Strategic communication advice

Strategic Commumication Advice Svenja van den Eijnde 2332957 January 11, 2017 25XGAM601A Judith de Valk

Index

Introduction

p. 3

Organization analysis

p. 4

Stakeholder analysis

p. 14

Issue analysis

Strategic Advice

Operationalization

p. 8

p. 19

p. 21

Crisis day

p. 23

Statement

p. 26

Q&A

Literature

Introduction For the course Strategic Communication we had to make a Strategic Advice for a company, related to an issue.

For this assignment, I chose the issue ‘The influence of the media on people’s self-confidence’. I have chosen this issue, because I recently read an article about it and I think it’s a real problem. I chose for the magazine Vogue Nederland as my company, because they have a huge market share in the Netherlands and I think that they can make a difference towards this issue.

In this paper you can find an organization analysis of Vogue Nederland, an Issue analysis and a stakeholder analysis. From these three I get a conclusion and finally I come up with a strategic advice for the company Vogue Nederland.

p. 25 p.27

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Organization analysis Vogue Nederland is a magazine which was launched on March 21st 2012. Vogue Nederland gives an ode to beauty, in an innovative, inspiring and challenging way.

Vogue is available in nineteen different countries. The magazine is always filled with the latest trends and fashion-, beauty- and lifestyle news. In 2015, Vogue Nederland reached almost 300.000 readers a month. Vogue.nl recently set the record of 1 million visitors and 2.5 million page views (Mirck, 2015).

Mission

Vogue Nederland express their vision in everything they encounter in their fashion magazine. They are always looking for new faces for the fashion industry and new fashion trends. Vogue Nederland wants to realize the dream world of Vogue in the Netherlands. They want to give you the feeling that you are in a metropolis.

Culture

The culture of a company is mainly determined by the values of that company. The culture of a company can ensure that you get the feeling of being home. The core values make the culture. The core values of Vogue Nederland are: contemporary, innovative, inspiring and exclusive.

Identity

The slogan of Vogue is: “Before it’s fashion, it’s in Vogue”. This slogan fits perfectly with the vision of Vogue. Vogue Nederland wants to be innovative and inspiring.

With this slogan, they show that they are always looking for innovative fashion trends.

Vogue Nederland wants to be ‘The Queen of Fashion Magazines’. They want to raise above other fashion magazines. Vogue is royal-side, elegance and chic, but a little less chic then other Vogues. This is because readers from the Netherlands are more stubborn. Every Vogue have its own features (van Rossum, 2012).

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Products and services The product of Vogue Nederland is of course the magazine they create. They want to create a fashion magazine with content.

The magazine appears once a month. Another product of Vogue Nederland is their website, which has 1.8 million visitors a month, and their Social Media channels. Their Facebook account has 152.750 fans, their Twitter account 97.200 followers, their Instagram account 123.000 and their Pinterest 13.300 (G+J media, 2015).

Vogue Nederland also organise the Vogue Fashion’s Night Out, Vogue Beauty Night Out and Vogue Online Shopping Night. Vogue Fashion’s Night Out Is a worldwide initiative to celebrate fashion, regain consumer confidence and to boost the retail industry. Vogue Beauty Night Out is a night full of high-end beauty entertainment to introduce several new products and brands to a select group of people.

The first edition of Vogue Online Shopping Night was during spring 2015. This is the one-night-only online shopping event, where customers gets unique offers and discounts.

Vogue Nederland belongs to the big American Vogue, where Anna Wintour is the editor in chief. Vogue have a lot of different versions of the magazine, namely: • Men’s Vogue • Vogue Hommes International • L’uomo Vogue • Vogue Casa • Bambini Vogue (only available in Italy) • Teen Vogue • Vogue living • Vogue girl • Vogue Entertaining + Travel

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Structure

Conclusion

Communication resources

Vogue Nederland is a major operator among magazines in the Netherlands. Since their start in 2012 they are very successful and still growing.

Vogue Nederland wants to give you the feeling of luxury, that you are in a metropolis. The core values of Vogue Nederland are: contemporary, innovative, inspiring and exclusive. Vogue Nederland is always looking for innovative and new fashion trends.

The target group of Vogue Nederland are fashion- and self-conscious women around the age of 25 to 55 years.

The biggest competitors of Vogue Nederland are within the eleven other fashion magazines in the Netherlands, because they hold a share of the market where Vogue Nederland is part of.

