Data Scraping

Planning

Before we decided for a data scraper to monitor a specific social media platform, we first researched on Facebook and Instagram about Kombucha tea in order to determine the platform which guarantees the most and relevant information. Furthermore, this research was an important step for us to define the hashtags and keywords which we will use and which lead to the largest number of findings.

Facebook

 First, by using the keyword “Kombucha” we analysed the Facebook groups, the purpose of these groups and the number of followers.

The first research result on Facebook only entails a general definition about Kombucha, detailed information about the product and its benefits. Unfortunately, the number of likes is relatively low and the page does not leave room for discussions or comments which means it is irrelevant for our research as we are focussing on the perception of consumers. Kombucha Kamp is the second research finding which has 31.426 likes and is a business which concentrates on selling Kombucha products by convincing the target audience of Kombucha’s benefits. We scanned through the comments of the followers and it was obvious that comments were mostly positive and not very detailed. This could be the case because the company controls the content on its Facebook timeline and can easily delete comments that are not triggering the audience purchase intention. Consequently, by scraping data from this community we would probably miss a lot of attributes, aspects and opinions consumers associate with Kombucha which would lead to distorted research findings.

Moreover, the business is targeted on US consumers and is not able to provide us any opinions or further information about consumers outside of the US. The other Facebook groups which we found were mainly smaller businesses selling Kombucha products only within the U.S. Unfortunately, we could not identify any Facebook community which was not operated by a business and mainly focused on different opinions and discussions of consumers. Therefore, we decided to continue our research on Instagram.

 Instagram

First of all, we liked the idea of using the Instagram data scraper because of the fact that hashtags are common to use on Instagram and thus posts concerning a specific topic can be found and ordered more easily. Additionally, through other hashtags which are chosen for Kombucha post, we are able to analyse the associations which consumers have with Kombucha products. By using the hashtag #Kombucha on Instagram, the platform suggested us different hashtags which can be related to #Kombucha. Furthermore, Instagram indicates how often each hashtag was used in posts which already gives an idea about the popularity of the Kombucha trend.

Through the Instagram search window, we determined further keywords for the data scraping. The three hashtags which are used the most often for posts are #Kombucha, #Kombuchatea and #Kombuchalove. We concluded that these posts would be very interesting for us to analyse because we could find out which other hashtags are used in combination and reveal the connections with other keywords/topics, the image of the trend and the user’s associations. Moreover, unlike the mentioned Facebook results, the Instagram posts would not be concentrated on a specific country or location which ensures that we gain a wide range of information from worldwide consumers of Kombucha. Furthermore, the posts can be considered as objective because most of the Instagram users are private people using the app to document their lifestyle or bloggers who are trying out the trend and share their experience with their followers. Only few companies are using the platform to promote their products. This ensures that we will collect a broad variety of data which enables us to define the target group in more detail and find out about the image of Kombucha.

As the first step we have chosen to use the hashtag “#Kombucha” which provides us the highest amount of data because it was included in the majority of posts about that trend (417,984 posts).

The second hashtag we have chosen, considering prior research on Instagram, was “#Kombuchatea” which is a little bit more specific and focuses on the tea itself. The number of posts in which this hashtag is used is 16,235.

Last but not least, we will research the hashtag “#Kombuchalove” which is the third most used hashtag for Kombucha posts (7,872 posts). Through this hashtag, Instagram will provide us with information covering positive associations of consumers with the trend.

Our research question which we want to answer through conducting our research is:” Does Kombucha have the capability to sustain itself as an ongoing trend or does it have the propensity to become a fad?”. To ensure that we are able to answer the main question in the end, we defined further sub questions which we will concentrate on during the data scraping. The first sub question we want to answer is: “What is the image of Kombucha?”  The data scraping on Instagram will tell us more about the popularity of Kombucha and the associations consumers have regarding Kombucha products. Moreover, we will analyse the data in order to find out more about the comsumer’s of Kombucha. Therefore, the second sub question will be “What is the target group of Kombucha?”. The third aspect we aim to reveal are the health benefits which are associated with Kombucha. Consequently, the third sub question we defined is “What are the expected health benefits of Kombucha?”. All these information will be analysed from the hashtags which were used in combination with our three chosen Kombucha hashtags. After this analysis we will be able to conclude the image and level of satisfaction regarding Kombucha which can be directly related to the product life cycle.

 

Collecting the Data

Through the use of the Instagram hashtag explorer, we researched the three chosen hashtags #Kombucha, #Kombuchatea and #Kombuchalove. We decided to search for tags rather than for locations because of the fact that our research is not focused on a specific geographic location. Furthermore, we have chosen 10 iterations to make sure that we collect 200 items through the data scraping. We picked this number because 200 items contain enough data to gain a detailed insight into the Instagram environment. A higher number would make the data processing more difficult and time consuming which is unnecessary because we are concentrating our research on the vast majority of Kombucha consumers.

