Comprehensive Netflix Marketing Mix (4Ps) in 2023

Netflix is one of the world’s leading media streaming services with a subscriber base of over 230 million worldwide and has a variety of content including TV Shows, documentaries, anime and movies. Netflix was founded in 1997 and its headquarters is in Los Gatos, California. Netflix currently is present in 190 countries.

Netflix competitors include the likes of Amazon Prime, Disney+, Hulu, Hotstar, HBO Max, Apple TV and several others. Netflix’s profits have skyrocketed as it has established itself as one of the best forms of television streaming.

Netflix is an online streaming platform known for its wide variety of content as well as affordable pricing. What users love about Netflix is that it offers high-quality content with convenient streaming options without commercials (yet). Here are some more details about Netflix

About Netflix

• Type: Netflix is an American subscription video-on-demand over-the-top streaming service
• Founded: August 29, 1997
• Founders: Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph
• Headquarters: Los Gatos, California, United States
• Area served: Worldwide
• Current CEO: Reed Hastings
• Number of employees: Over 154,000
• Major Products: Streaming video

Netflix Marketing Mix (4Ps) and Strategy

Now, let us discuss the Marketing mix of Netflix and its product, price, place and promotion. The strongest is the Netflix product which is its online subscription, streaming service and content. Let us discuss all the 4 P’s.

Netflix Product Strategy

Since its inception in the year 1999, Netflix has established itself as a successful online streaming media service provider through its creative selling proposition. Netflix subscribers can watch tv shows and have the chance to access thousands of movies and television shows that are daily updated to meet the customer’s wants.

Netflix mainly deals with streaming media, and has a product mix combining the following features

• Streaming service: The primary product of Netflix is its streaming service. This service allows real time screening of whatever the user wants to watch. Streams are available on all types of screens including computers, smartphones, tv’s as well as game consoles. In fact, with Android being built into TV’s now, the adoption of streaming services will grow further.
• TV series: The key selling point of Netflix is the amount of television series that it has to browse on its platform. In 2023, there are a number of top TV series playing on Netflix which its customers love such as Class, Obsession, The night agent and others.
• Movies and Anime: Besides TV series, Netflix offers a huge collection of Movies. As per research, Netflix has 13,600 titles which are available on the platform. However, not all those movies are available everywhere. The titles being released depend on the countries they are popular in.
• Original Content: Netflix has some mindblowing Original content and series released on the platform. Netflix actually grew popular because of its original content. Some of the most popular series are Narcos, Arcane, Stranger Things, DARK, House of cards and others. People love Netflix because of its original series.
• Netflix Gaming: Netflix has also introduced gaming for its subscribers. Besides the movies and TV shows available, you can also play Netflix games. Thus the amount of value a subscriber gets from Netflix increases as they have access to movies as well as games.

Netflix’s main product is its streaming service. Besides streaming, its original content is a crowd-puller. Netflix differentiates itself from its competitors because of the exclusive content it gives to its subscribers. Netflix has had many different mainstream awards and this strategy has resulted in lot of subscribers for Netflix.

When you offer a lot of content, you have to organize the content as well. This is another place where Netflix shines. Netflix has a heavy usage of algorithms to show you recommended content. It considers your viewing history and preferences and recommends you more content based on that. Thus, someone who is new to Netflix has a lot of content to consume and this is how they keep the subscribers on the platform.

Naturally, the subscribers of online platform can get bored with existing content; which is why Netflix keeps bringing in new content and exciting user experiences. Netflix has recently introduced Netflix shorts to subscribers where you can see short clips of media available on the platform. Netflix is also present in gaming.

Netflix Promotional Strategy

Because it is a large brand, Netflix uses a combination of various promotional and marketing strategies to attract customers. Netflix might not promote the app or service at all times but also promotes the latest movies coming to the platform or its original content. At all times, Netflix keeps reminding people about the amazing content available on the platform so that it can retain its existing users and also bring new users on board.