The company of Vogue Nederland is established in Gilze. The editorial office consists of editor in chief Karin Swerink and twelve editors. Furthermore, the company consists of five Designers, eight Online workers, one Commercial Director, one Sales Director, Four Sales workers, four Marketing workers and one publisher.

Vogue Nederland have a network of subscribers, who monthly receive Vogue Nederland. Next to that, Vogue Nederland is being sold in bookstores/supermarkets.

Vogue Nederland doesn’t have any commercials to promote the magazine. They do have a very effective website, where you can find a lot of information about fashion and beauty. Visitors of the website are being informed about the latest fashion trends, how to become a member and what is going on in the field of art and culture. Vogue Nederland also communicates through their Social Media channels.

Here you can find several information about celebrities, bloggers and new collections.

Target group

The target group of Vogue Nederland are fashion- and self-conscious women around the age of 25 to 55 years. Themselves they say that the reader of Vogue Nederland is a fashion addict, sophisticated, that she has style and personality and loves culture, music, movies, books and art.

The target group of Vogue Nederland has a large share in the Randstad and ‘Het Gooi’.

Research has shown that one out of then Dutchmen thinks that a luxury lifestyle is very important (Leclair, 2013).

Fashion has become democratized, for example by style blogs on the internet and the cooperation of H&M with designers like Viktor & Rolf.

Competitors

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There are about forty-four magazines for women in the Netherlands. So there is a lot of competition in the market. Of these forty-four, eleven magazines are fashion magazines. Since Vogue Nederland is available from 2012, it is still rising.

The publisher Sanoma Media Nederland, among other things the publisher of the Donald Duck, Margriet and Libelle, is leading in magazines and digital media in the Netherlands. G+J Uitgevers, the publisher from Vogue Nederland, has very successful titles in their portfolio. The success started with the magazine Quest.

Vogue Nederland is relatively expensive. For twelve magazines, you pay 53,55 euros. This amount is about the same as the magazine Cosmopolitan. For this magazine you pay 52,50 euros. But the Cosmopolitan has considerately fewer pages than Vogue Nederland, 125 contrast to 200 pages. Looking at the pages compared to the price, Glamour is a big competitor. They offer 12 magazines a year with 194 pages, for only 25 euros.

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Issue analysis

Within this analysis I am going to dive into the issue ‘the influence of the media on people’s self-confidence’. The last couple of years this issue has become bigger and bigger, because the media has grown enormously, as you can see in figure 1.1.

Active users

Facebook

Instagram

82% of millennials (18 – 24 years old) who uses the internet are on Facebook and 55% on Instagram (see figure 1.2 and 1.3) These Social Media channels may have an impact on the self-esteem and identity of this age group. Social Media brought its own pressures, like the pressure to look good online and to be funny and interesting. You have to be successful and there are more and more watchers, advertisers and brands. These struggles do have people in faceto-face conversations, but the difference with the internet is that the internet is 24/7 (Newsome, 2016).

What is the debate about?

Everywhere in the media are ‘perfect’ looking men and women. Kids or adults are comparing themselves with these perfect faces and bodies and don’t realize that most of it is fake. Because of this, people feel insecure about themselves and think they’re not good enough. The number of followers on Instagram, the likes you get on Facebook, the effectiveness of your resume on LinkedIn and the number of retweets on Twitter, these are all elements on which we value our level of popularity on Social Media. Do we all take these elements with us into our real life? Is Social Media the new real world? (Fowler, 2016).

Why is this an issue?

In today’s social networking, we are worried about how many ‘likes’ we get or how many followers or retweets we have. Without a lot of ‘likes, followers or retweets’, they see themselves as ‘not good enough’.

We are constantly confronted with that ‘perfect image’, provided by the media. This exposure to perfection from the media can influence people’s self-esteem, they feel like they can’t become that ‘perfect image’ and that they’re not good enough (Raney, 2015). Or course this also count for the magazines, but we are focussing on the Social media of Vogue NL, because that causes the issue the most.

Media that writes about it

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1.1

1.2

1.3

Actually the same media as who causes the issue are writing about it. Websites, magazines, social media and the news. Through all the perfect pictures everywhere and who’s getting the most likes, it is becoming a contest and almost everybody joins.

