MANILA, PHILIPPINES — In today’s fast-paced world, understanding consumer behavior and trends is critical to staying ahead in the game. With billions of searches conducted worldwide, the internet provides a treasure trove of valuable insights into what drives human behavior and the trends that will shape our lives in the year ahead.
In the latest episode of the Truelogic DX podcast, Bernard San Juan III, Managing Partner of Truelogic, delved into the fascinating insights gleaned from Google’s Year in Search 2022 report, which provided a wealth of information on the top searches and consumer trends that emerged over the past year, specifically in the Philippines.
“In 2020, it was still just over a few hundred million times a month, but it took until 2021 for Filipinos to cross a billion searches mark, Filipinos since 2021 have been searching 1.5 billion times per month. That’s a lot of searches, by the way, that is a lot of searches that are almost equal to every Filipino doing 1,000 searches,” Bernard said.
Soul searching
Google thinks that search users are doing a lot of searching. Filipinos are seen to be more culturally rooted, searching for their identities and showing a growing interest in locally-inspired cuisines. This trend presents opportunities for businesses in the food industry to tap into niche markets and cater to the demand for culturally-relevant food offerings.
“If you are a brand where you’re locally sourced, you’re locally manufactured, you’re locally packaged, I think you need to announce that to the world. You need to announce that to your audience. Filipino and Philippine-made search has increased by about 130%. So this is the implication for you as a business. If you are in the food business and your niche is towards a specific cuisine, make sure that you mention it and that you’re clear,” Bernard emphasized.
Another interesting trend identified in the report is the rise of “Pinoy Pop,” with searches for Filipino pop culture growing by over 20% from 2021 to 2022. This phenomenon reflects the changing mindset of Filipinos, who are increasingly seeking to connect with their local culture and embrace their identities.
Personal Identity
Search for various forms of personal care, self-care has been on the rise. Personal care was one of the segments that made the biggest gains. 23% of people in Southeast Asia said that they plan to spend more on self-improvement, and that includes wellness.
“If your product contributes to the positive wellness of Filipinos, then I think you need to make a point to leverage this. So the number of queries that are related to wellness increased by about 23%. So if you’re a low-calorie product, say so. If you are exercising equipment, don’t just talk about yourself as exercise equipment. Talk about how you are a great companion to well-being and how you help with health,” he said.
One of the biggest jumps in search terms in 2021 from 2020 was anxiety and depression. Searches for well-being, exercise, self-improvement, fitness, and health have all taken an increase, about 23, 24% increase.
Professional Identity
Queries for flexible work arrangements, hybrid work, and work-from-home increased by 77%. The keyword with the largest gain is remote work. In a survey made by several companies, the survey revealed that 42% of people in Southeast Asia say that they would refuse a job if the job did not allow them to work from home. So they’re not saying they’d refuse a job if the job required them to come to work. They would refuse it if it never allowed them to work from home. It’s time to get with the times.
One of the big topics for last year with the high search volume was the great resignation. Job-related searches in Google increased by 50%. “Now, I think 2022 was a year where a lot of employees felt very empowered. There was an increase in the same way, I think that the great resignation was a search term with a high volume in 2022. You might not be surprised to learn that the term quiet quitting, what is quiet quitting increased by 500%,” he said.
“If you are a business and you are hiring and you have the hybrid or remote options, make sure that you highlight this whenever you publish your job ads, whenever you post something on Jobstreet, if you advertise on Indeed, if you do job posts on Facebook, make sure that you feature this so that you are searchable,” Bernard suggested.
On a positive note, search volumes for hybrid learning, though, increased by over 200%, roughly about 210%. Searches related to freelancing or have the word freelancing in them increased by about 40%. And then similarly, search terms for business ideas increased by about a fifth. So about a 20 % increase from 2021.
“The insights from Google’s Year in Search 2022 report provide valuable information for businesses and brands to understand the changing mindset of Filipino consumers. By staying abreast of the latest consumer trends and leveraging these insights, businesses can develop effective marketing strategies to stay ahead in today’s competitive landscape,” he said.
“Filipinos are becoming more positive. We are less focused on our anxiety and more focused on our development. We are less focused on resigning and quietly quitting, and more focused on our next options for our jobs or job flexibility. So try to ride the wave of positivity. Don’t jump into the hype of the negativity. Be a positive part of the conversations that are happening online if you are a brand and a business,” he added.
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