Pinky cherry blossom, warm breeze, light-colored clothes… these typical spring images seem to lead to the idea that it is the season for women. However Cheil Worldwide’s DnA Center, Data & Analytics Center, flies in the face of the conventional wisdom. During March 2014, the center analyzed the buzz on the social media and digital panel’s behavior data, and concluded that men are more emotional when it comes to the new season. In addition, men in their 40s turned out to be the most emotional group. DnA Center is Cheil’s internal organization dedicated to research and analysis of consumer big data.
Approximately 100 million big data was investigated and the number one search keyword turned out to be fashion related; “spring coordination”, “spring jackets”, etc. There were more men (40.5%) than women (37.5%) who searched the spring fashion keywords.
Among those who searched emotional keywords, such as songs, poems, flowers related to spring, there were more men (36.7%) than women (28.1%). Women are more interested in life related keywords such as weather and spring house cleaning (34.4%) and fashion (37.5%).
Therefore it can be concluded that men see spring as an emotional season while women do as a practical one.
In particular, amongst spring related keywords searched by men in their 40s, more than half (51.1%) are emotional keywords. In case of women in the same age group, the number one search keywords are fashion-related, while emotional keywords accounted for 29.7% only.
Another notable point is the gender difference regarding five senses. Visual sense such as flowers and fashion is the number one for both male and female. However for men, the number two keyword is associated with hearing sense such as songs. Their female counterparts searched for taste keywords such as spring vegetables and spring food.
By analyzing such behavior data and figuring out gender difference, Cheil DnA Center has demonstrated that marketing should no longer rely on conventional wisdom and common sense. What is meaningful is the quality of the data that Cheil DnA Center analyzed; such social media buzz and keywords came directly from consumers, increasing the credibility of the result.
Kenneth Cho, the Head of Cheil DnA Center, commented, “We have to realize that the consumer needs and behavior are getting increasingly complicated. The existing consumer survey methodology, which routinely depends on the respondents’ incomplete memory or subjective answer, might lead to skewed results. I expect more companies to build marketing strategies based on scientific solution utilizing the real behavior data directly coming from consumers”.
Spring-related big data analysis summary
Spring-related search keywords by gender
| Men | Women |
Emotion | 36.7% | 28.1% |
Life | 22.8% | 34.4% |
Fashion | 40.5% | 37.5% |
Spring-related search keywords by age
| 20s | 30s | 40s |
Emotion | 25.6% | 36.5% | 37.5% |
Life | 25.4% | 40.9% | 29.4% |
Fashion | 48.9% | 22.6% | 33.1% |
Spring-related search keywords by gender and age
| Men | Women | ||||
20s | 30s | 40s | 20s | 30s | 40s | |
Emotion | 25.7% | 45.1% | 51.1% | 25.6% | 30.9% | 29.7% |
Life | 20.9% | 27.5% | 22.2% | 28.0% | 49.6% | 33.5% |
Fashion | 53.5% | 27.5% | 26.7% | 46.4% | 19.4% | 36.7% |
