It’s important for marketers to keep current on topics of interests and trends around the world. This research gives us a good idea of what people are thinking and what they like and need. What did the world search for in 2014? Well (besides our usual searches for love and the meaning of life), the citizens of the world used Google’s search engine to keep current on topics ranging from food to celebrities.
Google processes two-out-of-three Internet queries each day. These queries give marketers a good snapshot of trends around the world: 1,000 Top 10 lists from 72 countries. The 2014 top spot were queries about comedian Robin William, the most-searched topic worldwide. Also top events that captivated viewers around the globe included the World Cup, Ebola, ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, missing Malaysian plane MH370, Flappy Bird, ISIS, Frozen and the 2014 Winter Olympics.
Take a look – which of these topics did you search for in 2014?
Group Activities and Discussion Questions:
- Discuss the importance of market research. What are sources that can be used? Why is tracking trends important?
- Bring up the site and show the video: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2014/12/a-year-in-search-moments-that-defined.html
- Divide students into teams and have each team examine a different Top 10 List topic. http://www.google.com/trends/topcharts?hl=en
- What are the trends from that topic?
- How can these trends be used to develop new products?
- Debrief the exercise by listing the ideas from each team.
Source: Google
