Quantity matters, but don't count out quality just yet
Updated: Jul 7, 2022
In just 17 days on the Netflix streaming service, the Squid Game series has become its most watched title ever. 111 million people have viewed some or all of the first season's 9 episodes, as per the company's Oct. 12th announcement.
Such a mind-blowing number in a very short period of time begs the question of "Why Squid Game", and one can find online analysis articles that aim to explain this phenomenon, such as Forbes' the secret to the success of Squid Game. Discussions regarding the series' content over the net mention Squid Game's "Debt and death" concept, as explained in Forbes, detailing how desperate players are willing to risk their lives to win millions for the amusement of the billionaires who are watching them. Other opinions relate to the series overall social commentary and portrayal of social inequality in a broader sense.
But there's another lesson here for all of us.
We love contests, competitions and rankings. They are all over the media and in fact, we are surrounded by popularity charts wherever we turn. What's the best show ever on Netflix? And who came second (Bridgerton, by the way). What is the leading movie in this week's American Box office? (The new James Bond film). Who's leading the Billboard Hot 100 songs? ("Stay" by The Kid Laroi and Justin Bieber)? What are the best-selling video games of all time? ("Minecraft is number one") And what team leads the UK Premiership soccer league now? (Chelsea).
But other than the numbers and rankings (the "quantity" aspect), the results presented in every genre of competition invites the not less important question of "why is this product number 1?" or "what are the reasons it is so popular right now? (the "quality" aspect) and even discussions about the products' ingredients and their gelling together
Industry insiders and competitors are closely examining not only those products' numbers and rankings but are also trying to figure out the "whys" behind such public sentiments towards those products. The analysis does not stop with the numbers but continues to the products' content, as competitors are trying to figure out if there's a lesson here for them too. When they sit down to plan and later promote their products and services, product teams always look for the leaders within their markets in order to make business decisions regarding their own offerings. The only complete picture that they must track and analyze is one which combines the quantitative aspects with the qualitative ones.
The Affogata Product Enablement platform does the same.
When tracking and monitoring customers' feedback, our Product Enablement platform performs quantitative aspects as well as qualitative ones and treats both of them fairly. There is the Brand Sentiment Score, the measurement of positive vs. negative comments, and a ranking of complaints' categories according to their amount levels. All that counts for the important quantitative side of the analysis. On the qualitative side, one can find such features as the complaints' categories' actual content or the mentioning of specific events which might have led to sentiment spikes. It is the combination of both parameters that give a company its true and complete market performance analysis.