FARK.com: (6893464) After months of public-relations blunders, Netflix runs the closing credits for its CMO

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		After months of public-relations blunders, Netflix runs the closing credits for its CMO (businessweek.com)		44
		More: Fail, Netflix, BusinessWeek, CMO, corporate communications, Los Gatos

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5328 clicks; posted to Business » on 21 Jan 2012 at 11:23 AM | Favorite | share:

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44 Comments (+0 »)

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styckx

2012-01-21 03:50:17 AM

Good, now can we have the old movie browsing layout back please?

Relatively Obscure

2012-01-21 03:53:30 AM

Leslie Kilgore, chief marketing officer for the past 12 years, will leave that post and join the board, Los Gatos, California-based Netflix said today in a statement.

Wow, they really stuck it to her.

Bathia_Mapes

2012-01-21 04:33:33 AM

styckx: Good, now can we have the old movie browsing layout back please?

Yeah, it's kinda sucky now.

St_Francis_P

2012-01-21 09:04:48 AM

Relatively Obscure: Leslie Kilgore, chief marketing officer for the past 12 years, will leave that post and join the board, Los Gatos, California-based Netflix said today in a statement.

Wow, they really stuck it to her.

Yeah, that's one of the big problems with corporate America: if you screw up, you seldom feel any real consequences. At worst you have to fall off the radar a year or two until somebody else hires you to trash their company.

Ed Finnerty

2012-01-21 09:38:01 AM

Bathia_Mapes: styckx: Good, now can we have the old movie browsing layout back please?

Yeah, it's kinda sucky now.

Agreed. They need to *at least* leave a dead area on the right so one can scroll up and down without horizontally scrolling the titles.

I mostly use my Roku but on the computer it's like a whirling dervish of poorly planned interfaces.

edmo

2012-01-21 09:58:02 AM

Relatively Obscure: Wow, they really stuck it to her.

Well they should since she obviously had the authority to dream up and implement that dumbass idea without permission of any of the top people.

Toshiro Mifune's Letter Opener

2012-01-21 10:48:03 AM

"Sir, the Netflix users are revolting!"

"Give 'em coupons for soap, then."

Aar1012

2012-01-21 11:29:39 AM

Ed Finnerty: Bathia_Mapes: styckx: Good, now can we have the old movie browsing layout back please?

Yeah, it's kinda sucky now.

Agreed. They need to *at least* leave a dead area on the right so one can scroll up and down without horizontally scrolling the titles.

I mostly use my Roku but on the computer it's like a whirling dervish of poorly planned interfaces.

It might be better than the iPad app now. I don't know what was wrong with the old layout

loser0

2012-01-21 11:58:04 AM

Relatively Obscure: leave that post and join the board

Needs the "

Upward" tag.

lamric

2012-01-21 12:14:38 PM

Will this involve another Reed Hastings "Apology" letter?

StingerJ

2012-01-21 12:27:03 PM

I canceled discs when they messed up the pricing, and once I finished ST:TNG I canceled streaming, so I'm getting a kick out of this.

If they had upped the price $0.50 every six months until it got to the new price, I'd still have both discs and streaming.

steveGswine

2012-01-21 01:14:07 PM

Relatively Obscure: Leslie Kilgore, chief marketing officer for the past 12 years, will leave that post and join the board, Los Gatos, California-based Netflix said today in a statement.

Wow, they really stuck it to her.

Netflix management probably knew years ago they were going to have to do something radical and unpopular at this stage of their growth... she probably got elected to take the "fall" before any of the moves were even made.

Take the heat for a year, hand the stinky situation off to someone who can save it, and then go lay on the beach checking emails and thinking about how much it sucked. Oh, and about how you'll never do real work again.

The Gentleman Caller

2012-01-21 01:16:25 PM

Did they ever actually say the price hikes were to pay for acquiring more licenses for films? I've read the price change explanation and the apology, but that's it. Wouldn't that have helped their case and prevent some of the backlash?

A Screaming Man with Two-Toned Shoes

2012-01-21 01:41:58 PM

steveGswine: Netflix management probably knew years ago they were going to have to do something radical and unpopular at this stage of their growth... she probably got elected to take the "fall" before any of the moves were even made.

images.mirror.co.uk

Sympathizes.

LouDobbsAwaaaay

2012-01-21 01:44:58 PM

The Gentleman Caller: Did they ever actually say the price hikes were to pay for acquiring more licenses for films? I've read the price change explanation and the apology, but that's it. Wouldn't that have helped their case and prevent some of the backlash?

