5 Business Lessons from Netflix’s Squid Game Show
None of us can forget the incredible series Squid Game by Netflix that broke into our recommendations, our watchlist, and our social feeds. Even if a person doesn’t use Netflix, he would be aware of the popular action drama that is sweeping the viewers.
Although it is a great show, it also carries great lessons for business tycoons to succeed. Not just the show, but its production, story, and characters are testimonies of business lessons to learn and implement. In case if you’re in a region that restricts streaming Squid Game, you can unblock Netflix with a VPN. The VPN allows you to bypass geo-restrictions and lets you stream the best content globally.
Let’s get started:
Perseverance and Patience
You’ve probably heard the same story about J.K. Rowling, Mark Zuckerberg, and Michael Jordan. J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series was rejected by numerous publishers before it became a billion-dollar franchise. Mark Zuckerberg made chatrooms, and chatbots before he developed Facebook, and Michael Jordan always shot over 100 hoops before he could play the game.
When it comes to the script of Squid Game, the creator and director Hwang Dong-Hyuk wrote the script about a decade ago. His initially rejected script did not stop him as he kept improving and showing it to producers. It was only this effort that got it to debut on Netflix and it instantly became the biggest debut show on Netflix surpassing 100 million viewers in less than a month.
It is a great testament to the lessons of perseverance and patience.
Uniqueness Sets You Apart
If you’ve seen the show, you’d be aware of its graphic visuals and portrayal of sudden death. It was one of the reasons for the initial rejections. We all got a shocker when (spoiler alert) the doll in the Red Light, Green Light game read ‘motion detected’ and had to kill on sight. But instead of the viewer’s disapproval, we saw the viewers’ interest in such a unique perspective.
Furthermore, the writer’s unique take on children’s games like tug of war, red light green light, marbles, etc. was a refreshing look that got the viewer’s attention. It goes to show you that in the business world, uniqueness sets you apart. This is why there is a ‘Unique Selling Point (USP)’ of all startups, and the stronger it is, the better the business growth is.
The power of social media
Although the world of social media is questionable, there is no reason you can’t leverage the most out of it. The online community played its part in promoting this series to an unbelievable level. The Reddit audience went crazy over the getup of the characters. Not to mention the actors of the series amassed over a million followers on Instagram within a week of the release of Squid Game. Instagram and Snapchat also released a bunch of squid game filters and the show’s hype only expanded.
This goes to show you how the power of social media was leveraged, and the show amassed a great viewership through social media marketing. In modern-day business, marketing is what sets apart the competition. Be it word-of-mouth, B2B, or B2C marketing, it is an essential part and social media hype can put you ahead of the competition.
Teamwork
Businesses thrive on teamwork. Solo-preneurship does not benefit the business in the long term so it is important to have a team and work together. We learn this from the series episode where the teams are engaged in the epic game of tug-of-war. It is a death-defying situation in which the teams strategize their positions and work together to bring down the opponent team.
If you’re not the genius behind the operations, the second-best thing is to be a team player. A true team player gets recognition and is responsible for sustaining the organization’s growth.
The Power of Product Placement
Remember those TV shows that used to stop in the middle to start endorsing products? Like why would the storyline benefit from having the new Nike shoes or the new Samsung phone? That trend was considered dead after some time. It was looked down upon by viewers as negative marketing instead.
But now, product placement has taken a new look. Ever since the release of Squid Game, the white slip-on Vans sneakers (worn by the actors during the show) got an increase in sales up to 7,800%. Not only that, but there was also a spike in demand for green tracksuits, red jumper hoodies, and masks.
If you’re a business owner, you need to learn about the power of product placement and how it continues to shoot sales through the roof. It wasn’t displayed in a corny advertisement way, rather blended in perfectly in the show.
Conclusion
Whether you’re a fan of the show or not, you simply cannot deny these 5 important lessons from the show. As a business owner, you need these lessons as reminders to align your business goals and strategize yourself. Also, you can improve yourself by learning from the characters. By leveraging these pointers, you are set to be a successful business tycoon of the industry.