Measures which are taken about the issue

There isn’t done much to reduce the cause of this issue. But for example, Nike came with the use of curvaceous models in their campaigns. They say that being fit and being skinny isn’t the same (Sanders, 2016). But research has shown that these curvaceous models also provide that people are insecure. These models make them realize that they are a bit thicker than they would like to be and this makes them insecure as well (Sandra, no date).

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Elements on Social media that can influence self-esteem

Advertising According to a University of Chicago, advertising has a clear and proven impact on our self-esteem. The advertising on the internet consists of more than you might think. Advertising on the internet is not only the advertisements of a product, but also the perfect pictures of Kylie Jenner in a bathing suit and the food photos of a ‘fitgirl’. The products in these pictures are sponsored in the hopes of getting you to buy them (Newsome, 2016).

The Perfect Life Research from Intsitut Pluridisciplinaire Hubert Curien from France, has shown that the more time we spend on Social Media, comparing ourselves to others, the more depressed we get (Kross, Verduyn, Demiralp, Park, Seungjae Lee, Lin, Shablack, Jonides, Ybarra, 2013). We forget that most of the things we see on the internet is not real. Most of the celebrities and brands are sketching the ‘perfect life’. But even ‘normal’ people are only posting the best versions of themselves.

Attention For a part we use Social Media to get attention. When we do not get this attention, through the likes we get or do not get, it can be painful and this can affect our self-esteem. Michelle Linker: ‘If I get two likes, I feel like, what’s wrong with me?’ (Gajanan, The Guardian, 2015).

1. Advertising

Google trends

With the use of Google trends, some facts became clear about the issue. I searched for the words ‘self-esteem’ and ‘Social media’.

It is remarkable that the lowest points are in December. It might be because this is a depressive month with the cold weather and all the food around Christmas and New Year’s Eve and that the self-esteem of people will drop these months.

In January it goes up again. This might be because it’s a new year with good intentions.

2. The Perfect Life 3. Attention 10

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Conclusion We are comparing ourselves with the ‘perfect images and lives’ in the media. Especially teens have the feeling of ‘not being good enough’ when they didn’t get that many likes, retweets or followers. The media should not make teens feel like they need to live or look a certain way just to be ‘accepted’ into society.

For example Nike came up with a campaign with curvaceous women to show that you don’t have to be skinny to be fit. This is a good initiative, but the comparing with others will always be there.

December is known as a depressive winter month, which is why the self-esteem of people is probably lower than in other months.

In South-Africa the self-esteem of people is the lowest. India comes to a tenth place, this is because 65% of India is still far from getting on the internet (Velayanikal, 2016).

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Stakeholder Analysis

There are many different kinds of stakeholders active within the issue ‘influence of the media on people’s self-esteem’. I have used the risk matrix of Dalton, to get a clear overview of the stakeholders and who are the most important.

Magazines use these pictures because their magazine will look ‘better’. It fits our vision of the world nowadays: ‘everyone has to be perfect’.

Social media, thanks to Photoshop and filters photos will look greater than ever and people will look even more perfect. Almost everyone want to look perfect, so they use filters to get a better picture.

Make-up brands

When we are talking about the issue ‘influence of media on people’s self-confidence’, make-up brands are a stakeholder. Because of all the perfect looking pictures and tutorials about the ‘perfect’ make up look, the sale of make-up will probably rise. People get insecure and want to hide themselves behind the make-up. From a research of the Renfrew Center Foundation, were 1.292 American women participated, 44 percent of them feels insecure without make-up. The researchers think that women use make-up to change their self-image (de Wit, 2012).

Clinics for eating disorders / depressions and plastic surgeon

This is probably the same as it is with make-up brands. Because of the photos on Social media and in magazines, people have the urge to look even more perfect in daily life. According to research of the Pittsburgh School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, there is a link between Social media and depressions. The participants who checked their Social media the most often, had 2.7 times more chance to get a depressions than the participants who checked their Social media the least (GGZnieuws, 2016).

German research has shown that we feel connected with the outside world through Social media, but all those perfect looking pictures are also a trigger for jealous and lonely feelings. A growing number of people is choosing cosmetic surgery as solution to these feelings. American surgeons say that there is an increase of 31 percent in cosmetic surgery with the reason in mind that people will look better on Social media.

De Vries studied in which way the use of Social media has an impact of people’s self-image. Boys and girls who use Social media frequently, have the desire to undergo cosmetic surgery. The research has shown that the frequently use of Social media by boys and girls will lead to more dissatisfaction about their bodies (NJI, 2014). This dissatisfaction about their bodies can lead to depressions or eating disorders.

