You’re on the right track by aiming to incorporate trends that resonate with your audience, but are you missing the mark that keeps you from truly connecting and succeeding, and even worse, are you alienating and irritating your audience?
Your Trend Strategy
First up, what is your Trend Strategy? And Have you diagnosed your Trend Strategy yet?
Great! Now it’s time to see what the 5 critical elements your trend strategy might be missing are:
1. Comprehensive Data Analysis
Why It’s Overlooked: Many trend strategies focus solely on easily measurable metrics like sales numbers, web traffic, or social media likes.
Why It’s Critical: A comprehensive data analysis goes beyond these basic numbers to look at consumer behavior, sentiment analysis, and long-term patterns. This could involve qualitative data, customer interviews, and predictive analytics to gauge future trends.
We use Creatrix to gauge the sentiment analysis of audiences.
2. Cultural Sensitivity and Inclusivity
Why It’s Overlooked: Companies sometimes tunnel-vision on a particular demographic or fail to consider global perspectives.
Why It’s Critical: Understanding and respecting cultural nuances can be the difference between a successful global campaign and one that falls flat—or worse, causes offense. Inclusivity ensures that your trend strategy resonates with a wider audience.
3. Ethical and Sustainable Practices
Why It’s Overlooked: Businesses often prioritize short-term gains and immediate trends over long-term sustainability.
Why It’s Critical: Modern consumers are increasingly concerned about the ethical and environmental impact of their choices. An ethical, sustainable approach can become a trend in itself and attract a loyal customer base.
4. Cross-Industry Benchmarking
Why It’s Overlooked: Companies often focus solely on trends within their own industry, ignoring valuable insights that can be gained from other sectors.
Why It’s Critical: Trends often cross industry boundaries. For example, a trend that starts in fashion could easily influence design elements in technology or automotive sectors. Benchmarking across industries can provide a more holistic view of where the market is headed.
We use Creatrix for competitor, comparative and inspirational account assessments, visual audits and interconnected content forecasts (like Juxta-Forecasts). Ask us about how these can work wonders for your business.
5. Adaptability and Agility
Why It’s Overlooked: Companies often set a strategy and stick to it, underestimating the pace at which trends can change.
Why It’s Critical: Being able to pivot quickly ensures that your business can adapt to new trends as they emerge, rather than being left behind. An agile approach allows you to test, learn, and iterate your trend strategy more effectively.
We use Creatrix for regularly scheduled audits that auto-adjust our content strategy based on new insights and emerging trend patterns.
Addressing these missing elements helps to turn a good trend strategy into a great one, equipping you to not only identify and capitalize on trends but also to build stronger, more enduring relationships with your customer base and social media audience.
