How To Identify Business Opportunity Trends
How to be great in advertising and marketing. Are you still hip and on top of all the trend setting activity? If not, then read along
Trend-spotting is an interesting component of every business. Trend-spotting is the science of identifying where things are headed in popular culture before they get there. The Web is a powerful tool in that arsenal and just about anyone can be an amateur trend-spotter. If you get good at it, it can have a significant impact from a strategic perspective, and positively inform your clients' business for years to come.
A great place to start is with search. Search is an active database of trends in action. Google Trends is the most logical place to start, and Bing has its own trends platform. Reading search trends gives you insight into what people are trying to uncover and the topics that are garnering their attention at the current moment. Trending these searches over time will help you identify fads, failures and long-term directions that may affect your creative messaging. One of the best ways to maintain resonance with your target audience is to be topical, so integrating data and insights from search is a great place to start.
Of course you can only go so far by reading magazines, perusing publications and tracking search. Transforming your daily life into that of a trend-spotter can be impossible. It's not feasible to be 100% self-aware and an objective third party all at the same time.
Trend Setting Opportunities for Advertising and Marketing.
Be aware of the world around you and look at people. People watching is one of the greatest ways to spot trends, but in doing so you have to turn off that cynical, natural human inclination to judge.
Get out of the office, out of your house. Get out of your comfort zone and try to engage with different kinds of people, places and things. Try to observe new places and new avenues for learning and attempt to see the inputs that shape others outside of your typical surroundings.
Pay close attention to what excites you and try to observe your own habits. A great way to do this is to go through an average day and keep a running log of what you do, when you do it and how you do it. You'll be surprised at some of the things you discover.
Attend conferences from other industries that may seem interesting to you. See what's new and interesting and most important, see how others are viewing their own business.
Try and spot trends then assume the exact opposite of that trend. It's a standard brainstorming exercise to pick up certain messaging and then apply polarized thinking, and it works here as well. Identify a trend, then see what happens if everyone acted in the exact opposite manner.
Trend-spotting is an art and a science. Many companies invest millions of dollars a year into this engaging area of our business, but creative thinking requires that everyone can be a little bit of a trend-spotter in their own unique way.