis on my laptop.

In my view this is very much a 1.0 product. It has great potential but that doesn't make it ideal yet. Even as a "third" device that I believe it will become. (Laptop being one, mobile being two.

I struggle with the notion of having to be always on. Having used a 3G connection exclusively for the past 3 weeks - I cant wait to get back to full time broadband all I can eat - but that will have to wait for another 2 weeks.

A study by Gfk MRI makes for interesting reading. There is a definite gender bias towards the devices. Moreover the usage of these devices paints a picture I would not have expected. IE that the Tablet and eReader community are heavy written word consumers. While it is natural to assume that people read alot via these devices I am surprised at the amount of conventional book, magazine and newsprint they consume. Check out the press release on the study.

Forrester and Bizrate also have some interesting insights into the usage of these devices.

Here is where you should be able to see a presentation. It was down the last time I checked but hopefully it will be back up on Monday,

Cheers