Sample by My Essay Writer
What activities is the direct competition involved in that influence your brand, such as offering new brand extensions, promotions, co-operative advertising, sponsorship, etc.?
Amazon.com’s subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) feature is causing Netflix to lose much of the market share. “Amazon Prime’s SVOD offering could eventually be carved out as a standalone product that would compete more directly with Netflix for subscribers,” (Szalai, 2012). This brand extension sets Amazon.com up as a direct competitor for subscribers for video streaming. The company is expanding overseas and this is an area that Netflix hasn’t quite mastered yet. If Amazon.com gets a stranglehold on the market outside of the United States, they could choke the market share before Netflix really gets a chance. Amazon.com also has much more capital from which to spend than does Netflix, which puts the company at an even larger disadvantage. Amazon is clearly being aggressive, as it was only recently in France that Canal Plus wasn’t allowed to have exclusive rights to the SVOD and VOD network. This tells me that Amazon is aggressively seeking complete market share, on a global scale. “Canal Plus deputy chief Maxime Saada added that Netflix was getting ready for an entry into the French market early 2013, although its arrival has been unofficially announced more than once,” (Godet, 2012). Amazon isn’t only ahead of the game in France: in 2008, the company purchased LoveFilm, a British SVOD company. Along with the purchase, Amazon gained two million subscribers from five European territories, including the U.K., Germany, Norway, Sweden and Denmark.
4. Provide information on the following points in the brand audit:
1. Brand’s positioning
Netflix has consistently positioned itself as a leader in the distribution of entertainment. It was the first company in 1990 to offer DVDs to people homes through the mail. Ten years later, the company started offering its product to people through online streaming, and was once again a leader in that field. All this was accomplished by being a leader in the dot-com era. In fact, it was once known as one of the most successful dot-com start-ups ever. The company is continuing its pursuit of being a leader by purchasing DVD.com. Netflix is so used to being a leader, that is attempting to gobble up the competition. This is the position it has had, and it is the position that it wants to continue.
2. Brand’s differentiation points
Netflix differentiates itself from the competition by offering a hybrid of services. It offers both home delivery and streaming. When the company first came out, it was differentiated by the fact that it was the only video company that was delivering to people’s homes. The company is still the world’s largest online movie rental service. It also provides these videos extremely fast, as they have 42 shipping centres in the United States. Approximately 1.575 DVDs are shipped each day.
3. Brand’s relevance
Netflix is meeting the demand of millions of people, not only among those who want DVDs delivered to their homes, but also those who seek online video streaming. There are very few complaints about the service that Netflix provides, which means that it is largely able to complete the requests. While the company is the top source in the United States to deliver videos directly to people’s homes, there is much competition surrounding Netflix for streaming video online, particularly overseas.
