Netflix Survey Results and AnalysisPURPOSEAs the future of DVD rental (online and in physical stores) becomes even more congested with the addition of online movie/tv download sites, Netflix is seeking to learn more about the current and future usage by customers. In January 2007 Netflix began a limited launch of an online download service which they have been keeping relatively quiet until additional research and information become available regarding the future of movie/tv show rentals. Note: CEO Reed Hastings has committed his company to hitting 20 million subscribers between 2010 and 2012 (BusinessWeek) so Netflix has no intentions of bowing out of the movie market. In additi ...view middle of the document...
When I went offline and asked a couple of respondents who didnt make it through the initial prescreen I was told that they either borrow DVDs, download or burn DVDs illegally from friends or family who have rented or purchased them or pay to download them legally online. Respondents were unlikely to want to reveal more information on illegal downloading practices and declined further surveys.
After the prescreen questions, we asked respondents to tell us on a scale of 1-7 with 1 being not at all interested and 7 being extremely interested how interested they would be in renting a DVD online instead of in a store for a similar price which included return mail service. Out of the 106 total respondents, about 39% (41) responded very interested. The rest of the responses were erratically divided among the other options though 17% did indicate somewhat interested. Since this question is a likert scale or semantic differential question it is important to allow for differences in how consumers define extremely interested and not at all interested.
The next question involved customer satisfaction in DVD rental overall regardless of whether it was online or from a store or pay-per-view. While 36% were very satisfied, the majority, 47% was just satisfied. Perhaps the most important piece of information from this survey lies here: Less than half of the DVD rental consumers (who responded to our survey) were satisfied with their rental service regardless of where it comes from (store, online, etc). A major aspect of the DVD/movie/tv show rental market is apparently lacking by online, retail or the pay-per-view services in regards to customer satisfaction. This question should be expanded upon in future surveys to find out what exactly consumers are looking for that would increase their satisfaction. But as our survey continues, we are better able to gauge what other attributes are necessary to customer satisfaction.
Our following question was a basic dichotomous question and asked consumers (yes/no) if they had rented DVDs from specific locations in the last six months. A vast majority, 70% stated that they had rented DVDs at a physical BlockBuster store. While this statistic is initially a bit upsetting, we soon realized that 47% had also used Netflix. We also theorize that respondents would probably better remember physical trips to the video store rather than online interactions. Or perhaps only one member of a household accesses the online Netflix account and the rest of the family just makes requests and watches whatever the accessing member chooses.
Before analyzing the results of our survey we were fairly convinced that price would be the overriding factor in a luxury service such as DVD rental. However question 8 was a constant sum question that asked respondents to assign a portion of 100 points up among 5 rental characteristics: price, selection, immediacy of rental, location and store hours. The highest po...
