About Hitwise

Hitwise is the leader in online competitive intelligence. Contact Hitwise to maximize your online marketing programs.

Hitwise Intelligence - Sandra Hanchard - Asia Pacific

Analyst Weblog

« Mining Jobs - Search Terms Reveal Demand | Facebook and LinkedIn: The Line between Social and Professional Networking »

What's Vintage vs What's Cheap

August 02, 2007

I was inspired to do some analysis on what I'll call 'search value determinants' following Bill's post covering xbox 360 and ps3 price drops. It's interesting to measure the search terms that consumers use when determining value on products or services, such as 'prices', 'sale', 'deals', 'cheap', 'used' and 'vintage'.

Here's a sample of the top 10 variations on each of these search terms - note that the number of variations for each go into the tens of thousands. I'll use the New Zealand market as my online testing ground (24 weeks ending 28/07/2007):

prices vs sale.png

• The term 'prices' appears to be commonly associated with stocks and commodities, such as iron ore and gold. Consumer big-ticket items such as cars, boats and homes are searched for in combination with the term 'sale'.

deals vs cheap.png

• Both terms, 'deals' and 'cheap' are widely used for searches in the travel industry; with auto and computers also associated with the term 'cheap'.

used vs vintage.png

• Consumers are specific about where they get their used cars from, including 'used cars auckland', 'japanese used cars' and 'used cars hamilton'. 'Vintage' is often associated with brands, such as 'mr vintage' and 'vintage barbie' as well as clothing items.

I have a feeling I've only scraped the surface of this type of comparative analysis, as I could see several other types of products listed further down each set. My initial finding (whether it's obvious or not) is that product categories appear to have different language rules from a consumer perspective. From a marketer's perspective, the process of refining keyword lists for search engine marketing can become more of an exact science, by knowing the search 'modifiers' specific to each industry.

Posted by Sandra Hanchard at 09:54 AM | (0) | (0)
In Categories Search