The Netflix Promotions mix includes

• Offline Marketing: Netflix uses a combination of Offline marketing tactics to promote its latest media as well as its services. These offline methods include print ads, billboards, and various offline ads. Netflix also launches television commercials to share the latest launches.
• Online Marketing: Netflix uses a combination of various types of online marketing to promote its services. This includes Search engine advertising, Social media marketing, and advertising, video ads on platforms such as youtube, engagement with users on online platforms, and several others.
• Social Media Marketing: A subset of online marketing, Netflix has a strong presence on social media platforms. Netflix’s Twitter account has 8 million followers as of 2023. Netflix’s Facebook account has 8.8 million followers.
• Content-specific marketing: Netflix mainly creates promotional campaigns which revolve around specific shows or movies. Whenever a new show is coming on Netflix, you are likely to see the announcement on billboards, on youtube, social media, TV spots, and even experiential marketing might be used. Example: Stranger Things 3 broke records because 40.7 million household accounts watched the show and it had an amazing marketing campaign.
• In-App promotions: Netflix uses its apps and websites to keep users entertained. Personalized movie recommendations, alternative thumbnails based on user preference, and an algorithmic content recommendation engine keeps its users on board.
• Public Relations: Netflix participates in a lot of industrial events like film festivals and award ceremonies. In 2023, Netflix had 16 nominations in the Oscars, out of which it won 6.
• Free trials: Netflix offers free trials to a lot of subscribers. It also promotes its app by tying up with various partners like telecom providers and service companies.

Thus, the overall promotional strategy of Netflix allows it to maintain higher visibility which leads to better product adoption and consumer retention. Netflix regularly engages with its audience. Netflix has adopted an aggressive promotional strategy in 2023 and it has the Save the Dates campaign running in 2023 which is meant to attract a lot more users because of the amount of content that Netflix is launching.

Netflix Pricing Strategy

For a large amount of time, Netflix had almost no competitors. Only when prime video and media channels and Disney+ started entering the market, Netflix had some competition. Nonetheless, Netflix has always been cheap to subscribe to. The reason it is termed as “Cheap” is because of its pricing model

• Value-based pricing: The primary pricing methodology Netflix uses is value-based pricing. A user pays for Netflix based on the value Netflix provides. Considering that Netflix has thousands of TV series and movies, Netflix turns out to be very valuable. Hence, people pay regularly for a Netflix subscription.
• Value-based Pricing tiers: Besides having a standard subscription model, Netflix also does tiered pricing. Netflix has 3 different tiers users can subscribe to.
• Basic Plan: Netflix has an entry-level basic plan which includes ads and is priced at $6.99 per month. In this plan, users can stream on a single device in Standard Definition (SD)
• Standard Plan: The standard plan is priced at $15.39 per month. It allows users to play content on two screens in high-definition (HD) format.
• Premium plan: The premium plan is priced at $19.99 per month and it allows a user to watch content on four screens, provides Ultra HD streaming, and is the most expensive option

Thus, with various features, Netflix increases the value provided by monthly subscription to each user and the user can subscribe based on what’s valuable to them. If time is not valuable, and a user does not get frustrated with ads, the basic model with ads might be good for them. For others, who consume a lot of content on different screens, they might like the premium plan.

Netflix Place and Distribution Strategy

One of the key factors in the success of Netflix has been its distribution strategy. Netflix streams content and therefore streaming software requires strategies in place for content distribution. For this, the distribution mix of Netflix involves the following

• Content Acquisition: Firstly, Netflix needs to have a content acquisition team in place that buys the rights to movies, tv-series, and documentaries for the brand. This team needs to pinpoint the right type of content to buy which matches the brand’s own goals.
• Original Content: Netflix also produces original content heavily which helps attract users to Netflix. The original content is the reason Netflix has a huge competitive advantage over others.
• Content technology: Netflix uses advanced methodologies to store and distribute content. In general, Netflix has to spend on a lot of servers across the globe to store content and play it when a user demands it.
• International Presence: Netflix is streaming in 30 languages in more than 190 countries. Besides having a presence internationally, Netflix uses a glocalization strategy wherein it creates content based on local language and preferences. This further drives Netflix’s adoption in local countries.
• Platforms: Netflix is present on almost all platforms. In fact, lately, even televisions come with Android pre-installed and Netflix app installed on them which has helped the distribution of Netflix. Netflix is present on Smartphones, tablets, smart TVs, gaming consoles, laptops and other screens. The user synchronization and multiple-screen watching ability ensure that a user can simply switch devices and watch content on his favorite device.
• Partnerships: Netflix also distributes its apps by partnering with various service providers. It has tied up with telecom and internet service providers who give Netflix subscriptions free of cost to new customers thereby making the offers attractive. This increases the adoption of Netflix and increases brand awareness.

The streaming market is competitive with Prime Video and Disney+ making huge inroads which is why Netflix will have to keep focusing on expanding its distribution and its presence online streaming business. In fact, Netflix’s market share is declining in 2023, something they should be careful of.

As we can see, Netflix Marketing strategy revolves around having a compelling product that has a large variety of options for content. It has value-based pricing and competitive pricing being used. It uses a lot of methods for promotions and to retain and attract new customers. And Netflix is distributed internationally in 190 countries and more. This was all about the Netflix Marketing mix. We welcome any additions to the article from our users.

Liked this post? Check out the complete series on Marketing Mix