Coca-Cola was one of the world's great marketers. How else can they get you to pay so much for water + sugar + a jolt? (And how do they charge more for water than Exxon charges for gasoline?) They made a huge blunder in the 80s abandoning the classic formula, with a New Coke that was better by all objective measures. Despite all their market research telling them how good it would be (blind tests, etc) their customers revolted. Shortly thereafter, they backed out of the decision. The Chief Marketing Officer (Sergio Zyman) even turned lemons into lemonade, making a career as, "What we learned when we got New Coke wrong."
Netflix made an awful decision. If they were a large static company (or government!) they would have had a hard time backing out of the decision. I'm sure there was plenty of research and consulting powerpoints explaining why it was a good idea, so everyone was covered. Unfortunately, it was a decision that could have destroyed the company. Bravo for Netflix acting decisively and correcting it's course! They likely saved the company.