POP CULTURE’S INFLUENCE ON THE AMERICA DOLLAR CASTINO REID
Pop Culture is a changing and dynamic entity, it gives a decision of what is cool, what is lame and also has the ability to inform people on what to buy. Thus, it acts as a major deciding factor in making financial decisions that are used by most billionaires. On the other hand, consumerism is a social phenomenon that gives power to consumers and buyers. American culture today is defined by consumerism. Consumerism defines the continuous use of goods and services. Consumerism contains all goods and services, clothing, food, tickets, and concert. Every good or service that people own today does not only reflect people’s social status but also has the power that defines who we are. Pop culture is composed of the young generation that is dominated by social media. Popular culture is an economic entity itself.
As Fowels said, “ advertising links producers directly to consumers, and popular culture is saleable and purchasable entertainment.’’ (Sre Ratha). Pop culture is here to spend money. All consumers have wants and needs. Goods and services that are needed are those that people cannot survive without. For example, food, shelter, and clothing. There those that are wanted. Goods that are wanted are those that are luxurious, and we can survive without. Many companies are becoming intuitive where they advertise goods that they know they are wants but frame them to be needed. For example, watching a movie is not a need but a luxury. Today the world is hit by COVID-19 pandemic, which has made some goods and services that were not a basic need to be needed (Sre Ratha). Watching has become the major entertainment during this lockdown. Therefore, most entertainment industries are using this platform to increase sales.
Process
The main business that has a strong presence in pop culture is a movie streaming business. Since pop culture is dominated by social media, this has created a marketing platform for many companies. I have continuously used Netflix services, where I have spent money. Netflix is a streaming company that allows its customers to watch movies, TV shows, and documentaries. Netflix offers a wide variety of products and services. The major products are streaming media and videos that are on demand. Services offered by Netflix include film production, film distribution, and television production (Muzumdar). The customers targeted by Netflix are females and males at the age of 17-60 years who have an income level of $30 000, and above. Netflix has set a marketing plan that creates a platform to enhance its communication with customers. Netflix uses segmentation and positioning as a marketing strategy. The major marketing strategy used by Netflix is dropping the segmentation of its customers and treating them all together as a single group customer base who have similar preferences of TV shows and movies. To achieve this, the company has created a competitive advantage that has maintained its huge customer base.
Netflix has turned out to become a content king. Netflix invests heavily to spend in developing quality content by bringing qualified writers, actors, and directors. Netflix does this by creating original and quality content. The other competitive advantage is created by enhancing the simplicity of the interface. Netflix ensures it communicates to its customers through perfecting the customer experience, which Netflix puts at its major strategy. The company has made the simplest interface and extended its experience to tablet, smartphone, TV, and laptop (Staff). These are among the strategies used by Netflix to keep and fetch customers. During this pandemic, Netflix has been effectively involved in communicating about the COVID-19 virus. Netflix YouTube channel displays numerous adverts about the coronavirus. These include advertisements about symptoms of coronavirus and ways of protecting ourselves from it. These adverts serve a great deal to me and other users of Netflix. This is because it keeps reminding people about the symptoms and preventions. This has made people aware of this disease, which is a good measure to curb the pandemic.
History and Flourishing of Netflix
Netflix was founded in 1997 by entrepreneurs Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph. It started at Scotts Valley, California. The company has grown and become the largest and leading entertainment in the internet platform—the company began by renting DVD services through the mail using the pay-per-rental model. Rentals were charged $4 plus an extra $2 as a post charge. Netflix later switched to a subscriber-based model. The model ensured that users of DVDs could stay with the movie for as long as they would like, but one could get another one after returning the previous one (Staff). The streaming model was introduced in 2010 that we use even today. Netflix currently has a market cap accumulating to $116.42 billion and a market share price of $ 331.89.
Netflix has been thriving for a long period of time since its founding. Netflix began with a simple, small, and a brilliant idea that charged the fee to a flat fee and mailing off DVDs to customers as fast as possible. Netflix upped its game of delivery process by allowing its customers to stream videos online. Due to this success, the company has changed its corporate mindset to change competition and delivery costs (Hitesh Bhasin). Netflix expects the annual costs of shipping DVDs to rise from the current $600 million dollars to $700 million. Thus, Netflix will continue to flourish more and more as technology continues to advance.
The product and the service provided by Netflix are needs. Streaming videos are wants that individual cannot survive without. However, the pop culture has turned consumerism of these products to become needs. During this lockdown period, people are advised to stay at home to curb the coronavirus. Thus, most are done online, including Netflix products. The need for videos is increasing as people want to fight boredom during the lockdown. As in turn, the product has become a need that people are finding it hard to survive without.
Shopping of Netflix products
Netflix products are available online for customers to purchase. The online streaming model has made it easy for customers to access new videos. Customers are able to purchase due to the reliable online service. Also, customers want to enjoy high-quality videos from Netflix. For me, I prefer using a streamline online model (Hitesh Bhasin). Through this model, I am able to watch any movie for as long as I want and return it when I am satisfied. My main avenues for purchasing is online. This has been caused by the COVID-19 pandemic that has made us unable to leave our homes as a precaution. Therefore, online is the only platform necessary for purchasing my product from Netflix.
Pop Culture and consumerism are working hard in hard, especially in the USA, where they have influenced the American dollar, Castino Reid. Netflix is one of the businesses that are thriving really well despite the pandemic. Open culture can turn a want good into a need. Most of the purchases have been made online due to hard pandemic times.
Work Cited
Hitesh Bhasin. “Marketing Strategy of Netflix – Netflix Marketing Strategy.” Marketing91, Mar. 2019, www.marketing91.com/marketing-strategy-of-netflix/.
Sre Ratha. “Impact of Pop Culture on Society.” Medium, Medium, 18 Mar. 2017, medium.com/@thenewswell/impact-of-pop-culture-on-society-fde92ae986f0.
Muzumdar, Prathamesh. “From Streaming Vendor to Production House: Netflix SWOT Analysis.” SSRN Electronic Journal, 2014, 10.2139/ssrn.2377151. Accessed 4 Apr. 2019.
Staff, A. O. L. “Why Blockbuster Went Bust While Netflix Flourished.” AOL.Com, 2018, www.aol.com/2010/09/23/why-blockbuster-went-bust-while-netflix-flourished/. Accessed 1 May 2020.