We sure do wish we had a crystal ball when doing trends work for clients. Sadly, we don’t. But check out this #tellthetruths video for a high-level overview of how we suss out what we think is likely to happen in the future for our clients.
What Are Far Future Trends?
Do you do this type of work? Without giving away too many secrets do you do it this way or do you have a different approach? What do you think works?
This video originally appeared in LinkedIn
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TRANSCRIPT:
– Hey guys, it’s Rebeca with BrandTrue. And today, I want to talk about trends work, specifically there are two very different types of work that are called “trends,” and I don’t see… they have the same name, but they’re not the same. Okay, so the first, what is most often thought of as trends is… what do we see going on that’s new, right? So, you know, maybe putting together a retail field trip and checking out what’s in stores and colors and different things. That is great. That is important. If you’re in any kind of retail environment, you need to be spending time there and seeing what’s out there, but that’s not trends, because it exists in the current moment already. It’s now.
To me, trends are what’s coming, what’s the tendency that’s heading toward us. And the people that are doing the most interesting kind of trends work and when we do our trends work, (we have one client that we’ve been doing trends work with for a couple of years. It’s the most fun work on earth!) what we’re trying to do is, without literally having a crystal ball how do we have a crystal ball? And there’s basically, there’s two parts to this formula.
The first is we’re not looking at what’s in market in a sort of mass and established and accessible way. We’re looking at all the fringiest things. So maybe it’s obscure little launches that you can’t find at retail, but you find it, you know, online in odd little corners of the internet. Or different people that are doing speculative work, you know, “home of the future” work, concept cars, things like that, and technologically, you know, early research is being done on XYZ. We look at all those things that are coming, and that’s in the physical realm, and then we look at the culture.
What are the shifts that are happening in the culture in terms of how people live, what they care about, values that are changing? And when you combine what do we think is coming that’s going to be possible, with what do we think people care about that will matter to them, knitting those two together is the closest thing to having a crystal ball. And that’s wonderful work! No, it’s not a crystal ball for real, but the hit rate on those predictions is not bad, and it’s really, really important to know what’s coming next. So, that’s what I think. Let me know what you think. Thanks. Bye!
