Week 2: Market Research Tools - Courtesy of Google

Google has a lot of cool features, and all you need is an account. It's incredible how many different things you get when you sign up for a Google account: a YouTube channel, Google+ page, GMail account, Google Drive, a blog (just like this one), your own calendar... and it's all free and hosted on the world wide web, easily accessible from any computer with an internet browser and a local area connection-

- okay, enough nerding out over the awesomeness of Google - let's get to the details. This week, we have been asked to explore three market research tools: Google Trends, Think with Google, and Global Market Finder. All three are affiliated with Google, and completely free. We also selected our teams for the Google Online Marketing Challenge (GOMC) this week, and are beginning to work on researching about the businesses we will be working with.

Google is a large part of what we are currently learning in BUS213: Digital Marketing in the Global Marketplace. Image from: http://p1.pichost.me/i/55/1790280.jpg

Google Trends is a portion of Google dedicated to search trends around the world at given times during the year. In this article by Christopher Ingraham in the Washington Post, the trends for the search term "hangover cure" are explored for the entire year. It turns out that "Thirsty Thursday" may not be as prevalent in North American culture as one might think, and that everyone seems to like one last "kick at the can" before they pledge a New Year's Resolution of sobriety. Google Trends will likely prove to be a useful tool for identifying when to run advertisements on Google AdWords for our team during the GOMC, and which keywords to use in coding/scripting for websites and other online projects.

Think with Google is a site chock full of creative insights and research on a huge variety of subjects, designed with businesspeople and marketers in mind. The subjects vary from automotive and retail, to advertising and tech, and everything in between. Think with Google provides information and cases of where technologies are used to reach people, and shows us many different creative and innovative ways to reach people through technology. My favourite part of the Think with Google page is the Creative Gallery, which combines creativity and technology into fun things, like StylePit's digital lookbook. It's basically a BuzzFeed for techies!

The third tool to be explored is the Global Market Finder. The Global Market Finder is a search engine for keywords in different countries and regions. If you need help finding out where you should run an advertisement, or if it's a good idea to try and sell in a certain country, the Global Market Finder can really help you out. You put in where you are, where you would like to analyze, or the G20 countries, and then whatever keywords you would like. For instance, I searched the keyword "hockey" in the G20, and I was given a list of countries where there is a market for "hockey" advertisements, the number of local monthly searches for "hockey", a recommended bid price if I was wanting to run an advertisement, and what there is for competition in that country.

This semester I will find out which of Think with Google, Google Trends, and the Global Market Finder will help the most with marketing for our client, as well as learn of, and how to use some more helpful marketing tools. Hopefully I will also have time to explore more on the Think with Google page!