Netflix shows are not made equal. As the company’s recent viewing report states, “the top 1 percent of titles accounted for about 22.32 billion hours of viewing, almost 24 percent of the total. The top 10 percent brought in 68 percent of all viewing – 64.16 billion hours.”
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In 1985, thousands of blind taste tests showed that consumers preferred a new, sweeter formulation of Coca Cola. The company took this at face value, replacing the original Coca Cola with a new drink using the sweeter recipe. But the ensuing backlash to New Coke shows the limitations of objective thinking. Insiders forgot that, in the real world, people don’t consume drinks blindfolded. The data ignored the strength of the original Coca Cola brand.
When Trinity Mirror media group asked consumers what they wanted in a new newspaper, they said content that was upbeat, optimistic and politically neutral. But when the group launched New Day – a newspaper that offered exactly that – readership was so low that the paper shut down within just 2 months.
NYT is now a gaming company – in terms of time spent by users.
Nickel, a French bank, wanted to provide financial services to low-income people but couldn’t afford to open branches everywhere. So the company used corners of existing cafés and tobacconists, which not only saved money but also provided instant reach and scale. Nickel now has 7,500 of these points of sale as well as 2.5 million customers.
Nickel, a French bank, wanted to provide financial services to low-income people but couldn’t afford to open branches everywhere. So the company used corners of existing cafés and tobacconists, which not only saved money but also provided instant reach and scale. Nickel now has 7,500 of these points of sale as well as 2.5 million customers.
Nike started out as a running shoe manufacturer, long before it ventured into casual shoes and apparel. As co-founder Phil Knight explains, “we just tried to get our shoes on the feet of runners… we thought the world stopped and started in the lab and everything revolved around the product.”
When the brand pursued a DTC model, and ended hundreds of long term partnerships with retailers, it quickly realised the importance of mass distribution: many light buyers couldn’t find Nike in their usual stores and so didn’t buy them. Sales declined 8% in 2024.
And yet we’re spending more on books than ever before. And before you ask, there has been close to zero book inflation in the same period (i.e. prices have stayed the same).
Nobel Prize winners, scientific geniuses in their own fields, have scientifically questionable views in other fields. Alfred Russel Wallace, codiscoverer of the theory of natural selection, advocated spiritualism and believed that nonmaterial forces explained the evolution of the human mind. Percival Lowell, a pioneer in planetary astronomy whose observations paved the way for the discovery of Pluto, was convinced that he had discovered martian canals of intelligent origin.
It’s a tale as old as time.
Richard Thaler & Cass Sunstein coined the term ‘Libertarian Paternalism’ in a 2003 article – a doctrine that aimed to guide people’s decisions without taking away their freedoms. It’s unlikely the idea would have caught on, had it not been for the much snappier title used for their 2008 book: ‘Nudge’ (interestingly a suggestion of one of the publishers who passed on the book)
Nurofen contains exactly the same chemical as ibuprofen, but can be seven times as expensive. When it comes to pain relief, we assume expensive products must be better.
After an Oasis concert faced technical glitches, the band sent out refunds to every attendee but with a twist – each cheque had their signature on it. They worked on assumption that most fans would prefer their signature to cashing the cheque, and saved up to £1m with a bit of ink.
In a quest to dominate the US market, Oatly sent representatives to high-end coffee shops to share the product with local baristas. The baristas, effectively controlling distribution, would then recommend and use oat milk with customers.