Beverage trends – Dear Google

I was delighted to read about Google recently issuing a Beverage Trends Report, but disappointed when I studied its content.

The opportunity was enormous. 4 countries – US, UK, Mexico, Spain. 3 sources – search queries, YouTube and consumer interviews. 2 year time span – April 2015 to March 2017. 3 key trends identified – cold brew coffee, earthy flavours, premium water.

But the headlines did not reflect the details.

• Earthy flavours really meant plant-based.
• Premium water turns out to have been spearheaded by water dispensers.

Moreover, the 62 page report was:

• devoid of quantities, with no baseline and no reference points for comparison, not even between the three selected trends
• lacking any link to sales, market data or shopper decision making.

It would have been more instructive if Google had picked up on declines as well as growth and told us how it predicted noise would convert to action.

It’s great that Google produced this report, but future reports would benefit from more expert content and interpretation.

Dear Google – May I suggest an advisory panel? I’d be pleased to help.