How Celebrities Have Influenced Consumer Buying in 2017

How Celebrities Have Influenced Consumer Buying in 2017

Celebs can have a big influence on many of us, whether it’s wanting to listen to the most-recent releases from our favourite artists, or a desire to go and see the latest blockbuster starring our much-loved A-listers.

We often tend to gravitate towards their work, or at least be affected by the actions or behaviour of the famous faces we love and this has been particularly relevant in the commercial world, according to our latest research.

We’ve looked into consumer trends over the last year and have seen a correlation between the number of online searches and the general interest in products and places and what the top celebs are promoting or purchasing.

Researching the Trends
To uncover these findings, we first looked back over the year into the celeb columns and news to draw up a list of some of the biggest events of 2017. This covered everything from Royal wedding announcements, to which TV shows had the best ratings and which A-listers made the biggest impacts on Instagram.

Armed with this information, we then looked online to see which keywords and search terms became more popular around the time of these events. Finally, we took a closer look at the sales figures from major retailers to see if these increased keyword trends and searches did indeed have any effect on the amount of goods they’d sold over the year.

As alluded to above, it quickly became clear that when the celebrities do something, many of us follow suit.

Our Key Findings
Below we’ve broken down some of our notable findings into three different categories, to give you an even clearer idea of just how much of an influence the stars can have on what we buy:

Wedding Fever

• The announcement of another royal wedding has got the public excited in more ways than one in November. The sleek white coat Meghan Markle was wearing for the interview announcement crashed the internet quite literally, with the official retailer’s website crashing due to the massive increase in traffic to the website.

TV Events

• After Liam Gallagher's performance at the One Love Manchester concert in June, the viewing public clearly took a fancy to the orange parka he was wearing, as this item of clothing sold out at retailers nationwide only hours after the gig finished. What’s more, search volumes for it increased by 666%.

• Ed Sheeran caused a surge in interest in guitar loop pedals after his loop-heavy Glastonbury performance, with searches for the devices increasing by 350%.

• During the summer when Love Island was on our TV screens, online searches for water bottles increased by 300,000 across the course of the series.

• Although marred by controversy, viewers still tuned in to see Channel 4’s version of the Great British Bake Off. The show’s continued popularity also then led to a 50% increase in sales of baking tools and products.

• Sales of flat caps have recently increased by 83% thanks mainly to many would-be Thomas Shelbys looking to imitate their favourite Peaky Blinders.

Music and Films

• From April onwards, Justin Bieber sparked an interest in holidays to Puerto Rico following the remix release of the hit single ‘Despacito’.

• Similarly, online searches for “Malibu Holidays” increased by 178% after the release of Miley Cyrus’ summer smash hit.

• Since the release of Harry Styles’ song ‘Kiwi’, many supermarkets have banned under-25s from buying kiwis from their stores due to the popular trend of hurling kiwis towards the singer during his concerts.

• Suit purchases from Savile Row have seen a notable spike, as fans of the latest instalment in the ‘Kingsman’ series have headed there in search of tailored suits, akin to those worn by the film’s main characters.

• Despite the most recent Bond film ‘Spectre’ being released two years ago, the allure of driving a car like the world’s most famous secret agent is just too much for some. The popularity of the vehicles driven by James Bond have been on a continuous upward trend throughout 2017.

Celebrities, Clothing and Other Popular Trends

• Rihanna sparked a massive increase of 600% in searches for ‘thigh high boots’ after posting a picture of herself wearing some on Instagram.  

• The popularity and purchasing of oversized glasses increased after several celebrities including Sarah Hyland and Conor McGregor were seen wearing them.

• Several retailers drastically increased their sales of skinny white jeans due to Love Island’s Chris and Kem wearing them on the show on multiple occasions.

• Metallic shoes turned out to be the UK fashion favourite of the year, with 66,369 tags on Instagram since January coming after these particular types of footwear were spotted on the catwalks of Celine and Lacoste.

• ‘Ripped jeans’ have become increasingly popular for men and women in 2017 with searches for this product rising by 20,000 per month.

• Fidget spinners became a global sensation pretty much out of nowhere this year. Monthly searches for these gadgets increased from 301k to 55 million in only five months.

• Craft beer continues to be increasingly more popular amongst UK drinkers, with a 19% increase in registered beer brands in the last year alone.

• Research by a health tracking app revealed to us that the popularity of having avocado for breakfast has increased by 50% in 2017.  

Good News for Businesses?
With all the above in mind, this could spell good news for retailers and businesses that work in these industries or sell the most-popular products.

Equally, from a business management perspective it might be a good idea for business owners to keep an eye on the latest celebrity-influenced trends, to see if they could tailor their goods or services to suit the needs of trend-hungry consumers.

On top of this then, to help cope with the increase in demand, it can also be a good idea for such businesses to use dependable supply chains and logistics services, to ensure they have enough stock and can service all their customers.