Trend Tracking for Your Small Business
May 08, 2006
Stay on top of what’s hot without going broke
By Ann Brown
-- Andrew Bass understands the importance of tracking trends.
“As a graphic designer I need to be on top of trends and images. In my business, image is everything. If I present and old trend as an image, I am going to look dated and my campaigns are going to look tired,” says Bass who owns adbass:designs L.L.C., a boutique design firm in Valley Stream, New York, with a client roster that has included E.M. Winston Co., Essence Communications, VNU Business Media, and cobblestonentertainment. “Companies don’t want to hire you if your work looks like it’s from the 80s.”
He also realizes that it takes work.
“To spot and monitor trends I surf the Net constantly; I read the local papers—such as The New York Times, business magazines such as Forbes, Crain’s—trade publications like Advertising Age and HOW Magazine. I try to keep track of what the leaders are doing in the industry.”
Trend tracking is just as important for small businesses as it is to major corporations. Big companies often employ trend spotters all around the globe, but even small businesses without big research budgets can use free or inexpensive tools to stay on top of what’s new.
Staying on top of the latest trends is vital because one of the best ways to innovate is to seize trends early says, Michael Tchong, trend analyst and founder of Ubercool L.L.C. (www.ubercool.com), a site which tracks and explains what motivates trends worldwide. Trends can help a business carve a unique niche in the marketplace or inspire new product ideas.
“Knowing where the world of consumerism is heading will give you a point of view—a grip—and from that knowledge, you’ll hopefully be able to come up with new goods, services, and experiences that appeal to your customers,” explains Reinier Evers, director of Trendwatching.com, a free online digest of the trends that are tracked by marketers, retailers, designers, and consumers globally.
In addition to checking out Websites such as Ubercool and Trendwatching.com, small businesses can stay on top of trends by subscribing to industry newsletters or Really Simple Syndication feeds—listings of headlines and stories from a variety of Websites. RSS feeds are particularly helpful because they can save you time since you don’t have to visit each site individually. But because of formatting, these can be hard to read without special software applications that are designed to read, manage, and display RSS feed content. Both Google and Yahoo! offer their own versions of RSS feeds[i4]. RSS feeds can be delivered to your computer or mobile phone at prices ranging from $20 to $90 depending on the service.
Check out blogs—journals or Web logs—that individuals and companies create on the Internet to cover a variety of topics. However, readers should be careful about relying on information from blogs because sometimes it’s just based on the opinions of one or two people.
Subscribe to free trend newsletters and read trade and consumer journals that cover your industry. “The easiest way to do that is to read as much news as possible, particularly The Wall Street Journal,” explains Tchong. Subscribe to newsletters, like Trendwatching.com’s or Ubercool’s RSS blog feed. That way, you can have the latest trends appear in your inbox or browser without lifting a finger.
In the end, you might find a trend and run with it. “Trendspotting forces me to study what is hot and then analyze why it is hot,” says Chip Simms, president of Atlanta-based wealth management agency Cartier Investment. “This process keeps me proactive in my thoughts as it relates to maintaining a business that is relevant and attractive to consumers.”
Can’t afford to hire a trend tracker? Try using the Internet. There’s an array of free newsletters and sites that track nearly every industry. Here are a few to check out:
DailyCandy.com: A free, daily e-mail service on new trends in fashion, travel, food, and more.
Trendcentral.com: A free, daily e-mail newsletter covering lifestyle, technology, style, and entertainment with a focus on Gens Y and X.
BlogPulse.com: Allows you to search, analyze, and chart blog content. Also has trend analysis.
Ubercool.com: Lists the top 50 hottest trends, with a brief blurb about each trend and examples of products and services that ride each wave.
Trendwatching.com: Has a network of 8,000-plus spotters worldwide tracking global trends.
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