Last week, Netflix, the innovative movie rental company with the famous red envelopes, made an announcement. Well, actually, it was an announcement wrapped in an apology. Which was a little weird, especially since the apology was – oh – about two months late.
So much about this announcement left people scratching their heads. Netflix would not only keep its raised prices (which is what set off the loud volume of complaints earlier this summer), but it also would split its streaming and DVD business into two distinct companies. The new DVD company also had a new, retro name: Qwikster (and a not-so-retro Twitter account). The communication resulted in more customers canceling their accounts, and a devaluation of Netflix stock.
Kudos to Reed Hastings for apologizing. I’m sure it was done with good intentions, but the execution left a lot to be desired. A number of people commented that it felt hasty and thrown together. I suspected a disconnect between the company’s executives and the communications team. Perhaps it was a bit of both, because some positive announcements soon followed the apology: Netflix integration into Facebook’s Open Graph and the newly inked deal to stream Dreamworks movies. Unfortunately, neither of these announcements got the attention they deserved.
I find it hard to believe that Netflix made a hasty decision to split into two companies based on public outcry over a price increase, but the way the announcements played out, that’s sure what it seems like. It also felt like Hastings wanted to play down the apology by announcing what he felt was really good news. Wrapping the two together simply confused customers further.
I’m sure Netflix had good reason to break into two companies, and there have been several people who have said this is a good strategic – even visionary – move. Unfortunately, that message was lost to customers.
Follow these tips to better manage a series of high-risk communications:
- You must tell a bigger story. Announcements can’t be treated as isolated incidents. They will always be received as another chapter in your corporate story. Have a strategic communications plan and remember that its goal is to help audiences understand the bigger picture.
- You must have good timing. If criticism reaches a crescendo, apologize immediately. If you must wait, focus only on the apology and explain why it has taken you so long to do so.
- You must have a plan. A messaging timeline ensures that your communications remain crisp, clear, and consistent. A strategic release of messages means that each announcement gets the appropriate amount of attention.
- Your messages must be clear and consistent. It’s important to listen to what you’ve crafted as if you are the recipient. Here’s where the rubber meets the road – and where insular thinking gets organizations in trouble. The best approach is to test the message on someone outside the company. And remember that some messages are too complicated to be communicated along with another. The news about Netflix splitting its business in two? Too complicated to be delivered with any other message.
- You must do your due diligence. I liken this to the advice given to trial lawyers: never ask a question for which you don’t already know the answer. It’s true with announcements too. You must consider all questions and criticisms and have your answers ready. And for brands? Make sure you do that Google search (and check that Twitter handle).

Yes, I am an immigrant, but…
Once again, it’s time for the annual Heritage Festival at my son’s school. At the risk of sounding both like a bad mother and politically incorrect, let me say that I dread this event.
Here’s the premise: the 8th grade social studies teachers host a multi-cultural lunch, with 8th grade students each donating an ethnic dish based on his or her heritage. Oh, and they must cook the dish and supply the recipe.
Right there, we have a problem (I never cook or bake what I can buy). But this is not why I dread the festival. I dread it because I don’t have family recipes that have been handed down through the generations. Well, I mean, I do, but not dishes of my heritage. My mother gave me a fantastic chicken and rice recipe, but she got it from a can of Campbell’s soup – not her mother.
I get the lesson, I really do! But our recipes are as American as…well, as apple pie.
Let me clarify what I mean: Somewhere six or seven generations ago (around the early 1700s, perhaps even as far back as the Mayflower), our families emigrated from Germany, Ireland, and England to America.
Where we live today, the population is very diverse, with a significant percentage of families who have immigrated to the United States in recent years. This means my son’s classmates have recent experience from which to choose. They’ll cart in dishes made from recipes that might have traveled far in miles, but not memory.
Our recipes, however, have long since been lost, both from the recipe box and from tradition. We don’t, for example, make corned beef (my Irish-American husband isn’t a fan); we do occasionally put on Oktoberfest and cook bratwurst. But this is a learned recipe from our honeymoon in Germany, not one passed down.
I’m so tempted to ask the social studies teachers (I hear an echo of my father here): What about American? Can we count American food? It’s like Ben Franklin says to John Dickinson in the musical, 1776: “We’ve spawned a new race here – rougher, simpler, more violent, more enterprising and less refined. We’re a new nationality, Mr. Dickinson – we require a new nation.” As well as new recipes of our own, too, right??
But, I get the lesson. I really do.
Still, we’ve been here so long that we’ve developed our own, unique traditions. Often, we’ve adopted – and adapted – these from other cultures not our own. We’re definitely not strictly on a meat and potatoes diet; we like to mix and match: tacos, pasta, sushi, and stir fry are part of our regular routine.
So each time the Heritage Festival rolls around, we’re stuck with the same conundrum. We’re aces at making faijitas, but we’re not of Mexican heritage; we don’t have a Grandma with a box full of “old country” recipes. (My grandmother was famous for her potato salad, but the recipe was her own and she had Irish and English roots.)
Our solution, unsatisfactory as it is, is to find an old Irish or German recipe online, and create it, often for the first time. This year – appropriately as it’s our last Heritage Festival – it’s Apple Strudel (or Apfelstrudel). But, I am so tempted to send in a tray of pizza bites.
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