External Market Analysis

[Name]

[Institutional Affiliation]

(The left -vertical scale is in Million US dollars.)
(The right-vertical scale is in % in range of 3%) Introduction
After a critical evaluation of the Netflix Company, various strategies need to be put in place in order for the company to retain its 33 million subscribers and to realize a higher profit margin. This is due to the fact that the competitors have recorded increased numbers of subscribers in higher rates as compared to the Company. This shows that new customers in the industry are being taken by the new market Entrants such as Amazon Prime and Vudu.
The strategies include the following;
Netflix should implement strategies that are different from the way they are done by other emerging companies. They should for instance start offering their online streaming as HD (high definition) as this will tend to attract more customers. They should also make sure that subscribers are able to order for some movies online and reduce the amount of time required for one to acquire the products. All customers are always time-conscious and thus time efficiency will make the company acquire more subscribers. 1. Netflix Company should determine the competitive powers of its rivals such as Vudu, Amazon Prime and HD streaming. The competitors have the potential of fetching its customers if some strategies will not be laid down by the end of 2015. One evident characteristic by the competitors is lower monthly payment and thus Netflix should harmonize its price without compromising on quality. Netflix should thus reduce the monthly wages to help acquire more subscribers as well as keeping the current customers. 2. Another strategy that must be put in place is product innovation as well as varieties for the consumers (Patton, 2012). Netflix has had a reputation of offering content to the consumers but a moderate variety of the movies and TV shows. This will lead to satisfaction of the consumers who have more and quality information regarding the digitalized movie distribution companies. The varieties should range from animated movies, Asian and the Caribbean movies. There is an unexploited market in Africa and thus they should start distributing African movies and eventually fetch a new market. 3. Technological factors need to be considered by the company in order to cope in the near future. The company has implemented the Netflix application which enables the consumers to stream movies from their android gadgets which has made the company make a big step. In addition to this, the company should ensure that streaming of the contents is not affected by the consumer geographical locations which have been a challenge to the company. 4. Netflix should cope up with the emergence of substitute products which are a major threat in the market. Some people will prefer video games to streaming movies. They should thus offer a variety of products where consumers will have a rich source of content and thus won’t rush into other products. This includes providing varieties such as the animated movies which have a growing a number of consumers around the world. 5. Another strategy includes enhancing communication with the consumers (buyers). The buyers give feedbacks which are very important to any business firm. This will give Netflix ideas about what the consumers expect but can’t find it in the contents of company’s products. Communication is an important tool between the sellers and the buyers and it must be enhanced efficiently. 6. The company should be aware of the population demographics in order to determine the type of products to offer the consumers. Due to the fact that most of the subscribers are people between ages of 18-38 years, the company should avail more of their contents as tastes vary with the age of consumers. 7. In order to keep the consumers abreast of the occurrences, it is vital that Netflix should improve on advertising their brands in the social media. The competitors have had an upper hand in terms of adverts which are all over websites and social sites. Thus, Netflix should ensure that they are able to reach more people by remaining active in social sites such as twitter, Face book and LinkedIn.
A list of top five actions to be implemented i) I would first harmonize the monthly payments by the consumers in order to prevent any potential decrease in the number of consumers. This will be done through cutting off the expenses of unnecessary expenditures. I will also ensure that the content and the quality of the products remain uncompromised. ii) The second action would be adding more varieties in order to satisfy various consumer wants. I would avail more of African, Asian and animated contents in order to fetch more consumers from Asia and Africa as most Netflix consumers come from the US. These collections will be added based on consumer feedbacks where I will gather information through the social sites as well as the company’s website. iii) The third action will involve fetching more consumers in other places of the world. I will implement this through making enough promotions, adverts in electronic as well as the print media. This will lead to gaining of more consumers after various people are made aware of the available products from the company. iv) I would also enhance efficient communication with the subscribers. This will be attained through the company’s website remaining active as well as in the social media. This will help in ensuring that the consumers are availed with what they need. v) Finally, I would make sure that the company is able to offer the latest collections to the consumers where this will improve the company’s reputation. I will enhance this through efficient collaborations with movie production companies as well as TV companies.
Voicemail Message
It is my concern that Netflix Company should remain the leading digitalized movie and TV shows distributor across the world. In my analysis I have found out that the competitors and the new entrants are making big steps in their endeavors to fetch more consumers. I would thus propose some few ways which I have found effective in securing the market in future, which is tied with more technological advancements.
The strategies include the following; 1. Enhancing efficient communication with the consumers in order to learn their tastes and wants. 2. Variety of products depending on the consumer wants in order to fetch more consumers from other parts of the world. 3. Improve the level of advertising, especially in cases of new releases through company’s website as well as the social media. 4. Learn about the strategies used by the competitors in order to come up with ways of preventing the consumers shifting to another company. 5. Enhance technological advancements in order to make it possible for all people to stream equally regardless of their geographical locations. 6. Collaborate with leading companies such as Microsoft and Google in order to integrate Netflix applications in their systems and thus allow easy access to the contents.
Implementation of the above strategies will help the company secure its market in the future as well as increase the profit margins. It is my hope that the company will put this in practice.

Reference
Patton, J. Management Strategy. New York: The Solomon Press.