10 good reasons to do trendwatching

Why spend part of your time researching and studying new trends? What can observing new trends bring to a business? In this short article we want to make things a little clearer, with 10 good reasons to keep doing trendwatching, or to start if you are not doing it yet.

  1. Appeal. A commercial offer that is in line with an emerging trend has what it takes to intrigue and attract new customers. Adapting to the values and aesthetics of a successful trend draws attention to our offer and makes what we have to say feel more valuable.
  2. Brand storytelling. Brands change over the years, telling the story of products and services to people whose way of thinking keeps changing. Knowing which trends influence consumers’ mindstyle gives us the chance to tell compelling new chapters of our story.
  3. Identity. Markets are conversations: through trendwatching we can get to know and interpret the dialogue between products and consumers. All this makes it easier to define an identity that speaks to the right consumer.
  4. Staying up to date. A systematic mapping of new trends lets us represent a new modernity at the very moment it takes shape. By picking up these new ideas of modernity we can position ourselves among the first movers, with all the benefits that brings.
  5. Passion. A new trend is the visible expression of a change in the way people think. Our thinking, however, is not only rational. An offer that follows or anticipates an emerging trend speaks to our emotional side. It makes us feel listened to, it delights our eyes, it makes us passionate.
  6. Experience. An offer in line with an emerging trend welcomes consumers into an experience worth telling others about, because it is their new discovery. This sets in motion the most powerful marketing lever ever created: word of mouth.
  7. Expressive codes. Observing trends lets us learn new expressive codes. These codes are new languages for communicating, and they make the people listening to us curious. They bring us close to the values, aesthetics and aspirations just discovered by the people who will later have to choose us.
  8. Nourishment. Trendwatching nourishes the culture of a company and of the people who work there. It stops us from digging in on our own positions. It lets us keep observing how society, the market and technology evolve outside the reality we deal with every day. Doing trendwatching means keeping our eyes open and knowing the world around us.
  9. Debate. The insights generated by observing trends are a fundamental part of the debate inside companies. Especially when it comes to innovation, design, marketing and communication, the results of careful trend research can show us the right way forward on tricky and little-explored ground.
  10. Innovation. Trendwatching constantly puts us in front of what is new; it is a stimulating activity that trains lateral thinking. It inspires change in how we see our work and the world around us. Studying trends enriches us as people and can lead to rewarding results in what we do.