Baseball season’s Opening Day. A cherished Springtime tradition that marks the annual return of America’s oldest sport. But this year, when the game aired on America’s biggest streaming service, there were some major blunders.
On Weds., March 25, the Major League Baseball season kicked off with a matchup between the New York Yankees and the San Francisco Giants, the only game of the day between two historic teams with sizable fanbases. An Opening Day game like this one was sure to bring in swaths of viewership, and the streaming giant Netflix hoped to take advantage of a brand growth strategy. Turns out, that didn’t exactly happen.
Granted, this isn’t Netflix’s first try at broadcasting large sports events, as it's previously hosted the popular Christmas Day NFL games and several WWE matches. All of these events have been a part of the company’s aggressive entrance into the sports market, but its lackluster preparation for the Yankees versus Giants opening game signals that this aggression may need some more careful consideration.
Here’s Why.
Netflix broke two major rules of positioning with its move to broadcast Opening Day. The first? Line extensions.This rule suggests that simply taking the name of a successful product and putting it on a new product is detrimental to the brand, taking away the power of focus on the position. Netflix’s brand and sports broadcasting simply don't go together. It’s like putting a Doritos logo on a candy bar wrapper. They both might be great snacks, but it distorts our perception of what Doritos stand for. This can be especially dangerous to a brand whenever the line extension performs poorly, leaving a negative perception of the good position of a brand that it was once known for.
Next, the law of resources. The law of resources suggests that a company must properly invest resources into an idea or position for it to be successful. Moving forward with this line extension may have been risky for the brand growth strategy. However, public criticism of Netflix didn’t start until errors during the Opening Day broadcast exposed how much the company had mismanaged its live sports streaming investment.
Know the Consumer
Netflix plunged headfirst into an already chaotic broadcast rights issue. Baseball fans are already frustrated with blackouts and unclear ownership of broadcast rights in the sport. Teams reserve authority to sell their own broadcast rights for local games, meaning that a TV package purchased directly from the Guardians, for example, only guarantees access to non-national broadcast games. When Netflix bought the rights to the Yankees/Giants opener, it forced fans to watch with a Netflix subscription, even if they have already paid for a local TV plan. National broadcasters are aware of this frustration, and tread these waters carefully. Netflix was met with extreme frustration from fans for adding yet another subscription required to view the entire season. This frustration might have come as a surprise to Netflix right off the bat, as several other streaming services have blacked fans out of their games before. However, the first game of the season naturally faces much more attention and likewise, critique, than any of the 161 games following it. Yet this was only the start of Netflix's flubs.
Know the Product
One of the leading baseball commentators, Jimmy O’Brien, was featured on Pat McAfee’s show Thursday morning to discuss the game. When asked about Netflix’s performance, O’Brien said, “It would be like if a network took over an NFL game, and they were like, ‘for this quarter, we're just not going to do the yellow line’ … I was personally insulted by it.”
This was said with respect to Netflix’s decision to sporadically remove the scorebug (digital scoreboard) from the broadcast. This is a move that might be more common in an NFL game, but in baseball where numbers are the game, it baffled viewers. Commentators and fans alike rely on digital scorebugs to keep track of the ball-strike count mid-at bat. When at bats can last several minutes, everyone can lose track of the game without these displays. O’Brien’s point is about the nuance of baseball that Netflix failed to research. To successfully deliver on an idea, the nuances of the product have to be thoroughly understood.
This is only one example of Netflix failing to understand the product. One of the most common criticisms the broadcast faced was the quantity of self-promoting content and distractions from the baseball game. The Adamm’s family “Thing” riding a skateboard around the field, WWE wrestlers and comedians trying to excite the crowd, and constant interviews with celebrities and players made the entire broadcast feel like “the entire telecast was a commercial for all of Netflix’s other programming.”
Despite all the money spent on promotion, the broadcast team still failed to ensure the lighting and picture quality were ready for airing. The game started with a thick haze washing out the field, and oversaturated digital advertisements.
Avoid the Mistakes and Perfect a Brand Growth Strategy
Ultimately, we’re not just here to criticize Netflix, but to learn from its mistakes. As positioning experts, this is the advice we would have given Netflix to ensure a mishap like this one didn’t play out.
- Don’t use the Netflix brand name for a line extension. When consumers think of Netflix, they think of movies and TV shows. If Netflix had used a new brand for this broadcast, even with similar mistakes, the brand wouldn’t have been under fire in the first place.
- Spend your resources wisely. If a line extension is absolutely unavoidable, you should at least perfect it. Don’t spend your resources on shabby promotions, spend them on making the best possible sports experience.
- Know the consumer. “Consumer” is one of the four Cs of brand positioning. Don’t presume that the buyer for your original product is the same as the buyer for your new one.
Are you looking to extend your business with a natural brand growth strategy? Avoid the pitfalls made by Netflix and rely on the rules of positioning. Contact our experts for a free consultation.