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Hitwise Intelligence - Heather Hopkins - North America

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Flyers the Coupons of Canada?

September 09, 2009

In looking through Search Term Variation reports on Hitwise for some top Canadian retailers, I kept noticing the word "flyer" included with the brands' names. For example, a Search Term Variations report for "loblaws" puts "loblaws flyer" at #3 behind "loblaws" and "loblaws superstore" in the twelve weeks to September 5, 2009. Similarly, "canadian tire flyer" ranks at #6 among searches with "canadian tire" and "walmart flyer" ranks #5 for searches with "walmart".

The French language equivalent "circulaire" also showed up prominently in the Search Term Variations reports and in all the examples I looked at was the first specifically French language query.

The word "coupon" was noticeably less prominent than in similar reports using US data.

In the twelve weeks to September 5, 2009 Hitwise captured 505 unique search terms that included the word "flyer" in Canada. By contrast we captured 317 search terms that included the word "coupon" in Canada. In the same period in the US, we captured more than 10x as many search terms with the word "coupon" than "flyer".

Flyers aren't the same as coupons but their intent is similar. Retailers use them to promote special offers and consumers use them to look for cash savings.

This example highlights how important flyers are for Canadian promotional efforts. Search data can be a goldmine for foreign brands looking to enter a new market to understand the language consumers use and their priorities. It can also be a goldmine for domestic brands looking for ideas on how to reach consumers in this weak economy.

Below is a list of the top 10 search terms that included the word "flyer" in Canada in the past twelve weeks.