Deciding on a company name can backfire
So over the weekend, Netflix decided to split their business into 2 separate companies – the Netflix we know and love which will be responsible for streaming video (to your DVD player, computer, smartphone, etc) and a new company called Qwikster which is responsible for the physical DVD shipments (which is actually the original Netflix business model). The problem is, they didn’t secure all of the relevant domains and social media accounts to go with their new name. On Twitter, there’s been a user called qwikster which does not represent Netflix and will see a significant jump in his mentions and follower count simply because of the confusion.
So what do you do as the company? Just get over it? Try to buy the name (which violates Twitter’s terms of service) ? Or something else? With a marketing group and M&A team as large as Netflix, was this an oversight or just one of those things that people didn’t think was important?
As a business owner or marketer, what would you do?
