Bourbon. The Search Is On.

If you’re a regular reader of Bourbon & Banter it won’t come as a surprise that Bourbon is extremely popular these days. It’s taken the U.Ss by storm and is increasing it’s marketshare overseas as well. In fact,  you can’t open a magazine these days without coming across a story about Bourbon or at bare minimum, a recipe or product review that includes Bourbon in some fashion. The signs are clear. We’ve entered another golden-age of Bourbon.

However, since I play a digital marketing professional by day, I felt compelled look at some publicly available data to see just how much America’s interest in Bourbon has increased over the past few years. My data source of choice – Google. More specifically Google Trends. (Click here to learn more about Google Trends.)

Leveraging Google Trends, I entered a search for ‘Bourbon’ which resulted in the graph below.

The graph illustrates the shift in the volume of searches for the keyword ‘Bourbon’ from 2004 through the end of 2012. As you can clearly see, the volume of searches has risen steadily for years and has reached an all-time high as of December 2012.  I expected the rise in searches to be more dramatic over the last 2 years, but I’m actually pleased to see a rather steady growth rate. I’d like to think a slow and steady increase in interest will result in a long-term sustained interest in Bourbon vesus a short-term trend that will be gone within a year. (On a personal note I hope that flavored vodkas have the opposite reality.)

For those of you curious about the recurring spikes in searches each year, they are occurring in the month of December.  As you would expect, interest in alcohol tends to go up as the holidays approach and people start planning more parties and are seeking out new alcohols to try or recipes as part of their overall drinking agenda. (Pretty cool stuff, right?)

Next, I decided to see if the increase in Bourbon searches carried over to other related keywords. The graph below is for ‘BourbonTrail’ and it clearly tells a more dramatic story in terms of how searches for Bourbon Trail have risen dramatically over the last few years.  This is an exciting example of how shifting consumer interest in alcohol can have a profound, and positive, impact on related businesses. Not to mention, I’m just happy to see the Bourbon Trail getting the respect it deserves and a huge shot in the arm in terms of popularity and increased visitors.

I hope my slight deviation into marketing data was of some interest to everyone. Remember, somewhere in the graphs above your own personal Google searches for Bourbon is reflected. Keep on supporting the Bourbon industry and thanks for helping us spread the Bourbon Gospel.