Girls who be confronted with an add with models on it, gets to be insecure about their body in 5 minutes. Girls, and also boys, who watch a lot of television feels more insecure and unhappy. The ideal of beauty seems therefore an important factor in the development of anorexia and bulimia nervosa. This is also reflected in countries like Japan. The greater the influence of Western culture, the higher the number of people with anorexia and bulimia (Groesz ea, 2002, Proud2bme, no date).

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80% of the girls between the age of 13 and 18 are working on losing weight, there are girls who are already suffering from anorexia in their last year of elementary school, this according to research of the TNO commissioned by ZonMw.

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Can those agencies do something about the issue? The clinics for eating disorders and depressions can focus more on the media aspects and shows that most of the pictures are not real. But in most cases it is already too late by then.

Plastic surgeon can do more research about the reason of the surgery.

Why does the customer want the surgery? Is it because of the pressure of looking perfect? If this is the reason, it might be good to refuse the surgery.

Press / media

The press and the media are important stakeholders as well. Through the press and the media the issue is brought to the attention. The graphic underneath shows that the percentage of teenagers is the highest. They have the biggest share in the use of (social) media. This younger group of people are in the phase of their lives to explore themselves and who they are. This is a phase where they are vulnerable for external influences, like the perfect looking photos in the media.

Readers / customers

Of course the readers / customers of the magazine Vogue Nederland are part of the ‘stakeholder family’. With customers I mean the people who have a subscription on the magazine. But readers is a much bigger group of people. Among the reader of Vogue Nederland are also the ones with a subscription, but also the ones who buy the magazine ones in a time. Also, the people who follow Vogue Nederland on Social media are part of the ‘readers’.

The readers and customers are the ‘victims’ of the issue. But the question is if they can do anything about it. You can say they need to compare themselves less with all those perfect pictures and realize that most of them are fake, but unfortunately it’s not that easy.

Conclusion There are a lot of stakeholders regarding this issue. The ones who are directly linked to Vogue Nederland have the biggest power and the highest level of interest. But the brands / companies who are linked to the result of the issue have a high level of interest as well.

The age of girls and boys who have a low self-esteem is becoming younger and younger. This is probably because the age of the use of (social) media is getting lower. 60.8% of the users of Social media are teenagers. This group of people is vulnerable for external influences of the media, because they are in a phase of their live to explore themselves. The media is responding to this by providing information that is interesting for this age.

The readers of Vogue Nederland are one of the ‘victims’ of this issue. They are confronted with it.

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Strategic Advice

Conclusion of the three analyses together The media should not make teens feel like they need to live or look a certain way just to be ‘accepted’ into society. A lot of teenagers, but also younger and older people, have the feeling of ‘not being good enough’, because we are comparing ourselves with the perfect image we see in the media. This needs to stop. Especially teenagers are vulnerable for the influences of the media, because they are in a phase of their live to explore themselves. The media is responding to this by providing information that is interesting for this age.

Also Vogue Nederland shows us the perfect images and lives in their magazines and on their Social media. Of course this is what they stand for: exclusive, inspiring, innovative and contemporary, but the advice should be a solution where Vogue Nederland is still be able to hang on their values, but on the other side that people aren’t becoming more insecure through the pictures.

Be transparent As we have seen, the issue ‘influence of the media on people’s self-esteem’ is growing, due to the growth of the media the past years. A lot of companies are dealing with this issue, because a lot of companies are working in the media sector. Vogue is still growing, that is why it is so important that they react wisely to this issue. Vogue Nederland have kind of a leading role in the market of magazines, and they are also operating online. That is why it is important for them to react on this issue. To show that they find it important and that they want to do something about it. By doing this, Vogue Nederland shows that they cares and they hopefully inspire other companies.

They will get a lot of positive media attention, which is important for their growth. To become the leader of an issue, Vogue Nederland has to come with a creative and innovative idea.

That is why I came up with the following strategic advice for Vogue Nederland.

The core values of Vogue Nederland are contemporary, innovative, inspiring and exclusive. They does not need to change this. This is who they are. That is why I came up with an idea where the readers have the choice. The normal version of the magazine and the photos online stays the same, but the customer can choose to see the ‘real’ version of the photos.