First of all, the Gephi program sometimes did not provide us with a graph, also when we reinstalled the program which withhold our research progress. We were also not able to open the table about the research results after downloading the data and we needed to take screenshots of the relevant parts which was difficult as well because the table was very large and did not fit on the screen. Moreover, it was a pity that we had not the option to choose a specific date range regarding the tag research. Only for the location research it was possible to pick the desired date range. It would have been interesting to compare the search results from nowadays with the ones a few months ago in order to see the development of Kombucha on a timeline.

 

Visualizing the Data

 In order to create the graph, we uploaded the downloaded Gdf data files for every hashtag we searched to Gephi. We decided to create three different graphs instead of connecting the three graphs to one because this would take a lot time and data processing and the graph would end up being very complex, difficult to visualize and to analyse.

For each of the three graphs, we used the same procedure to visualize the findings:

First we coloured the nodes by using degree as the attribute. The nodes of our graphs are coloured according to the amount of connections they have with a specific hashtag (The darker the colour, the more often it is connected to other nodes). We chose degree instead of count because we were more interested in the amount of connections, rather than the frequency of the hashtag. As the second step we changed the layout of the graphs to ForceAtlas2 and watched how the graphs changed. We ended up with very complex graphs which appeared to be too complicated to analyse. Consequently, we decided to apply the filter “Range” and “count” and determined a minimal count of 5 which means that the hashtags which have less than 5 connections will be deleted. Because we are concentrating our research on the vast majority of Kombucha consumers, the results which have less connections were not relevant for our research. After implementing the filter, the graph changed and became less complex and easier to interpret.

Gephi graph #Kombucha

 

Gephi Graph #Kombuchatea

 

 

Gephi Graph #Kombuchalove

Interpreting the Data

All of the three created graphs show pretty similar hashtag connections. According to the Gephi graph the keywords which were used the most often in combination with #Kombucha #Kombuchatea and #Kombuchalove are the following:

• #Inspiration
• #healthy
• #organic
• #fitness
• #healthylifestyle
• #healthychoices
• #healthyliving
• #raw

All these keywords can be related to a health and fitness conscious lifestyle which provides insight into the image Kombucha has among consumers. Because of the natural and untreated way, the product is produced, people perceive it as really healthy. Additionally, Kombucha claims to have various health benefits and contribute to a better fitness and wellness. This also proves that Kombucha is a product trend which developed and gained popularity as a response to the healthy lifestyle macro trend of our society.

Furthermore, we recognized consumers associating the Kombucha tea with a spiritual experience. They used the following hashtags for their posts:

• #imagine
• #spirituality
• #manifestingmiricales
• #yoga
• #mindfulness
• #consciousness
• #create
• #wheeloflife

(These are a few examples extracted from the gephi graphs)

Through this information we can define the consumers of Kombucha in more detail, especially regarding their psychographics and behavioural aspects. We can conclude that many of them are spiritual people who live their life according to their own philosophy and as conscious as possible. Furthermore, many Kombucha consumers also doing yoga, a hobby which is also mostly followed by spiritual and health conscious people. The detailed information about Kombucha’s target group contributes to our research because we could focus further research on the behaviour of this specific audience regarding trends and the life cycle of product trends which target them.

In order to gain further information about posts and hashtags, we analysed the table which was provided by the Instagram hashtag explorer for the hashtag #Kombucha. To justify our interpretations, we took screenshots of the table and included them in our report.

The following screenshot shows a post of a Instagram user drinking Kombucha after her Yoga workout which proves that she, as well as many other passionate yogis, associate Kombucha tea with this specific activity.

Moreover, we noticed a bunch of posts created by small business and start-ups which are focused on selling Kombucha products. They used the following hashtags in combination (examples):

• #entrepreneur
• #smallbusiness
• #startup

Therefore, we can conclude that many businesses perceive Kombucha as an opportunity for a long term business and thus a long term trend among consumers. Besides these small businesses, we could also identify many gastronomic establishments offering Kombucha teas.

Furthermore, it was significant that Kombucha can also be related to the DIY movement of consumers. Many Instagram users posted pictures of home-made Kombucha teas and healthy meals. They used the following hashtags for these posts:

• #DIY
• #homemade
• #homebrew

The Instagram posts about Kombucha were created by users of different backgrounds. We concluded that based on the fact that they used different languages for their posts. This research finding could be seen as an indicator that the Kombucha trend is popular around the world and not only focused on a specific country.

(Japanese)

 

(Norwegian)

(Spanish)

Another post which attracted our attention was the following post about the surf legend Laird Hamilton who was described as a big fan of Kombucha. He is a very popular sportsman and an idol for many people, especially those with a passion for surfing. He represents a certain lifestyle which can be connected with the spiritual and health conscious lifestyle we mentioned before. This post will probably influence many of his followers who are inspired by his lifestyle.

The amount of posts which entail the hashtag #Kombucha and the time these posts were published reflect the popularity of this product trend and tells us if the trend is still up to date. The data scraper provided us with the following data:

“The script has extracted tags from 194 media items that were posted between 2016-03-20 00:25:55 and 2016-03-20 09:43:40”

Gephi Table #Kombuchatea

“The script has extracted tags from 154 media items that were posted between 2016-03-16 21:32:34 and 2016-03-20 20:50:44.”

