Marketers need to constantly scan the environment, particularly how consumers behave; their wants, needs, and habits are critical to effective marketing. Consumer insights give marketers information such as product reviews, recommendations, complaints, competition, and many more valuable data points.
As the new year begins, considering the last year gives us insights and information about behavior. One great source of trends is Google. On average, Google processes 99,000 searches every second for a whopping 8.5 billion search queries per day! These queries give marketers a snapshot of trends around the world and the research gives us a good idea of what people are thinking and wondering about.
A look at 2022 gives us the big themes of rebirth, personal growth, and optimism. In 2022 we searched “how to change myself” and “how to be better.” We searched about how to change jobs, how to improve our relationships, and how to be a better friend. We also searched about how to help each other such as how to help Ukraine, or how to help areas with disasters such as Puerto Rico.
Google tracks searches on an individual country basis (and even cities) as well as globally. Lists are based on search terms that had the highest spike this year as compared to the previous year.
Globally, some of the most searched for topics in 2022 searches about Wordle, election results, Queen Elizabeth, Ukraine, Serena Williams, and Uvalde. Searches are also for local concerns such as gas prices, COVID testing, and voting.
What did you search for in 2022?
Group Activities and Discussion Questions:
- Before showing the Google results, poll students as to what they think the top searches were in 2022. Why those topics? Is this the same for different countries?
- Next, show the Google site and video of the top searches: https://about.google/stories/year-in-search/
- Show the local searches in different geographies in 2022: https://about.google/stories/local-year-in-search-2022/
- Discuss the importance of market research. What are sources that can be used? Why is tracking trends important?
- Divide students into teams and have each team examine a different topic or geography. What are the trends from that topic?
- How can these trends be used to develop new products and services?
- Debrief the exercise by listing the ideas from each team.
Source: Google. Year in search 2022.