For the version of the magazine I thought of an Augmented Reality app of Vogue Nederland. With this app, the reader can hold their phone in front of an image in the magazine. On their phone they see for example a short movie of how the picture is made or the picture without any adjustments. For the online platforms of Vogue Nederland the readers can just click on an image and then see what the ‘real’ image looks like.

Of course the real images can be still really pretty and it is possible they make you feel insecure. But the readers of Vogue Nederland needs to realize that sport and a healthy lifestyle is the work of the models. So with some pictures there will be a short story of how the life of a model looks like, written by the model itself. This way, the readers might realize that it is not that bad if you do not have a body like these models. Vogue Nederland can also combine the Augmented Reality with Virtual Reality to give the readers a look behind the scene of for example the making of a photo or at a photoshoot. This way, the readers will see the process of a photo before it is in Vogue.

All of Vogue Nederland core values are intertwined in this strategic advice.

Contemporary.

The use of Augmented Reality is growing right now. It is popular and new for a lot of people. Vogue Nederland shows this way that they go with the times. They are contemporary.

Innovative.

Vogue Nederland will be the first with an app like this, to show the ‘real’ image of the photos. But still, you can choose to just read Vogue Nederland how it is sold.

Inspiring.

Hopefully other magazines or companies in the media sector will be inspired through this app. Vogue Nederland shows with this app that they care about this issue and that they want to do something about it.

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Exclusive.

Vogue Nederland will still be the Vogue as we know it the way it is now. But the readers get the choice to see the real image without the use of Photoshop. So its exclusivity will stay.

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The core message of the strategy needs to be honest and needs to show that Vogue Nederland take its responsibility according to the issue. This way, other companies gets inspired and Vogue Nederland will gets positive media attention.

Vogue Nederland can start their strategy with a campaign of Nike. Nike already did something with this issue, they had a campaign with curvaceous women and said that you don’t have to be thin to be fit. This will be a good start. Vogue Nederland can show an advertisement in their magazine of Nike, one that fits Vogues values, and add the Augmented Reality app on this picture.

Later, Vogue Nederland can apply this to more pictures and advertisement in their magazine and their online platforms. It is important to start with one advertisement, so people would not be overwhelmed by what is happening. They will understand it by using the app in the advertisement of Nike and later, they can apply it to more pictures.

To be clear to the readers of Vogue Nederland it is important to give them the possibility to see the real image within every picture Vogue has made. But there will not be a story or a making of movie within every picture, just a few. This is because this would be too expensive and it would take too much time. Vogue Nederland has to make the decision on which photos they will put something extra and on which they will just show the real image.

Through this app, people will realize that what they see on the internet and in magazines mostly is not factual. That they do not have to be insecure, because everyone is beautiful in their own way and the life of models is just so different than a ‘normal’ people’s life.

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Operationalization

The way to start is to look for a company who is able to make an app like this.

They can for example contact the company Arvalley. They use Augmented Reality in their apps and they have experience with the combination of Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality (arvalley.nl).

The second step is to contact Nike about the idea and ask if they would like a collaboration for their first photo with the opportunity to see the picture before the adjustments. It is important to ask Nike for this collaboration, because Vogue Nederland need to have the photo without the adjustments and of course the approval of Nike.

The third step in this strategy is to try it out. Nike needs to send Vogue the ‘real’ photo and the one with the adjustments. Vogue Nederland need to inform their readers about this app and the possibility to see the real image before it has been photo shopped. Online they can do this by write an article about it or just putting a little text by the photo of Nike. In their magazines they can show a little sign that you can use the app with that photo, with a little explanation, because it is the first time.

Through the article about this app, Vogue Nederland will already get some media attention. This way, people will know about it.

It is important that Vogue Nederland will use their core message ‘honesty’ everywhere in this strategy. They are doing this to let their readers show how the process goes and that they want to do something about this issue. The article is an important way to show this. They will not only explain what the app is for, but also why it is there.

The next step is to evaluate the strategy. Is their idea clear? Does it work? How do react their readers on this? Of course it will only become clear if it works after a period of time, because then it becomes clear if the rates of people with a low self-esteem are decreased.

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Conclusion Vogue Nederland is going to deal with the issue ‘The influence of the media on people’s self-esteem’ by introducing an app with Augmented Reality. By using this app, people have the ability to see the ‘real’ image of the images that are in Vogue Nederland.

For their social media platforms they can just click on the image to see the real one, the making of or the story of a model.

