How Netflix’s Squid Game can help us to understand Consumer Behaviour

By now, you’ve probably heard of the Netflix TV series, Squid Game, taking the internet by storm. Squid Game sees 456 players who are in a large amount of debt take part in children's games in order to win a cash prize but with a dark twist. The show sees players stripped of their identity, and assigned a number instead.
Although the main plot around Squid Game is unrealistic, there are some parts of the show that give insight into behavioural science and how we as humans would behave in this situation. Not to mention the applications that can be drawn from behavioural science to help marketers understand why consumers behave the way they do. 

How Squid Game helps us to understand shoppers behaviour on Black Friday

In Squid Game, one of the ways the soldiers pit the players against one another is by restricting food supplies. This is a well researched area in Psychology in Sherif’s work ‘Realistic Conflict Theory (RCT)’, where two groups of people were given limited resources, which eventually made them turn to violence to compete for these resources. So not only is Squid Game accurate, in some parts from a psychological perspective, it also helps us to understand the Black Friday chaos that is often observed online and offline while people compete for limited stock. 

From what we understand about identity and group behaviour, if there is limited stock and supply of certain products that are important to certain people, then they’re more likely to display aggressive behaviours in a bid to purchase the product. On the other hand, those who feel as though they wouldn’t behave in such a way, generally don’t have a need for that item / product. 

What can be observed here is that there are different identity groups that consumers belong to, those who buy multiple items that are short of stock on Black Friday are one identity group, and those who do not, are part of another identity group.

It should be noted that identity groups are dynamic as we’re socially mobile meaning we move around identity groups often. One year a given consumer group may get into conflict with others on Black Friday and another year they may not.

There is a certain responsibility that brands and marketers have when it comes to marketing and selling their products, as this can have an impact on consumer behaviour. Although, limited stock can be advantageous for marketers, as consumers will have a heightened sense of need for the item, there is the chance that this could cause companies to lose perceived value through people purchasing multiple items of stock, inflating or deflating or prices or even by devaluing the brand by behaving negatively in store.

How can Netflix’s Squid Game help us understand segmentations?

During the TV series, the players form groups in order to keep safe within the game, they identify the groups strengths and weaknesses and use strategy to help them in various ways. The players belong to the groups that they identify most with. 

This can help us understand customer segments, as it’s likely that people belonging to different identity groups will behave in similar ways. When identifying segments whether that be in retail, healthcare or any other industry it’s important to correctly pinpoint the groups that people belong to and to not only apply geographical or socio-economic factors to segmentation research, but behavioural insights, such as personality, hobbies, and an important factor that is often overlooked, aspirations of the segments. 

It’s important to remember that people’s interests and aspirations develop over time, so they’re unlikely to stay in the same segment forever - again something which can be observed in Squid Game, as characters move from one group to another as their circumstances change. With this in mind, you need to ensure that each segment shares similar aspirations as this will give marketers an idea of what segments consumers are likely to move into in the future - a key opportunity for brands to think of a product or service that is tailored to both their consumers current and future needs.

Shopping in order to fit in with the group

According to Social Identity Theory, in order to fit in with the groups we identify with, people will behave differently. As seen on Squid Game, members of the groups will give each other things or help each other win each game in the hopes that this will be repaid when they are struggling to win another game in the future.

As this is a rather ordinary experience it can help us to understand consumer behaviour, as it means that we’ll shop for items that will help us fit into our certain group or segment.

Player 456 could be considered one of the group leaders in Squid Game, he was largely influential to the group members on how to behave to survive and get along with one another in order to successfully complete the next game. It’s well researched that group leaders are influential to group members' behaviours.

In marketing, group leaders may also be considered Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs). If members of our friendship groups for example, particularly group leaders, decide that they like a particular shoe brand, then other members of the group may also start to consider that brand of shoe. If, in another group the leader expresses their dislike for those shoes, it’s likely that the other group members will not consider purchasing them as well.

Ultimately, targeting the identity of the leaders of each consumer segment is important, brands should ask who they are? and how can we target them? Group leaders have great influence over groups and therefore segments, and are crucial for initiating many organic conversations about brands through word of mouth.