For the data scraping of the second most used hashtag #Kombuchatea, we decided to additionally analyse the table that Gephi provided besides the graph. This table includes information about other hashtags which users connected with the Kombucha trend and how often they were used in posts.

We scanned through the table in order to find connections that we have not analysed yet. Besides the keywords that we already described, we were able to identify further aspects which consumers of Kombucha associate with these products. These hashtags refer to the expected health and fitness benefits that Kombucha consumers are convinced of.

• #energy
• #detox
• #probiotic
• #immunebooster
• #weightloss
• #antiageing

These findings are relevant in order to answer our research sub question: “What are the health benefits that Kombucha claims to have?”

 

Conclusion

 Through the data scraping of Instagram, we were able to reveal a lot of interesting data which we would have not been able to find through a regular online research. This data helped us to gain an insight about the image of Kombucha which can be related to the healthy lifestyle trend that developed in our society. Furthermore, the connections which Kombucha consumers made with other hashtags were very relevant for us in order to define Kombucha’s target group in more detail and concentrate our research on this specific target group. Through the number of posts and the time when those were published we were able to analyse the popularity and up-to-dateness of the trend. The origin of the Instagram users also gave an idea about how wide this trend is spread around the world.  The consumption of Kombucha by celebrities is also an indicator for the nearer future of this trend because it will have a positive impact on the brand image and will influence non Kombucha consumers to try out the product. To structure our main research findings, we will answer the sub questions we determined in advance of our data analysis.

What is the image of Kombucha?

Kombucha has a positive image among Instagram users. It is seen as a natural, raw and untreated product that does not only contribute to people’s health and fitness but also creates a spiritual experience.  According to Instagram users, unlike other teas, the product does not contain any substances which are considered to be harmful. Furthermore, Kombucha comprises probiotics and antioxidants which lead to various health benefits for consumers.

What is the target group of Kombucha?

After scraping the Instagram environment, we were able to interpret certain characteristics of Kombucha consumers. They are very spiritual people that enjoy their life and try to live it as conscious as possible. Many of the consumers follow a vegetarian or even vegan diet with the goal to stay healthy and to improve the world around them. Their physical fitness and health is very important for them in order to live their life in balance. Moreover, they try to avoid the consumption of products which are seen as unhealthy or harmful. Most of them drink a lot of tea as it has a relaxing effect on them. Besides, they also do yoga or meditation to lower their level of stress. The target group is also part of the DIY movement. They like cooking and brewing Kombucha tea themselves because by doing that, they have a better control over the ingredients they use for their diet.

 What are the expected health benefits of Kombucha?

The expected health benefits of Kombucha were mentioned as hashtags in the different posts.First of all, the tea boosts the consumer’s energy and immune system, which makes people less prone to diseases. A further benefit which we found was the detoxicating effect (#detox) of Kombucha. Moreover Kombucha claims to be probiotic and improve the digestion. Instagram also mentioned that the products can help with losing weight. Last but not least, the hashtag #antiageing was used multiple times which could also be considered as a benefit of Kombucha.

Does Kombucha have the capability to sustain itself as an ongoing trend or does it have the propensity to become a fad?

Through the data scraping of Instagram we collected a lot of information based on which we could estimate if Kombucha is rather a trend or a fad. First of all, the image of the product stands out from other teas. Besides, the product attributes which respond significantly to the macro trend of a healthy lifestyle, people connect experience and associations with the consumption of Kombucha. This experience cannot be compared with other products and make the product unique which is a first indicator that Kombucha will stay an ongoing trend. The second aspect is the target group. Kombucha targets a niche group of people instead of focussing on the vast majority which also fits the brand image. The target group respond very well to Kombucha products and understands the brand identity. Additionally, Kombucha claims to have the named health benefits and responds to a variety of diet trends which means it meets consumer’s needs and as long as the healthy lifestyle trend will continue, Kombucha has the potential to stay a successful product. During our analysis, we recognized that many startups, small businesses and gastronomical establishments concentrate on selling Kombucha probably due to the fact that they also recognize the potential of that product trend. Moreover, through the posts we found out that Kombucha is well-known around the globe instead of concentrated on a specific country which is a beneficial precondition for becoming a long-term product trend. The last finding which proves Kombucha’s popularity is a photo of a surf legend drinking Kombucha tea. Due to the fact that he represents a certain lifestyle he will affect Kombucha’s image positively and influence many non consumers to try out the product.

Limitations of Data Scraping and the Connection with Netnographic Research

 Although Instagram data scraping provided us with a lot of relevant data, it only informed us about part of the image Kombucha has. Users posting about Kombucha are already convinced of the product and want to share it with friends. People rarely post negative experience on Instagram because that is not the intention of this platform. They rather share positive lifestyle choices with their followers. Consequently, through data scraping we will miss out on the criticism of the product which is an important aspect in order to be able to answer the research question properly. On the other hand, we also conducted a netnography research which focusses on interest communities which are discussing positive but also negative experience with products. These two styles of primary research will provide us with enough information to create a whole image of Kombucha’s reputation.