I was less pissed about the new pricing structure than the whole "Qwikster" debacle. I understood part of why they were raising rates (though I agree they didn't explain it well - maybe they were worried about upsetting the license holders by throwing them under the bus?), but the Qwikster thing was basically saying "We're abandoning our disk service. Good luck with whoever buys it from us!" It came off like they had packaged me up and sold me off as a pre-installed customer for someone else's (inevitably shiatty) service.

jjorsett

2012-01-21 01:45:15 PM

St_Francis_P: Relatively Obscure: Leslie Kilgore, chief marketing officer for the past 12 years, will leave that post and join the board, Los Gatos, California-based Netflix said today in a statement.

Wow, they really stuck it to her.

Yeah, that's one of the big problems with corporate America: if you screw up, you seldom feel any real consequences. At worst you have to fall off the radar a year or two until somebody else hires you to trash their company.

Sounds a lot like being a football coach.

ihatedumbpeople

2012-01-21 01:51:38 PM

Netflix Inc., the mail-order DVD and movie-streaming service, is replacing its top marketing exective after a customer revolt over changes to prices and terms.

author must get paid by the word...if you don't know what Netflix is by now, you shouldn't be on the internet.

Forgot_my_password_again

2012-01-21 02:19:43 PM

I'm thinking of canceling. Not because of the screw up or anything - I only had streaming - but because their streaming selections are the suck.

"New" is not the latest crap movie that comes out of china or tv series from 1974.

Endive Wombat

2012-01-21 03:02:11 PM

Netflix has a lot of work to do in my opinion:

1. They are losing Starz in February, and while a lot of the Starz shows that are offered through Netflix are crap, it still represents a decently sized chuck of their catalog. They are going to need to fill the void...fast.

2. The user interfaces that I personally interact with are Wii, Web and Xbox360. The Wii interface is fine. The Web interface is bizarre...workable, but I do not like it. Browsing is cumbersome.

2a. - Finally, the Xbox360 interface...well, I am just at a loss for words to describe how really, really bad it is. This deserves its own section because I think this shows how mismanaged the Netflix streaming department development team is. It is inexcusable on how utterly atrocious is really is. It should not have ever made it out of development. For starters, why the fark does a random still image of the show/movie that I highlight suddenly pop forward? That "feature" is useless...it does not add to the experience in any way. Next, I have to start a series in order to browse the remaining episodes in said series...why? This is a step backwards. I understand they are trying to adapt to the Kinect...but the Kinect is a gimmick. At a minimum, let us choose a "Kinect Enhanced" view or a "Classic View". Shiat, was that so hard folks?

3. They need to boost their "HD" quality (Wii excluded)...I could write several more paragraphs on how bad the company is functioning, but I will stop...mostly because it is pointless.

Sigh...my wife and I dropped the Disc option in late Summer and are on the verge of dropping the service all together. We are giving the company till the end of Q2 at which time, if they have not changed the interface, upped the streaming quality and added more titles...we're done. It has been a nice ride for the last several years, and I thank you...but clearly Netflix, you are more interested in being a bunch of tools who do not know how to run a company...

meathome

2012-01-21 03:02:57 PM

St_Francis_P: Relatively Obscure:

Wow, they really stuck it to her.

Yeah, that's one of the big problems with corporate America: if you screw up, you seldom feel any real consequences. At worst you have to fall off the radar a year or two until somebody else hires you to trash their company.

The adage was best described as "fark up, move up".

/I see it all too often with my corporate clients
//one in particular actually provides awards and bonuses that seem predicated on the idea that the recipients must fail in a major project

Bathia_Mapes

2012-01-21 03:17:06 PM

Ed Finnerty: Bathia_Mapes: styckx: Good, now can we have the old movie browsing layout back please?

Yeah, it's kinda sucky now.

Agreed. They need to *at least* leave a dead area on the right so one can scroll up and down without horizontally scrolling the titles.

I mostly use my Roku but on the computer it's like a whirling dervish of poorly planned interfaces.

Another problem my son has is that Netflix keeps randomly reorganizing his watch instantly queue. He'll get it all set up the way he wants and then, boom, Netflix decides to randomly shifts stuff around again.

DigitalCoffee

2012-01-21 04:06:09 PM

Relatively Obscure: Leslie Kilgore, chief marketing officer for the past 12 years, will leave that post and join the board, Los Gatos, California-based Netflix said today in a statement.

Wow, they really stuck it to her.

Now, now, be nice. They really did stick it to her since I haven't heard of her getting a multi-million dollar bonus for what she did. Usually, when you fark up you still get the bonus. Wish a company would hire me. I'd have no problem farking things up for a few years for several million in bonuses.

