No 13 - Unlucky for some, but not all!

Welcome to No 13 of my LinkedIn Newsletter experience and a big welcome to new subscribers! Thanks in advance for reading! I you're new to my newsletter, give us a subscribe if you like what you read. TA.

So, let's dive in! You can tell a lot about the culture of a business when things aren’t going so well.

In particular, who they blame for not hitting their targets and Netflix is a classic example of that. It is fair to expect that they knew their inflated growth due to the pandemic was only ever temporary. That said, they still decided to raise prices at the worst time with consumer habits springing back and with the cost-of-living sky rocketing. What did they expect?

When I begrudgingly cancelled Netflix a few weeks ago I was met with very little resistance. About 8 years of continuous subscription and consumption waved away with little more than “Bye then”. Brutal, erm thanks for the memories… I thought we had something together…

But more seriously, where’s your retention and win-back strategy?

All the excuses in their latest results have been focused on external factors. In fairness if they hadn’t pulled out of Russia, their overall numbers would have looked better, but they still didn’t say what went wrong internally. So, they blamed everyone but themselves and dropped “We’ll do some ads, and stop multiple logins, it will be fine”.

No business can grow indefinitely, but like many things it's how you deal with these challenges. They’re in a new world now, a world that means they need to look at themselves and see how they can regroup, change, and push on. ?I’m concerned that Netflix have lost sight of what is most important. Their customers and the customer experience.

Musk of course has had his say. “Woke Mind Virus” apparently being the cause. Making Netflix unwatchable for Musk at least. ?

That said, quite how Musk has time to watch Netflix with his 90-hour weeks and apparent homelessness that he describes in?his recent Ted talk is not clear, nor if his thoughts include the two SpaceX series currently on Netflix.

A drop in share price of 43% in the past month has only been matched recently by Meta. Currently 42% down compared to their share price 6 months ago. They could have learnt something from that, but is doesn't look like they did.

Has Netflix lost its way or is this just the BIG correction playing out? Are they right to blame everyone but themselves? Have you quit the service or will it be the last thing you cling onto for dear life? Let me know in the comments.

Customer Experience

Guinness has done an excellent job of making itself relevant again with 1 in every 10 pints served in London pubs is the black stuff. With a patchy but overall, well received Guinness 0.0 release, aside from the briefly “unsafe to consume” issues and plans for a Guinness mecca in central London. Guinness have done what any self-respecting brand would do in 2022, bring out more flavours.

When I saw Guinness Cold Brew Coffee Beer I was intrigued and willing to try it, aside from the limited release in only Tesco’s to begin with. However, David Ellis from the Evening Standard clearly doesn’t care for it AT ALL.

Guinness say those “coffee, chocolate and caramel” flavours will last “from the first sip to the last”. Anyone sensible will make that first and last sip one and the same; to suffer more would be depressing, to battle an entire can — torturous.

Ouch.

If it really is that bad, how has it been allowed to pass quality control? Thankfully for Guinness the reviews on Untappd seem much more favourable. I guess there’s only one way to find out. Hold my beer… I’m off to find a Tesco.

Normally littering my LinkedIn feed are pitches on Dragons Den, however, this one was not shared by Steven Bartlett. No this was from an actual founder on his own journey through the Den and what has happened since Sam Jones pitch the Den over a year ago.

Sure, it was an excellent pitch to be fair, but I have huge issues with their purpose and customer experience matching the promise of Gener8 allowing users to make money from being tracked online. You can read my rant on his post if you like but TD:LR. It feels more like trying to win a prize at a fairground than being paid. ?Also, the complete lack of responses (as far as I can see) to comments in Sam’s post or on Trustpilot also worries me. Though they do actively thank people who like it. See this awkward updated post.

Gener8 Ads do seem far more responsive on Twitter, but this left me with more questions than answers.

With ￡2.1m raised in July 2021 from some big names including Tinie Tempah and Harry Redknapp, plus the ￡60,000 and free office space from Touker Suleyman, how can they not afford the higher value rewards? That’s before you include the 80% of advertising revenue being shared with their customers, so the pitch claims. So, what is the deal Sam? Let's chat? Or better yet, reply to your customers? You have an opportunity to build a tribe, build a brand around putting the customer first (like your pitch claims) and be better than the hundreds of trackers you also mentioned.

Is this another MoviePass or worse? Where’s Robert Collings when you need him? (Happy Birthday BTW)

Finally in the employee experience space and some positive news.

I loved this post by Erin, Head of People + Operations at Primer.

I suggest you read the whole thing, but one part really stood out to me.

“At Primer, we know who we are and who we're not. The pace that we move at, the requirement to always think deeply about our work and the challenges that we face every day will certainly not be for everyone, but we're okay with that."

Knowing what you are and what you are not hugely powerful and whilst I’m sure everything is not perfect, it does appear to have a great and growing positive culture. One that truly values what they are building and the people building it. ?It’s the sort of thing that talent looks for in a company beyond the cash, its infectious and drives word of mouth referrals. It brings down recruitment costs too., it’s not just about having a nice place to work. A good employee experience makes a huge amount of business sense.

Have a lovely weekend!