By reacting on this issue, Vogue Nederland shows that they care about it and that they want to be transparent and honest by giving their readers the possibility to see how the real image will look. The magazine still stays the same, but the readers only have the possibility to see it.

Crisis day

Process What did you know on forehand about the situation (facts)?

That it was our first day at Netflix. On our first day, Netflix was a victim of a cyber-attack. It is the same case as what happened at Sony a couple of years ago. The data of credit cards of our customers have been stolen.

What was your task and role during the crisis day?

First we started as a group, looking at the facts. What is going on, how can we work best? Then we split up, I started to make a press release together with one other student. It was important that we made this quickly, to clarify things. Later, I helped people and I wrote the statement together with one other student and I was the spokesman.

What did you want to achieve?

We first wanted to achieve clearness around the issue. The customers of Netflix needs to know what is going on. We wanted to know everything about the issue, so we could be clear to our customers and come up with a clear statement as quick as possible.

What do you think of your own performance?

I think I did pretty well. I stayed calm. Right away I looked where we needed to start and what needed to be done. I like this kind of assignments, where we need to pretend that it is really happening.

What do you think of the team performance?

It was really good. We had a nice group to work together with. Everyone was working really hard and we helped each other where needed. Everyone had his own task and this really worked well.

Output What type of crisis you are dealing with?

Netflix is responsible for this issue, they decided to stream the film ‘The Interview’. They are also a victim of the cyber-attack, but they had to put more effort into their security systems to maintain the privacy of their customers.

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What was your strategy and how did you follow that strategy?

First, we looked at the facts and looked at the task that needed to be done. The attack already caused damage, so the priority was to minimalize the potential outcome. We thought it was important to let our customers know that we did anything to minimalize their damage and help them in every way that was possible. Whenever new information came up, we updated our customers, to keep them up to date. This was important, because our customers needs to keep their faith in Netflix.

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What was your key message/statement?

That we believe in the freedom of speech and want to give filmmakers the opportunity to share their stories to a larger crowd. We admitted that our decisions from the past might not be the best, but that we made sure that our customers’ information will be safe and that we were working together with the Dutch Police department and the central intelligence agency to investigate the case.

Who was the ‘spokesmen’ and why? (not names but roles, police, mayor etc….)

The head of communication at Netflix, because the CEO Reed Hastings was unavailable because he was still on his way to Amsterdam. We thought the head of communication was a suitable replacement for the CEO, because he knew what was going on and how to react. It was our first day so we decided it was better not to do it ourselves.

Tweets you have been sending?

No, we decided to make a good press release, so we were responding to all the tweets at one time and be clear at one time. So everyone would now what we knew that time.

Experience What have you learned from this experience?

That it is important that you stay calm and clarify what needs to be done first and what could wait. And that it is important to have a team to work on the crisis, because the other work needs to continue as well, to minimalize the damage. And I learned that it is important to come up quickly with a clear statement, where you tell what you are going to do and what is going on at the moment, to prevent more damage.

What would you do the same and what would you do differently next time?

I still would start with making an overview with the things that needs to be done, which are most important and which one could wait. Working with a group is also a thing that I would want to have again. It was really nice to know that everyone was busy with their own task.

What I want to be different is that this crisis was for a real company. Not that I wish that any company gets a crisis like this, but then you really feel the pressure. Now you knew that it was just a test, so maybe it is easier to stay calm.

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How has this experience contributed to you as a professional? How can you use this experience in your (future) work?

We experienced how it is to deal with a crisis and really worked together. We experienced what was important to do and what could wait. I think I could use this in my future work when something is wrong or we get a crisis like this. I can look back and think of what I did and apply this.

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Q&A

What happened?

This morning (19-12-2016) there has been a cyber-attack to the Netflix servers. Unfortunately, due to this security breach the credit card details of our European users are have been stolen.

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What about the rumours about the publication of personal details (for our Dutch users)?

Until we know the detail of the breach we advise all of our users to keep an eye on their bank accounts to make sure no strange transactions happen. As prevention we recommend to block your credit card until further notice.

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What now?

We are currently investigating what happened and work closely together with law enforcement agencies in the whole of Europe.

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Is our, and more importantly your, additional information safe?

We cannot disclose any detailed information yet. Our programmers are working day and night to resolve the matter. We work together with the best security team possible and make sure all the other documentations will remain private and protected from attacks from the outside.

