Lucy Sinclair is the EMEA director of the insights team at Google, where she and her team analyse changes in consumer behaviour. In this regularly updated article she’ll be highlighting what is on people’s minds during this unprecedented time.
The impact of the coronavirus pandemic has been felt by everyone around the world, changing the daily lives of people and businesses. As people adapt, consumer needs and behaviours are constantly changing too. This poses new challenges to marketers — and we would like to help you to remain helpful and relevant to your customers in these unprecedented times.
In order to help you understand what is top of mind for people during this time, we’ll be regularly mining Google Trends data across EMEA. These insights will cover three key areas:
- Immediate needs
- New day-to-day
- Emerging behaviours
Since the dynamics of the pandemic can change from day to day, we’ll be updating these insights regularly as we see new trends emerge, so you always have access to the latest trends and shifting behaviours. Below are insights from the week of 23 March 2020.
Immediate needs
Because things are changing so fast many people are confused by new guidelines for daily life, and what these changes mean for them. In recent weeks this has led to a higher search interest across EMEA in:
Information on government instructions and shop closures. For example, there’s rising search interest in live broadcasts of press conferences and updates from the government (‘live speech’) in the U.K. and a search interest in which stores are still open (‘welche geschäfte’) in Germany.
Concerns around access to food essentials. For example, there’s growing search interest in ‘can you freeze’ ('can you freeze') in the U.K. and ‘home delivery’ ('livraison à domicile') in France.
Short-term jobs and financial relief. We’ve seen rising search interest for ‘short term work employee’ ('kurzarbeit arbeitnehmer') in Germany and ‘mortgage rate suspension’ (‘sospensione rate mutuo’) in Italy, for example.
New day-to-day
As people to adapt to new norms they are looking for helpful information on:
Digital continuity of education. For example, we’ve seen search interest increasing for ‘online collaboration for schools’ ('schul cloud') in Germany and ‘home learning (‘home learning’) in the U.K.
Ways to implement an exercise regimen at home. There’s growing search interest for ‘spin bikes’ ('spin bikes') in Italy and ‘dumbbell set’ ('dumbbell set') in the U.K., for example.
Practical information to adapt to the digital way of working. For example, there has been a rising search interest for 'office chairs', 'desk chairs', and 'computer desks' ('office chairs', 'desk chairs', and 'computer desks') in the U.K. and ‘VPN client’ ('vpn client') in Germany.
Emerging behaviours
With travel restrictions in place and people spending more time in their own homes than ever before, they’re looking for creative ways to maintain or establish routines and find balance through:
Ways to bring the outside world inside. For example, in Spain we’ve seen greater search interest in ‘how to bake bread’ ('como hacer pan') and in France there’s increasing search interest in things ‘to do at home’ ('à la maison').
Self care. People are searching for how to keep themselves mentally and physically healthy. For example, there’s growing search interest for ‘yoga mat’ (‘yoga mat’) in the U.K. and for ‘meditation’ (‘meditación’) in Spain.
Virtual ways to travel. For example, there’s rising search interest in ‘virtual tour’ ('visita virtual') in Spain and ‘live zoo’ (‘live zoo’) in the U.K.
Explore more consumer behaviour trends
While this analysis provides a regularly updated snapshot of trends and shifting consumer behaviours across EMEA, we understand it may be helpful to review the information more frequently, or for a specific country or region. To explore further insights, here are 10 tips for using Google Trends yourself. By entering a keyword or a topic into the tool, you can explore what the world is searching for in near real time.
