It’s safe to say that trends come and go. But the general rule of thumb is for your business to be a trendsetter than a trend follower. Even with all the innovation and creativity in today’s world, it’s very rare to see something stick. Not every innovation is the iPhone or the smartwatch. In most cases, business trends disappear as quickly as they appear.
So that begs the question. Why are trends, how do trends work and why are they so important for businesses? What does it mean for a business to be a trendsetter? In this article, we will look at exactly that. So with everything out of the way, let’s begin.
It’s New and Innovative
Customers love the words “new” and “innovative”. They might appear as buzzwords, but these buzzwords carry a lot of weight. A customer is more likely to buy a product that is new and innovative, than old and stale. And make no mistake about it, innovation is what drives business. So if you want your businesses to be right up there with the most prestigious and best, it has to be innovative.
Trends are exactly that. They’re something new that is both fun and innovative. It creates hype and makes people go crazy over its features, abilities, capabilities, and endless possibilities.
You’ll Learn Something New About Your Customers
You don’t have to try and capitalize on every trend. After all, even doing as little as copying a trend requires plenty of resources. But what you have to do as a business is follow these trends. By keeping track of trendy products and services on the market, you learn something new about your customers every time. It tells you what customers, and people in general, respond to the most. Not only that, but you find out what sort of audiences respond to certain types of trends.
This is indispensable information that every business can use. It’s free information and that’s what makes it so good. By keeping track of trends, you add a bit more to your customer persona. If you notice that people love a particular product, you’ll learn why that’s the case. You’ll learn what makes it unique, what problems it solves, etc.
This is all, like we said, important information that can come in handy whenever creating customer personas. When it comes to capitalizing on the market, it’s the small things like gathering information that makes all the difference in future decision-making.
You’ll Learn Something New About Your Competitors
Let’s face it, competition is the single most important factor that drives innovation. If there would be no competition, what would be the driving factor? Let’s take Apple and Samsung for example. Both are giants in their industry and both regularly come up with new and innovative ways to one-up each other. It all started with the iPhone, but that doesn’t mean Samsung just sat there and clapped at Steve’s presentation.
They took the initiative and came up with something better. Nowadays, both companies have excellent flagship phones and have moved into other areas such as smartwatches, smart TVs, tablets, etc.
The point is, your business can learn a lot about its competitors if you follow trends. If one of your competitors has come up with the newest, hottest thing in your industry, then do take note of it as you can learn plenty of new things.
Instead of sitting idly, take the opportunity that is before you and come up with a new strategy to come up with the next best thing.
Potential To Discover New Opportunities
One thing that is important to remember is that there are always business opportunities. Even when you’re not directly profiting from having a trendy product, your business can capitalize on plenty of revenue opportunities.
For example, the rising popularity of smartphone apps such as TikTok presents an enormous opportunity for your business to capitalize on. But how, might be asking? Well, you have to think of what it takes for the average user to use the app. First off, the average user needs a smartphone. But not just any smartphone, a fast and reliable smartphone with a good camera. Secondly, they will need a fast internet connection to upload their TikToks or to browse the app without any difficulties.
While this is a very complex example, and chances are your business doesn’t manufacture smartphones nor is it an ISP, allow us to give you another example.
Currently, there is a lot of hype for collaboration apps. That means there are enormous opportunities for messaging tools. You could very easily develop one such tool and capitalize on this trend. Regardless of what the trend is, there is never too late to capitalize on it.
Finishing Thoughts
Trends DO come and go. There will always be new things for customers to play with, and there will always be the need to make those trends a possibility. Trends are important in business as they directly contribute towards company growth. If you feel you’ve missed the latest, hottest trend, fear not as there is always something new to learn that will prepare you to become a trendsetter.