MrEricSir

2012-01-21 04:06:50 PM

Forgot_my_password_again: I'm thinking of canceling. Not because of the screw up or anything - I only had streaming - but because their streaming selections are the suck.

"New" is not the latest crap movie that comes out of china or tv series from 1974.

Yet their entire justification for raising prices was to get more quality content. They're either the worst negotiators in history, or they just wanted the money. Neither would surprise me.

wattimus

2012-01-21 05:14:28 PM

she's just the fall girl. it'd be nice to see the actual people who made the decisions get actually punished

OvenFreshJew

2012-01-21 05:21:20 PM

MrEricSir: Forgot_my_password_again: I'm thinking of canceling. Not because of the screw up or anything - I only had streaming - but because their streaming selections are the suck.

"New" is not the latest crap movie that comes out of china or tv series from 1974.

Yet their entire justification for raising prices was to get more quality content. They're either the worst negotiators in history, or they just wanted the money. Neither would surprise me.

How are they the worst negotiators in history? There are many competing services starting up and the content providers have realized that streaming is a much larger revenue source than they originally thought years ago when they first licensed the content for very cheap.

I just don't get the hate for Netflix. What are you people watching otherwise? Cable? Cable is garbage and no other streaming service has Netflix's catalog yet. Of course most people here probably just torrent, but for those of us who actually want to pay for content rather than illegally obtain it, there aren't any better choices.

Shazam999

2012-01-21 05:30:45 PM

I dunno, I started using the streaming service this past week. It's okay. Not sure if it's worth the $8/month. Seems like a little but the selection isn't that great. Also I HATE how the quality drops to 1995-era Real Media for no reason.

MrEricSir

2012-01-21 05:48:05 PM

OvenFreshJew: How are they the worst negotiators in history? There are many competing services starting up and the content providers have realized that streaming is a much larger revenue source than they originally thought years ago when they first licensed the content for very cheap.

If that's their thinking, they completely disregarded the fact that consumers do not put up with sudden price increases.

LeroyB

2012-01-21 06:19:24 PM

FTFA: "She will be replaced by Jessie Becker on an interim basis while the company searches for a permanent replacement."

Netflix probably won't be in much of a hurry to return Jessie Becker to where she was because there are no late fees. They can keep her as interim-CMO as long as they want.

Zombie Hitler

2012-01-21 06:31:52 PM

The Netflix interface on Xbox is atrocious. They're really losing me to Hulu.

rogue49

2012-01-21 07:23:16 PM

OMFG...a firm that actually FIRES incompetent execs!!!

Now, if they could only do that for the CEO, who's the one who made the stupid policy decisions in the first place.

/scapegoat

IlGreven

2012-01-21 08:04:29 PM

Forgot_my_password_again: I'm thinking of canceling. Not because of the screw up or anything - I only had streaming - but because their streaming selections are the suck.

"New" is not the latest crap movie that comes out of china or tv series from 1974.

Actually, I'd rather have the TV series from 1974...

...hell, give me some series that were canned in the '90s that I didn't know existed...

Relatively Obscure

2012-01-21 08:19:39 PM

rogue49: OMFG...a firm that actually FIRES incompetent execs!!!

If by "fires" you mean "promotes."

geek_mars

2012-01-22 01:16:53 AM

DrPainMD

2012-01-22 03:02:35 AM

DrPainMD

2012-01-22 03:24:02 AM

IlGreven: ...hell, give me some series ~~that were canned in the '90s~~ that I didn't know existed...

If you haven't already, check out "Hyperdrive" and "Life on Mars." I'll assume you're already familiar with "The IT Crowd" and "Saxondale."

BolloxReader

2012-01-22 04:07:16 AM

meathome: St_Francis_P: Relatively Obscure:

Wow, they really stuck it to her.

Yeah, that's one of the big problems with corporate America: if you screw up, you seldom feel any real consequences. At worst you have to fall off the radar a year or two until somebody else hires you to trash their company.

The adage was best described as "fark up, move up".

/I see it all too often with my corporate clients
//one in particular actually provides awards and bonuses that seem predicated on the idea that the recipients must fail in a major project

You only really learn from your failures. Therefore someone who screwed up is more valuable than someone with a record of success.

Masso

2012-01-22 05:57:01 AM

A vast majority of subscribers are still with them, so I don't really think the problem is with pricing, but the rather the PR.

/did cancel after the price hike. I used video streaming to complement DVD. Their steaming selection still suck, it's not ready as a stand alone product to me. Netflix erred in thinking that their streaming service worth as much as DVD (again, in my eyes).

