Netflix Marketing Mix: A Comprehensive Competitive Analysis Report

This report provides a comprehensive competitive analysis of Netflix's marketing mix, examining its strategies across the 4Ps (Product, Price, Promotion, Place) and extending to the 7Ps by including People, Process, and Physical Evidence. It begins by outlining Netflix's evolution from a DVD rental service to a global streaming giant, detailing its product offerings, including both streaming content and its DVD rental service, along with the launch of Netflix Originals. The report then delves into Netflix's pricing strategy, discussing its subscription models and psychological pricing tactics. The place and distribution strategy covers Netflix's online streaming platform and DVD delivery service. Furthermore, the promotion and advertising strategies are analyzed, including the use of social media, free trials, and offline advertising. The analysis extends to the additional 3Ps of the marketing mix, examining the roles of people, processes, and physical evidence in Netflix's customer experience. The report references several sources to support its analysis, providing a well-rounded overview of Netflix's marketing strategies and competitive positioning.

Competitive Analysis in terms of Marketing 4P & Marketing Mix
In this part, we analyze Marketing Mix strategies of Netflix, a mixture of four elements: Product,
Price, Promotion and Place that Netflix has the option of adding, subtracting, or modifying to
create a desired marketing strategy.
1. Product
In general, Netflix offers products which are program streaming and DVD delivery services, the
first one being intangible and the second one being tangible. Netflix provides service that offers a
unique platform for streaming movies and TV shows, putting out the intermidiary role of cable
service or movie theaters, and offering the convenience of in-home theater or the delivery of
movies right to audience’s mailbox. Currently, Netflix is the only company to offer both
streaming and DVD delivery in the market.
Founded in 1997, Netflix’s initial business model was DVD sales and rental by mail. In this year,
Netflix launched with a video library of approximately 900 titles and a 7-day maximum rental
policy. Later, Netflix enriched its video library to 3,100 titles by April 1999, which reached to
5,200 by January 2000. As DVD was attracting the attention of the audience as one of the ruling
means of entertainment at that time, Netflix understood the significance of technology and its
widespread adoption among customers.
In 2007, Netflix decided to permanently transform the business by launching its first streaming
product – Watch Now. Netflix launched the service with 1000+ titles which included a series of
superhit videos, movies, documentaries, and films.
In 2013, Netflix reinvented itself as a TV and movie studio and launched Netflix Originals and
this marked a crucial turning point in Netflix’s growth as a company. Netflix has finally

considered of being a one-stop-shop for original content, distributed via Netflix’s proprietary
platform. The more content Netflix produced, the more subscribers it attracted which later turned
into higher revenue, which meant more investment for content creating in a virtuous cycle of
constant growth. Some of the popular shows that Netflix product which made it won accolades
are: House of Cards, Beast of No Nation, Stranger Things, Black Mirror, The Crown, etc.
2. Pricing Strategy:
Netflix pricing is the amount that a customer is expected to purchase a product to use the
services. To use its services, customers can first try a first month for free of charge and after that
if customers wish to continue, they can take monthly subscription without signing any contract,
no cancellation fees and no commitment. Customers have several payment option to make a
monthly payment and have the freedom to change your plan or cancel online at any time. After a
month free trial is over, Netflix charges an amount in the form of subscription which depends
upon the type of plan that customer may choose as below.
Basic Standard Premium
Monthly cost* (Canadian dollars) 9.99 14.99 18.99
Number of screens you can watch on at the
same time
1 2 4
Number of phones or tablets you can
have downloads on
1 2 4
Unlimited movies and TV shows ✓ ✓ ✓

