It’s interesting to read about the problems successful companies are experiencing and wish that I were a fly on the wall of the boardroom. I’d probably watch the CEO look at the marketing and PR teams and ask “How did we let this happen?”

Hence, I follow the current situation that Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) finds itself in. I am a late adopter to Netflix and only subscribe to the streaming feature. We have a ton of DVDs in my home that we never watch. The $8 a month subscription to Netflix was a happy solution to the ridiculous charges of cable On-Demand movies. My only complaint so far is the lack of titles available for streaming, but every day I find they are adding to their library. I was thrilled one night to find the Marilyn Monroe classic “Some Like It Hot” available.

If you haven’t been following business and technology news, you may not know that Netflix — the pioneer company that knocked Blockbuster on its hiney with its unlimited DVD mail order service — has lost 800,000 subscribers (based on its last quarterly earnings statement) since June when it announced a price increase that effectually doubled the price for subscribers to both the streaming and DVD services. What’s worse is that on the heels of the price increase, it also launched a company restructuring to rebrand its DVD service as Qwikster. What was already a wildfire of customer dissatisfaction turned into a firestorm and there was no stopping it. (In the end, Netflix killed Qwikster, but it may have been too little, too late.)

Reed Hastings, CEO of Netflix, subsequently apologized for missteps in communication to its customers.

Huh. I call it walking blindfolded across the street in Manhattan and getting hit by a taxi. Why? Because this could have been easily avoided if Netflix took the time to do research and draft a strategic communication plan prior to proceeding forward.

Now, I am basing everything said here on conjecture; however, I would be ready to bet my kid’s (more…)