Blockbuster failed not because it failed to see Netflix coming but because it abandoned its customer-centric purpose at the moment it needed that purpose most. Blockbuster’s mission was to provide customers with the most convenient access to media entertainment. When CEO John Antioco launched Total Access, a service that let customers have movies mailed to their homes and returned in store for no additional fee, it was the purest expression of that mission the company had ever produced. It attracted more subscribers than Netflix. Then Blockbuster shut it down, citing the cost and bowing to pressure from franchisees who did not want to absorb the financial impact. The decision prioritized short-term franchise relations over the customers Blockbuster had promised to serve, and the brand never recovered. The lesson for any brand navigating a market disruption is the same: when the pressure is greatest, the brands that survive are the ones that run toward their purpose rather than away from it. Blockbuster had the product, the infrastructure, and the customer base to compete with Netflix. What it did not have was the willingness to protect the purpose that gave all of those assets their meaning.