Basily Gourt

2012-01-22 10:06:28 AM

Try to buy a gift-subscription for DVD only. You can't.They force you to buy the streaming, and then you have to change it when you redeem it.

I've been buying a yearly gift subscription for my parents since 1998. I went nuts this year trying to figure out how to do it. Finally did some googling and figured out the crap you have to go through. WTF?

nickturn

2012-01-22 11:03:20 AM

I don't get the hate that some people have for Netflix. There are some really good tv series on streaming that I've been able to blow right through.

Psych, Terriers, Parks and Recreation, Rescue Me, Twin Peaks... it's awesome!

AliceBToklasLives

2012-01-22 01:25:35 PM

OvenFreshJew: MrEricSir: Forgot_my_password_again: I just don't get the hate for Netflix. What are you people watching otherwise? Cable? Cable is garbage and no other streaming service has Netflix's catalog yet. Of course most people here probably just torrent, but for those of us who actually want to pay for content rather than illegally obtain it, there aren't any better choices.

This - cable is 500 channel of suck and I have no interest in illegally downloading movies, and still use DVDs anyway - even with more and more DVDs going unavailable, they still have probably about 10,000 movies and TV shows I haven't seen. Why go to streaming, unless you need to see a particular movie RIGHT NOW?

TheShavingofOccam123

2012-01-22 10:01:07 PM

Endive Wombat: Netflix has a lot of work to do in my opinion:

1. They are losing Starz in February, and while a lot of the Starz shows that are offered through Netflix are crap, it still represents a decently sized chuck of their catalog. They are going to need to fill the void...fast.

2. The user interfaces that I personally interact with are Wii, Web and Xbox360. The Wii interface is fine. The Web interface is bizarre...workable, but I do not like it. Browsing is cumbersome.

2a. - Finally, the Xbox360 interface...well, I am just at a loss for words to describe how really, really bad it is. This deserves its own section because I think this shows how mismanaged the Netflix streaming department development team is. It is inexcusable on how utterly atrocious is really is. It should not have ever made it out of development. For starters, why the fark does a random still image of the show/movie that I highlight suddenly pop forward? That "feature" is useless...it does not add to the experience in any way. Next, I have to start a series in order to browse the remaining episodes in said series...why? This is a step backwards. I understand they are trying to adapt to the Kinect...but the Kinect is a gimmick. At a minimum, let us choose a "Kinect Enhanced" view or a "Classic View". Shiat, was that so hard folks?

3. They need to boost their "HD" quality (Wii excluded)...I could write several more paragraphs on how bad the company is functioning, but I will stop...mostly because it is pointless.

Sigh...my wife and I dropped the Disc option in late Summer and are on the verge of dropping the service all together. We are giving the company till the end of Q2 at which time, if they have not changed the interface, upped the streaming quality and added more titles...we're done. It has been a nice ride for the last several years, and I thank you...but clearly Netflix, you are more interested in being a bunch of tools who do not know how to run a company...

Amazon's streaming looks a lot better to me than Netflix. I also think perhaps around August Netflix decided to drop the speed and quality of its streaming. YMMV but it looks pretty fishy to me.

UncleStumpy

2012-01-23 07:09:29 AM

ihatedumbpeople: Netflix Inc., the mail-order DVD and movie-streaming service, is replacing its top marketing exective after a customer revolt over changes to prices and terms.

author must get paid by the word...if you don't know what Netflix is by now, you shouldn't be on the internet.

This just in: There are millions of people who use the Internet for work and little else, and don't need the Internet to entertain them, therefore Netflix would need to be explained to them.

Not me, but there are millions out there.

Guntram Shatterhand

2012-01-23 09:35:16 AM

Yeah, the real problem is still at the helm. You know, the one who kept sticking his foot in his mouth when it wasn't up his ass. All the problems that Netflix currently has relate to their CEO, and it's amazing that they still think that putting someone else out to pasture will resolve them.

The company needs to go back to what made it work. Instead, we get baffling design choices for streaming and a bunch of excuses and PR gaffes. All for being charged double. Yeah, no thanks. I'll just block the annoying 'come back baby, I've changed' emails and just go back to free alternatives. It's not like there's much out there to pirate, anyway.

At this point, the media cash cow is so played out that I might just see what over-the-air programming has to offer.

ZeroTheHero

2012-01-23 04:11:06 PM

The reason their interface is so bad is because they need to obfuscate how terrible their selection is. Look at instantwatcher.com to see their entire streaming selection. Try to do it without muttering the words: "I'm paying 8 bucks a month for THIS?".

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