Let’s start with the positive side.

Netflix customers passionately care about the service.

Every time Kellogg’s raises the price of Pop-Tarts, you don’t even hear a whimper.

But the Netflix customer base responded with the emotional fervor of a South American futbol match.

Why?

Take a look at the blog post announcing the pricing change.

After laying out the new pricing structure, the post hammers home the value message:

By offering our lowest prices ever, we hope to provide great value to our current and future DVDs by mail members.

and this line:

We think $7.99 is a terrific value for our unlimited streaming plan and $7.99 a terrific value for our unlimited DVD plan.

C’mon.

This isn’t about offering greater value to the customer.

This is about the company’s operating costs going up and needing to increase revenue to deliver the appropriate financial performance.

Here’s the piece that Netflix missed.

That storytelling works.

Just be honest and open with people.

No one rejoices over paying more money and undoubtedly some unhappy campers would defect.

But most people get the concept that if a company’s costs go up, the price of the product/services also goes up.

Observing Netflix from afar, I’ve been impressed with how the company has built its brand. I think it’s fair to say that transparency represents one of those brand attributes. What can be more transparent than the CEO posting a SlideShare deck on the company culture? As a second example, most companies would have disallowed posted comments on the blog post given the nasty tone.

That’s why this debacle surprises me.

With that said, there’s still time, say 24-48 hours, for the company to course-correct the situation.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Reed Hastings himself comes forward with some type of mea culpa.

We’ll see.

I haven’t.

Until now.

Welcome to U.S. District Court of California with the Honorable John F. Walter presiding over the spat between the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and Zediva, which rents DVDs online.

One quick housekeeping note -

While we support Zediva on the PR front, we had no involvment with the brief.

I’m guessing I’ve read through 100 or so legal briefs over the years. Between the jargon and a narrative governed by the quest to be the smartest kid in the room, the writing would clog a wood chipper.

That’s what makes the Zediva brief, penned by the law firm of Durie Tangri, so extraordinary.

The read was, dare I say, amusing.

Check out the opening ‘graph:

Movie studios, including all of the Plaintiffs here, spent the better part of the 1970s and 1980s trying to persuade courts to declare video rentals illegal. They sued Sony for making video cassette recorders (VCRs), taking the case to the Supreme Court. Even after the VCR itself was declared legal, they sued hotels for making videos available to their customers to watch in their hotel rooms. They even went to Congress in an unsuccessful effort to change the Copyright Act to make renting videos illegal without the payment of a royalty.

Simple works. You don’t need to be Louis Brandeis to get the drift.

I also appreciated the conversational language:

As with any DVD rental business, if a DVD is rented out, nobody else can rent that DVD. The only way for Zediva to increase capacity to meet demand is to do the same thing any other DVD rental business would have to do — buy lots and lots of DVDs.

Love that scientific term, “lots and lots,” which I believe is twice as much as “lots.”

But the humor elevates this brief to a class by itself.

In response to the MPAA’s complaint that movie studios could be harmed by a consumer finding out a desired movie is out of stock, the brief points out:

This may be the first time in history that a copyright owner claims that an alleged infringer has irreparably harmed it by not engaging in ENOUGH acts of supposed infringement.

Later in the document, the point gets accentuated:

The studios will not be irreparably harmed if a Zediva customer occasionally has to wait a little while in order to watch “Vampires Suck.”

Look, I’m not saying the writing in the brief challenges Faulkner or even Elmore Leonard.

Instead, the brief shows the mere act of writing like a human being and applying storytelling techniques results in a more effective communication.

I shared five of my favorite posts from the past six months yesterday.

Here’s the second half of the list.

6) Book Review: Entertainment Value Of “Tell To Win” Sugarcoats Lessons In Storytelling

I liked the fact that Peter Guber’s book “Tell To Win” brought more attention to the business storytelling cause. In spite of the Fidel Castro anecdote changing from what appeared in a Harvard Business Review article to what appeared in the book, it’s still a worthy read.

7) Q&A With The 85-year-old Voice Behind “Thoroughly Modern Millie”

The beauty of social media and specifically blogging is if you’ve got a fresh take you can build a following. This interview with Millie Garfield explores how she does it (and shows you’re never too old to have spunk).

9) Exploring Language With Slang Lexicographer Jonathon Green

I enjoyed connecting with Jonathon Green to discuss his Dictionary of Slang. Needless to say, if someone devotes 17 years to writing a dictionary, the person must have an affinity for language.

10) The Op-Ed As A Platform For Storytelling

I strive to use Ishmael’s Corner as both a forum for discussion and education. Peter Chalk at Rand Corporation penned an excellent op-ed on piracy for The New York Times. This content served as a vehicle to examine how to craft a winning op-ed (defining “winning” as published in a mainstream media property).

My first post of this year talked about changes to the blog which would hopefully make for a better read, cause more dialog and attract more readers, my version of the trifecta.

I welcome your feedback.  

Welcome to the midway point of 2011.

Time flies when you’re telling stories.

I’ve captured my top-10 list from the past six months.

1) Q&A With 12-year-old Creator Of “Good Morning Geek,” Max Swisher 

This interview with Max shows that blogging wisdom comes from all quarters. Of course, I had to ply Max with hot cocoa to get him to open up, but it was $3.50 well spent. Plus, the dialog got an unexpected boost when Max’s English teacher weighed in.

2) How Clients Get The Most Out Of Us

One benefit from 20+ years of operation is the amount of historical information allows you to see clear patterns. After scrutinizing what causes client relationships to work or go south, we put together this SlideShare deck. I did get one email that said the Aunt Zelda slide was harsh.

3) Storytelling Techniques Behind Google Announcement On Larry Page Named CEO

It’s true that the media automatically pays attention to the mega brands. But it still takes expertise to capitalize on the attention and bolster the brand. In reverse-engineering Google’s announcement that Larry Page would soon take the CEO reins, one can clearly see the storytelling techniques in action.

5) There’s Enough Room In This “Town” For Both Storytelling And Keywords

Writing fresh takes and paying attention to SEO are not mutually exclusive. This post shares my personal experiences in balancing the two with the result being increased traffic from organic search.

I’ll share the second half of my list on Thursday.