In this Daily Golden Nugget I'm going to give you an analysis of Pandora Jewelry and their rise, and apparent decline in popularity. This is the kind of analysis that buying groups and vendors hate, simply because this information helps your Open To Buy and hurts their sales and commissions.Google has a tool that shows you the global search volume for any search term. They've been collecting search data since 2004 that allows you to see trends over time. They appropriately call this the Google Trends tool.
Using that website I'm going to guide you through some basic searches so you can see how Pandora Jewelry has gained popularity, reached its peak in December 2010, and has been declining ever since. Using this information you can better choose your target ad phrases for this upcoming holiday season.
If you'd like to follow along you can go to this website: http://www.google.com/trends/
Otherwise I'm going to describe each of the searches.
The first search phrase I'm looking at is "pandora jewelry" which shows the first hint of popularity in December 2005 and its first clear spike in popularity during the 2006 holiday season. The popularity of the phrase "pandora jewelry" grew each subsequent holiday season of 2007, 2008, 2009, and reaching its highest in December 2010. The 2011 holiday season saw a 12% drop in interest from 2010.
The second search phrase I'm looking at is "pandora beads." This search query shows a steady progression in popularity starting in 2005, up through December 2010, and then a steady decline back down again. The 2009, 2010, and 2011 holiday seasons saw really good search interest of the Pandora product, but the rest of the year showed a clear decline in popularity. As I write this it sure seems like the interest in Pandora "beads" is back down to the 2008 level.
The next phrase I'm looking at is "pandora charms." I find this phrase interesting because from 2005 through October 2008 this phrase was not promoted at all by Pandora. As other bead companies entered the market Pandora made a huge advertising shift from "beads" to "charms" starting in October 2008. The online search volume clearly shows the sudden shift in interest.
The last phrase I'm looking at is "pandora bracelets." This phrase was introduced into Pandora's marketing in 2008 but the phrase didn't gain real search popularity until December 2009 when it hit its peak. The popularity of this phrase dropped during the Holiday 2010 season and even further during the 2011 season. The search volume of this phrase as of today is the same as it was in 2007.
Examining the popularity of search phrases like this will allow you to determine the best words to use in your advertising, and the types of product you should be putting into your inventory. Although in this case it looks like Pandora should be taken out of your inventory soon. On the other hand, this is global Google data and it might not represent what's happening in your local region.
Also note that the popularity of search phrases may not correlate with actual sales in your store. This should only be used as a guide.
The "charm" phrase had its highest point of search interest in December 2011. The non holiday months show a higher degree of search interest which leads me to believe this will be the single phrase that will survive this entire Pandora craze.
In conclusion, if you carry Pandora charms in your store you should carefully consider the amount of products that you reorder after the Holiday 2012 season has concluded. I predict a drastic decline in Pandora interest in 2013 and there's no sense tying your inventory money up in large quantities of their merchandise.
