Qwikster: Name architecture failure

Qwikster: Name architecture failure is a failure case about Qwikster in 2011. The name became the visible symbol of a split that asked customers to do more work. A new name cannot make added customer friction appear strategic. It usually makes the friction easier to see.

The name became the visible symbol of a split that asked customers to do more work.

In September 2011, Netflix announced that its DVD-by-mail business would be separated under the new name Qwikster while streaming would keep the Netflix name. The move came after price-change backlash and a strategic push toward streaming.

The name was supposed to clarify the split. Instead, it made the split feel more awkward. Customers would have to understand why one relationship had become two destinations.

Qwikster sounded like a startup name placed on top of a relationship customers already understood. The problem was not spelling alone. It was that the name signaled new work: separate websites, separate queues, and a company explaining itself in internal-business terms.

By October 2011, Netflix had abandoned the Qwikster plan. CNNMoney reported that Netflix would keep one website, one account, and one password for streaming and DVD customers.

Qwikster earns the letter Q because it is one of the clearest cases where a name made a strategic transition worse. The brand architecture was the problem; the name became the mascot for the problem.

The decision lesson is that customers do not evaluate naming in a vacuum. They evaluate what the new name asks them to do.