Helping startups get further, faster.

The most successful entrepreneurs, brands and businesses all have one thing in common – they move with the times and capitalize on trends. They keep their ear to the ground, look for patterns or gaps that emerge then innovate and develop competitive advantage in these markets. The same opportunities are open to all companies, but most fail to recognize or more often the case, fail to act on these trends instead focusing on “selling more typewriters” despite market shifts.

The most obvious trends macro trends e.g. the deregulation of markets; disrupting technology; government or societal change receive the most attention, but also the heaviest competition as their obvious nature opens to floodgates to a wave of imitators and “me-too” innovators. However, the smaller micro trends such as shifting values, behaviours and subcultures within a market are often overlooked but can be just as powerful. For example – the growing perception of animal cruelty in the cosmetic industry, opened a huge door for Anita Roddick’s bodyshop, with her more sustainable and animal friendly line of Cosmetics. The same could be said for RedBull who built their brand around the seemingly small, but fundamental shift in busy consumer lifestyles and our need for “more energy.”

The hard part is recognizing microtrends as they start small, are often counter-intuitive to what we imagine to be the rule and can be hard to cluster into a niche market. However, sites like TrendHunter.com; CoolHunter.com and TrendWatching.com provide a great insight into the small shifts in consumer behaviour that can change the dynamics of an industry.

Despite having access to these sites, recognizing trends in our own industries, where they may not be spelt out for us can be challenging. The presentation below from TrendHunter.com founder Jeremy Gutsche aims to help by providing a framework that can be used to harness creativity and capitalize on trends. Gutsche framework for “unlocking cool” and recognizing and responding to opportunities that trends unlock is a gold mine. He states that for a company to successfully profit from trends there are four area’s they must avoid following the pack and be revolutionary in their:

• Perspective,
• Creativity,
• Forced failure,
• Incentive.

Of these four concepts, the most interesting and counter-intuitive is the idea of forced failure – essentially a companies comfort level with gambling and expecting to fail in a high proportion of their innovations. The examples Gutsche uses are compelling. If you have the time to view this presentation check it out, it’s a great summary of how you can profit from trends in your business.