Watch on your laptop, TV, phone or tablet ✓ ✓ ✓
HD available ✓ ✓
Ultra HD available ✓
* https://www.finder.com/ca/internet-tv/netflix
According to the plan that customers have selected, customers get the additional benefits. The
plan customers choose will determine the number of devices that they can watch on Netflix at the
same time. From the above price list, we can see that it uses psychological pricing. In addition,
some analysts argue that Netflix has a value-based pricing strategy, others argue that it pursues a
competitor pricing strategy (Joe David, 2021).
3. Place & Distribution Strategy:
The initial business model of Netflix was DVD rent-out, customers select video online and
having it delivered to their door by post service. After that, Netflix introduced a subscription
model, where customers could rent DVD’s online for a fixed fee per month. Today, Netflix is an
online streaming business and almost the entire business of Netflix is conducted online, except
its minor business in DVD renting still available. Customers can approach and use Netflix’
services through Smart TVs, tablets, smartphones, etc. with internet connect. Online availability
makes Netflix possible for its customer to use its services anytime, anywhere though it has
strategic distributors (US Postal Service) which allows for easy delivery of rented DVDs.
4. Promotion & Advertising Strategy:
Netflix uses almost all media channels, especially the social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter,
Pinterest, YouTube, and Instagram) to promote its brand name and the content which it offers.

The most seeable promotion method that Netflix uses to attract customers at first is an offer of
one-month free trial policy. After that month only, customers have various options to choose on
subscription plans if they wish to continue using Netflix service. Netflix further uses offline
mode advertising such as commercial billboards, TVCs and print ads to help Netflix showcase
the various shows, latest movies etc. which users can see using the app.
Since Netflix a service marketing brand, there are also another Ps to make it the 7Ps Marketing
Mix of Netflix.
5. People:
Since Netflix conducts its operations mainly on online platforms, the company’s marketing team
and social media team play a crucial role of the organization. Its social media team makes sure
that Netflix brand can be easily approached by its customers and help the organization to solve
any media issue quickly. Netflix also has an online help center, customer call service and online
live chat handled by the employees of the organization.
6. Process:
Netflix has several methods to engage customers through content. The customers can access the
website is easily. The titles are sorted on the basis of title of the movie or TV show you wish to
see or by genre or favorite actors and actresses. Although the Netflix site is very easy to use, the
users can always contact customer call centers for any further assistance. Payment of
subscription can be done in multiple methods through debit or credit cards or alternatively via
PayPal or iTunes.
7. Physical Evidence:

Netflix’s website and app available on both Andriod and IOS devices are the physical
appearance of Netflix to customers and hence had to be updated and user friendly. Due to
Netflix operates majorly on online platform, it has little or no physical evidence. However, it has
a few stores where rental DVD service is available and the place from where its employees
operate and control the website and application.
Reference List:
1. Joe David, (2021), Marketing mix of Netflix (7Ps of Netflix), Howandwhat,
https://howandwhat.net/marketing-mix-netflix/
2. Oomen, Marjolein, (2021), Netflix: How a DVD rental company changed the way we spend our free time,
BMI, https://www.businessmodelsinc.com/exponential-business-model/netflix/
3. Meira G, (March 2020), Yes, Netflix still mails DVDs — here's how to sign up for Netflix's DVD Plan, and
rent movies with no late fees, Insider, https://www.businessinsider.com/does-netflix-still-mail-dvds
4. Naiya Sharma, (November 2018), From Mailing DVDs to a Global TV Network: Here is How NETFLIX
Business Model Managed It All, Apptunix, https://www.apptunix.com/blog/netflix-business-model/
5. Netflix website, https://www.netflix.com
6. Product Habit Blog, (2021), How Netflix Became a $100 Billion Company in 20 Years,
https://producthabits.com/how-netflix-became-a-100-billion-company-in-20-years/#:~:text=Reinventing
%20itself%20as%20a%20TV,Netflix's%20growth%20as%20a%20company.
7. Katwala A, (September 2020) , Why Are 2 Million People Still Getting Netflix DVDs by Mail?, WIRED,
https://www.wired.com/story/why-are-2-million-people-still-getting-netflix-dvds-by-mail/#:~:text=T
8. Kotler and Armstrong, (2014), Principles of Marketing, 15th edition
9. Rodriguez A (January 2017), Ten years ago, Netflix launched streaming video and changed the way we
watch everything, Quartz, https://qz.com/887010/netflix-nflx-launched-streaming-video-10-years-ago-and-
changed-the-way-we-watch-everything/