BP4: Google the Season!

5th June 2019:

Before I start, Let me ask you a question.

Yeap! Guys are likely to buy their significant other Flowers on Valentines Day (On Feburary 14), While the rest of us will buy flowers for our Mum’s in May (Specifically, On May 10).

Hence, one of our group’s concern was that we would start running our business at a time when there are no significant ‘peaks’ in demand. Which isn't very ideal because, well, any business will appreciate any form of boost in demand for the type of products they sell.

But how could we confirm our hypothesis? One way obviously, was to just jump into action as the lab rat.

That isn't ideal, obviously. Surely there are ways to find this crucial piece of information - Free!

Say Hello to Google Trends.

The Answer is Simpler that you might think! Ask yourself this question: What are consumers (like us) most likely to do when we are trying to locate the flower shop with the best reviews and varieties of flowers, especially when the date is drawing near and the person (ahem. me) isn't prepared for it?

Bingo – We all Google it in this information age! Hence, by tapping on this resource from Google, we have free access to the very important information we need : To Deduce - Does Flormiere have any significant “peaks” left to focus on when selling our products?

We enter the word “Flower” into Google Trends, Set the location to Singapore (Because we want a localized answer), and get the results.

And well, it validates our initial concerns.

My Analysis:

Notice the peaks in the chart above on February and May – These are the periods where people are more likely to google the word “Flowers” – Because it’s February or May – we have Valentines Day and Mother’s Day then!

Unfortunately for us, the rest of the graph is…well, Flat – Especially from the period from June to September. (Well, Luckily, not zero lol). So there are no Seasons, (or “Get Lucky” moments) expected for us. These results also indicate to us that our business will not be able to rely on seasonal peaks or festivities.

Hence, we need to focus on the “Constant Demand” (the people searching for Flowers, under the flat portion of the graph) – and try to get to them at the times where people are more likely to buy flowers. Hence our focus group must continue to cater to people that love flowers and want something real to look at everyday.

Thus, We will continue to target the office workers – with the objective of designing something that people are likely to want to keep for a few months, and perhaps buy a new product when they would like a new design of flowers to look at by their office desk .