Best Buy Cinema Now: How Best Buy Decided to Compete with Netflix

With the drastic increase in technology the past few years, companies are determined to find ways to stay competitive with trends. Netflix has completely changed the movie rental business. Individuals are now able to rent movies and TV shows from the convenience of their home, and receive these items via mail only a few days later. The convenience and ease of this process resulted in the company to gain popularity and become very successful. While Blockbuster attempted to compete through creating a similar program, I believe its brand name hindered the program’s success. Everyone continued to associate Blockbuster with the experience of going to the store and physically looking through the vast selection of films. I find it interesting to discover other companies attempting to compete with Netflix as well. Best Buy, although not in the movie rental business, exclusively, created Best Buy Cinema Now. This service allows customers to instantly rent or buy movies online. The movies are downloaded to your computer. While this service has consumers pay per movie, versus a fixed monthly fee, Best Buy has not done a good job advertising it. The service is not even easy to find on the company’s website. Slightly more differentiated from Netflix than Blockbuster’s at home rental service, I feel Cinema Now could gain interest and popularity if it was better promoted. The instant access to movies and TV shows paired with low prices would interest consumers who value convenience and speed.

Failing to inform the public about a new offering can be equivalent to not even providing the product/service. Unless a company is able to rely heavily on word of mouth and a strong reputation, customers will not know about specific items unless the company advertises the benefits of them. While introducing services that mimic market leaders can be advantageous, and a means to stay competitive, it is important for firms to plan and implement their strategy well.