Have a Trendstorming session

THE PRINCIPLE

Relating the important trends of the time to your product or service leads to improvements

Our priorities, likes and dislikes change all the time, and so do political and economic developments. Anticipating these is an important way to thrive at all times, rather than just reacting (or, even worse, reacting too late). Entire industries, like the automobile sector, have courted disaster by ignoring such changes.

You can avoid a similar fate by having regular brainstorming sessions in which you consider what the trends are and how they might affect you. Note that we’re talking about trends, which are medium- to long-term developments, not fads that vanish as quickly as they pop up.

In your session, first list all the trends that you have observed yourself or that have been covered extensively in the media. These might include the baby-boom generation’s desire to stay as youthful as possible, the drive towards cleaner energy and the obesity epidemic.

These trends are already in mid-flow and you should have considered already how best to respond to them, but if you haven’t, now is the time.

It’s tempting to dismiss some of these as not being relevant to you. For instance, the obesity epidemic obviously impacts clothing manufacturers, health clubs and insurance companies. But when you take a closer look, you see that it also affects all kinds of other areas: airlines use more fuel because the passengers are heavier; hospitals need larger ambulances to transport extra-large patients; and makers of school furniture need to design the next generation of chairs for heavier kids. Take the time to go more deeply into whether and how such trends may affect you.

Next, make a list of trends that are not yet well established but that you and others sense might be about to take off. This is more difficult because they will not yet be covered by the mainstream media.

Many social trends start with young people, so it’s important to keep an eye on what they’re wearing, what they’re talking about, what online sites they are making newly popular, and so forth.

Some trends come from other countries and cultures. To spot these, it helps to read newspapers and magazines from other countries. A great place to do this is www.thepaperboy.com. There you can access newspapers by country. For example, I just had a look at the Afghan Daily and the Copenhagen Post. Some of the newspapers, like these two, are in English; others are in the national language. Pay attention to the ads as well as the stories.

Another useful tool is www.google.com/trends. It shows you the top terms people are searching for every day on Google. Some of these reflect fads, but if you see certain terms coming up consistently over a period of weeks and months, they may point to a trend.

Trendstorming once a month or so, and seeing how you can apply what you’ve spotted, can put you ahead of the curve instead of behind it.

image

..................Content has been hidden....................

You can't read the all page of ebook, please click here login for view all page.
Reset
44.203.219.117