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FREE MARKETING IDEAS
DEMAND HUNT
Real demand. Potential shortages.
Emerging opportunities. |
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| DEMAND HUNT REWIND |
12 NOVEMBER 2021 |
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What would Demand Hunt have spotted?
For this demonstration, we ran the Demand Hunt signals research as if the date were 12 November 2021.
The findings below are based on information and signals that were available by that date. We then looked separately at what actually happened afterwards.
Judge for yourself how useful these signals would have been at the time.
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| 🔥 NOW | UK WIDE | CONSUMERS |
PlayStation 5 consoles
The signals on 12 November:
- Major UK restocks selling out rapidly.
- Very sold a group of PS5 bundles in under an hour.
- Sony’s new UK PlayStation Direct store had already sold out of PS5 stock.
- Demand remained far above normal availability heading towards Christmas.
Demand Hunt call: If you wanted a PS5 for Christmas, waiting for normal retail availability looked risky. For sellers around the ecosystem, accessories, setup and legitimate related services also had unusually strong underlying demand.
What happened next? PS5 availability remained constrained well beyond Christmas.
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| 🔥 NOW | UK WIDE | CONSUMERS + BUSINESS |
Frozen Christmas turkeys
The signals on 12 November:
- Official shelf monitoring covered 130 locations across the UK.
- Frozen turkey had the weakest availability of the products being monitored.
- 18% of observations were already recorded as low or unavailable.
- Christmas demand was still several weeks away from its peak.
Demand Hunt call: This was already more than a rumour about future Christmas shortages. A consumer who definitely wanted a frozen turkey had a reasonable argument for buying earlier than usual.
What happened next? Frozen turkey was still among the UK’s weakest shelf-availability categories immediately before Christmas.
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| 🟢 TEST | INVERNESS TO CORNWALL | BUSINESS + CONSUMERS |
Taxi and private-hire capacity
The signals on 12 November:
- The industry estimated that around 160,000 drivers had left the trade.
- Reports of difficulty getting drivers were coming from Inverness in Scotland down to Cornwall.
- Government evidence said demand for taxis and private hire vehicles was very high.
- In Stoke-on-Trent, one venue described customers and staff waiting one or two hours for a taxi late at night.
Demand Hunt call: This looked worth investigating locally rather than assuming every area had the same problem. In places with severe shortages it potentially created opportunities for drivers and operators, while consumers might need to pre-book transport much earlier.
What happened next? Driver availability remained a recognised problem into the following year.
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| 👀 WATCH | UK WIDE | CONSUMERS + BUSINESS |
Imported Christmas toys
The signals on 12 November:
- Shipping from Asia that normally took around 24 to 25 days was taking more than 40 days.
- Sainsbury’s had delayed its annual toy promotion because of shipping uncertainty.
- Retailers were warning shoppers not to leave desirable Christmas purchases too late.
- There was not yet enough evidence to say toys generally were about to disappear from shelves.
Demand Hunt call: WATCH rather than panic. If a child wanted one very specific imported toy, buying early looked sensible. A blanket prediction of empty toy shops would have gone beyond the evidence.
What happened next? Some individual toys did become difficult to find, while shops continued to carry plenty of other lines.
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| ✕ NO | UK WIDE | CONSUMERS |
Standard Nintendo Switch
The signal we checked:
Games consoles were attracting huge demand and shortage headlines, so it would have been easy to assume that all Nintendo Switch models were equally difficult to obtain.
But by early November, contemporary UK stock reporting described the standard Nintendo Switch as widely available through major retailers. The newer OLED model was a different story.
Demand Hunt call: NO shortage call for the standard Switch. This is exactly why we want to investigate individual products rather than repeat a broad headline such as “games consoles are running out”.
What happened next? Standard Switch bundles were still being actively promoted during Black Friday.
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| 📍 WHERE WAS DEMAND RUNNING AHEAD? |
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UK-WIDE SIGNALS
PS5 consoles
Frozen turkeys
Imported Christmas goods
Recruitment shortages
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LOCAL & REGIONAL SIGNALS
Taxi availability reports from:
Inverness
Stoke-on-Trent
and areas stretching down to
Cornwall
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ONE MORE SIGNAL WE WOULD HAVE NOTED
Recruitment advertisements were at record levels. Driving-instructor vacancies had jumped 32.3% in a week, while forklift drivers, teachers, carers and goods packers were also seeing sharp increases. That would have been a useful pointer towards sectors where labour demand was unusually strong.
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| FROM FREE MARKETING IDEAS |
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FMI ARTICLE
How AI Recommends Businesses
People are increasingly asking AI systems to recommend businesses, products and services. This article looks at how AI decides which businesses to mention and what you can do to improve your chances of being recommended.
READ THE ARTICLE
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HOW DEMAND HUNT LOOKS FOR SIGNALS
We look across multiple sources for signs that demand is beginning to run ahead of convenient supply.
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Search &
demand signals |
🛒
Stock, prices
& availability |
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Local & social
signals |
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News &
official data |
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Seasonality,
events & deadlines |
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National, regional
& local patterns |
Signals are classified as NOW, TEST, WATCH or NO. We do not need to find something in every category, and we only send a Demand Hunt when there is something worth sharing.
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The next Demand Hunt won’t be retrospective
This demonstration looked backwards so you could judge the method for yourself.
From here, Demand Hunt looks at what is happening now, across the UK and in individual regions, towns and cities.
GET DEMAND HUNT FREE
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Demand Hunt note: Findings are based on the information available when the research is carried out. Demand and availability can change quickly and local conditions may differ. Demand Hunt is provided for general information and is not financial, investment or purchasing advice. Check current prices, availability and circumstances before acting.
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FREE MARKETING IDEAS
Practical ideas, research and Demand Hunt findings.
free-marketing-ideas.co.uk
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