Tap the Teen/Young Adult Demo with ChaCha Data

With ChaCha’s vast database of questions and answers, it was only a matter of time before the data was mined for market research. ChaCha has released a study conducted by Frost & Sullivan, which attempts to delve into the dangerous and murky minds of teenagers and young adults in order to gain perspective on brand preferences.

“Teens rely on their mobile devices as their primary media and they ask ChaCha over a million questions each day providing insights on their brand attitudes and actions,” says Scott Jones, CEO of ChaCha. “Along with the search query and answer string, ChaCha also has insights into other metrics related to the end user-including demographics, location, and device type.”

Frost & Sullivan studied these questions and answers for a three month period. Questions can be posed to ChaCha via text, iPhone app, Facebook, Twitter and their homepage.

“There is no single source that provides a more granular understanding of what’s happening during the conversation–what users care about and what they think, particularly as it relates to specific brands and products,” said Todd Day, Industry Analyst with Frost & Sullivan. “ChaCha is in a unique position to provide that data to the industry and potential advertisers. Capturing the consumer’s ‘intent’ is always a priority for successful marketers, and ChaCha’s extensive database of questions and associated information about the subscriber can be mined.”

Let’s take a look into what they found:

Jeans

To no one’s surprise, questions about designer jean brands were the most frequently asked by females (83% female, 17% male). The leading searched jeans brand among 18-24 year olds was True Religion Jeans (62%) followed by Lucky Brand (20%), 7 for all mankind (11%), and Citizens for Humanity (7%). However, most teens and young adults felt that True Religion Jeans were too expensive and 62% didn’t even know where to buy a pair.

Shoes

Nike was by far the most popular brand at 77%. Adidas came in a far second at 17%, followed by Reebok at 4% and New Balance at 2%.

Popular questions about Nike included: “Who invented Nike?” and “What does Nike mean?” As far as products are concerned, the most popular questions surrounded Nike’s skateboarding line, Nike SB.

Retail Clothing

The most search retail clothing store was Hollister, which made up 36% of questions in this category. Abercrombie & Fitch came in second at 28% and Urban Outfitters was third at 13.1%. Female teens under 18 asked most of the questions in this category.

65% of both boys and girls ask where stores are and the cost of specific products. 10% want to know why products cost as much as they do.

Male searchers dominated the questions for Billabong, Dickies and Diesel.

Armed with all of this information, marketers have a better understanding in developing informed advertising campaigns.

“An in-depth analysis of ChaCha’s data can provide actionable insights into the consumers ‘preferences’ on a national or local level. For example, traffic patterns can be analyzed to determine the impact of a particular ad campaign, ascertain the popularity of different TV shows among the youth segment, and even to determine regional interest levels for a particular product,” said Jones.

Teens and young adults are notoriously difficult to understand. They don’t even understand themselves. But the emerging Q&A market can help provide insight, and ChaCha is setting themselves up to be a leader in the niche.

You can get the full report by going here.