I Need a [Insert Coping Mechanism]

Brandwatch Bulletin: I Need a [Insert Coping Mechanism]

How the pandemic is shaping our needs.

We’ve made it to the end of the week, and today we’re looking at the things people say they need online. You’ll probably spot a few you’ll be ‘needing’ once the work day is done.

Let’s get to it.

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The posting hierarchy of needs

In 1943, Abraham Maslow published a ‘hierarchy of needs’ in an attempt to categorize what motivates us as humans. Having been created so long ago, it excludes an important source of data: all the endless musings and wisdom of the people that’s posted on social media.

Using Brandwatch Consumer Research, we collected tens of millions of posts containing the phrase “I need a” and then pulled out the items, services, and relationships mentioned most.

The data was gathered from 2019 to 2020, and split out into March 11 to March 10 periods, so we could compare pre-pandemic and pandemic data to see how things changed.

A quick note: “I need a” mentions increased by 26% between these two periods. This means that if a specific topic of conversation has gone up by around the same amount, it’s possible its increase is due to the overall conversation increasing rather than other factors.

Here’s what we found.

Needing a break topped the list by a big margin, as it did in 2019/20. But unsurprisingly this part of the conversation increased by a huge 40% year-on-year, likely reflecting the grimness of the pandemic.

Hugs, naps, drinks, and vacations all ranked highly, just as they did the previous year, showing that while things have been very different, a lot of our needs remain the same.

Looking across this top 25, we imagine everyone can pick out a need they’ve recognized in themselves recently.

Let’s take a closer look at which of the top needs saw the biggest increases as the world dealt with the pandemic.

The effects of Covid-19 and lockdowns are apparent here. People need chairs as they kit out their home offices, they need haircuts with salons closed, and they need recipes to sate the pandemic-induced hunger for home baking. I think we can all appreciate needing a minute, too.

And a quick shout out to the people needing a bro. We hope you find one soon, bro.

Now let’s turn to the ten needs that decreased.

Again we can see the influence of the pandemic. The need for dates is massively down, presumably as most date options are off the table. We can guess the need for dresses is down for the same reason, as well as offices being closed and many formal occasions being cancelled.

Interestingly, despite huge job losses, less people spoke about needing a job. We can’t pinpoint the exact reason for this, but it could be the lack of jobs available or that, with so many people out of work, it’d just be stating the obvious.

We also wonder if there’s a link between the ‘bro’ need increasing and the ‘buddy’ need falling. Could it be that ‘bros’ are the archetypal support relationship that’s required amid a global crisis that has caused untold misery for millions?

Research is ongoing.

Thanks for reading

That’s it for today. We’ll be back on Monday, so if you’re not already, get subscribed to the Brandwatch Bulletin right away.

Stay safe,

Brandwatch React team

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