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Who is responsible?

In this point of time are not able to say who is responsible for this attack. We all are working very hard to find the group responsible for the attack. We will keep you updated when we have more information.

Why did Netflix invested more in the European Growth market than in information security?

One of our values is judgement. We chose to smartly separate what must be done well now, and what can be improved later. We are at first to admit our decisions from the past may not be the best, regarding this attacks.

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What will Netflix do to prevent these scenarios in the future?

At this moment we are mainly focussing on finding out who is responsible and how to solve the problem. After we are done with this research, we will evaluate the process and make sure this will never happen again. We will also look into newer developed security systems, to protect our customers even more.

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Statement

The Netflix family of companies is an incorporation which focusses on 9 values: Judgment. We make wise decisions despite and think strategically.

Communication. We listen and treat people with respect.

Impact. We focus on great results.

Curiosity. We seek to understand.

Innovation. We create new ideas that prove to be useful.

Courage. We make tough decisions without excessive agonizing.

Passion. We aim to inspire others with our thirst for excellence.

Honesty. We are candor and direct.

Selflessness. We share information openly and proactively.

Therefore, we are very sorry to inform that Netflix has been hacked by an unknown cyber-attacker. Netflix believes in the freedom of speech, therefore we want to give filmmakers a voice with their movies and give them the opportunity to share their stories to a larger crowd. We want to give them a stage and want to share our viewers with these creative minds. With this thought in mind, we made the decision to release ‘The Interview’ on our platform. With the eye on the constitution and the right of Freedom of Speech, we are not sorry for this decision. We do, however, are sorry for the fact that not everyone appreciates this decision and that our customers are the victims of unfortunate event.

Together with the Dutch Police department and the central intelligence agency, we are investigating this case intensively, to create more clarity about the cause. At this moment, we are unable to go into further details.

When we make our decisions, we always separate what must be done well now, and what can be improved later. We always make tough decisions without excessive agonizing.

We are the first to admit that our decisions from that past may not be the best, regarding these attacks. We can assure you that we will make sure that your other information will be safe.

For now, we advise all our Dutch customers to block their credit card accounts until further notice.

We hope you that we informed you well. We are well willing to answer your question, so please don’t hesitate to contact us. Also, there will be a Q&A posted on our website later today.

Thank you.

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Literature

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Macarra M. Fowler (2016) The effects of Social Media on self confidence and self-esteem. Used 17-12-2016, from http://www. academia.edu/13188066/The_Effects_Of_Social_Media_On_Self_Confidence_and_Self-Esteem Mahita Gajanan (2015) Young women on Instagram and self-esteem: ‘I absolutely feel insecure’. Used 17-12-2016, from https:// www.theguardian.com/media/2015/nov/04/instagram-young-women-self-esteem-essena-oneill Malavika Velayanikal (2016). The latest numbers on web, mobile and social media in India (infographic). Used 03-01-2017, from https://www.techinasia.com/india-web-mobile-data-series-2016 Milou van Rossum (2012) Interview met Vogue hoofdredacteur Karin Swerink. Used 01-12-2016, from https://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2012/02/24/interview-met-vogue-hoofdredacteur-karin-swerink-a1482946 Nederlands Jeugd Instituut (2014) Sociale media vergroten onvrede over lichaam. Used 02-01-2017, from http://www.nji.nl/ nl/2014/Sociale-media-vergroten-onvrede-over-lichaam Proud2bme (no date) Media en zelfbeeld. Used 03-01-2017, from http://www.proud2bme.nl/beauty/Media Redactie Emerce (2016) Infographic, de fenomenale groei van sociale media. Used 12-12-2016, from http://www.emerce.nl/nieuws/infographic-social Redactie Vrouw (2013) Meer cosmetische ingrepen door social media. Used 02-01-2017, from https://vrouw.nl/artikel/elke-dagmooi/19615/meer-cosmetische-ingrepen-door-social-media Sandra (no date) Volslanke modellen maken dikkere vrouwen alsnog onzeker. Used 03-01-2017, from http://damespraatjes.nl/ volslanke-modellen-maken-dikkere-vrouwen-alsnog-onzeker/ Teresa Newsome (2016). 7 ways Social Media can affect your self-esteem. Used 17-12-2016, from https://www.bustle.com/articles/137275-7-ways-social-media-can-affect-your-self-esteem

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