I wrote a sample report to the management team of a hypothetical coffee grounds manufacturer. I posed as the company’s social media manager, proposing my ideas based on research conducted using Google Trends in response to the company’s decision to branch out into neighboring states.
— —
Hello everyone! My name is Katie Mone. For those of you in management who do not know, I am the social media manager for QGrounds Coffee, based in New Haven, CT. In light of the recent decision to expand as a company to neighboring states, I feel that it is more than necessary to consider the digital and social media factors in play that could truly benefit our business. Over the past week, I have conducted research regarding digital trends, particularly on Google Trends. I have put this report together to convey the digital implications that could boost our company’s success.
Google Trends is a great way to gain real insight into the top trending topics. It shows you the top words, people, and events that are buzzing. It even allows you to research specific keywords and see how they perform in popularity over time and by country, state and even narrowed down to regions and cities within these states. This is where my research for this project began. I looked into terms like “coffee” and “coffee shop” starting in Connecticut, and then branching off into New York and Rhode Island. Since New Haven is rather centered in the state of Connecticut, I figured this gave a lot of leeway into several different potential areas to open. I also considered people who may be traveling to these other states for work and would want to grab a coffee in the morning.
As you can see in this screenshot, the word “coffee” is a sporadically trending term in Connecticut. It stays relatively steady as a trending term year-round, but peaks and troughs more at certain times of the year. But what about other states?
New York
Google Trends also allows you to look at multiple terms at a time and compare them. I did this with “coffee” and “coffee shop” when researching the New York City area. I wanted to get a better understanding of how these two similar, but different terms correlated. Clearly, there is a huge difference between the two, with the more general term having more overall interest than the more specific term. Although this is what I expect from social media and Google, it surprises me that “coffee shop” is such an unpopular term in a city like New York. Intriguing points like this one help to narrow down what will potentially work (and not work) for QGrounds coffee as we branch out. While NYC seemed like a no-brainer choice for a location to expand to, it seems that we may want to reconsider, as “coffee shops” aren’t quite as trendy as initially expected.
These are some other areas of New York state where coffee is a necessity (and a trending keyword!). While many of them are a ways away from our home base in Connecticut, expanding to upstate New York is certainly something to consider for the future. And the term “coffee” continues to dominate other coffee-related terms across the board. I believe that moving business into New York will serve us well especially if we can cater to specific regions like these.
Rhode Island
Lastly, here’s an overview of Rhode Island’s interest in coffee and coffee shops. Once again, “coffee” comes out on top, particularly peaking in colder winter months as well as some spikes in the summer for those iced coffee lovers. Because Rhode Island is a significantly smaller state, I didn’t do as much in-depth research into different regions. But due to the year-round trends and interest in coffee, I think expanding into RI would be a smart move.
I hope that this brief report gave you more insight into the digital and social factors that we will encounter as a multi-state coffee business. Thank you for taking the time to read my findings and analyses.