Select a consumer product or service for which there are at least three popular brand names. For example, you might choose the category “cell phone carriers” which includes Verizon, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile. On the Google.com/trends page, type the brand names, separated by commas, into the search field at the top of the screen (e.g. Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile). The resulting chart will display the search query volume by brand, an indicator of how much interest each brand has received over time. Using the Google Trends data, answer the following questions. Tip: Before answering the questions below, use Google’s search engine to find articles on “how to interpret Google trends”. This will help you better understand the Google trends report and make it easier to answer the questions below.
a. Using the date setting at the top of the Google Trends page, explore different periods of time. Briefly summarize how interest in each brand has changed over the last four years.
b. In the Regional Interest section, you can see how interest in each brand varies by country or city. In which countries and cities is each brand most popular?
c. In the Related Searches section, you will see a list of topics and query terms of interest to people who used one of the brand names in a search. How does the list of related topics change from one brand name to another? Do the topic and query term lists give you any insight into what kind of information people may be interested in relative to each brand?
d. Using a search engine, see if you can find market share data for the product or industry you researched on Google Trends. If you find this information, does there seem to be any relationship between search volume and market share for the brand names you explored?