Understanding Elements and Characteristics of a Trend

What is a Trend?

      A pattern of gradual change in a condition, output, or process, or an average or general tendency of a series of data points to move in a certain direction over time, represented by a line or curve on a graph.

MEGATRENDS AND MICROTRENDS

     Megatrends entail a major restructing ; they are a larger pattern of broad trends that reshape and transform our lives.

     Microtrends advocate localization as opposed to globalization, recognizing that people and communities have never been sophisticated and more knowledgeable about the choices they make in their everyday lives.

EXAMPLES OF TRENDS:

• Facebook – is the most common social network website where you can share information about yourself and communicate with other people.
• Twitter – it lets you see what is happening around the world, from breaking news and entertainment, sports and politics to big events and every day interests.

Trendspotting

     Trendspotting is attempting to see the future in the present (Rehn and Lindkvist, 2013). Being able to predict a trend is a valued skill for the global citizen. Trendspotting is sometimes called cool-hunting and trend analysis.

  Trend analysis is the widespread practice of collecting information and attempting to spot a pattern, or trend, in the information.

     Trend spotting is the identification of new trends or attempting to see the future.

     Trend spotter is a person who notices and reports on new fashions, ideas, or activities that are becoming popular.

Differentiating a trend from a fad

     Both trends and fads can play an important role in an organization’s success – but they must be treated differently. If they are not, leaders risk burning out adapting to every fad, and critical trends required for an organizations’ survival may be missed. Let’s start by looking into fads and trends individually.

     Fad is a new thing that people are doing. The easiest way to categorize a fad is one word: short-lived. Trends have a much longer lifespan than fads. In fact, trends can continue to be fashionable for years and even decades.

     Trend is significant, have broad implications in all aspects of society, identifiable and explainable while fad is transitory or quick, affect only particular group of people without impact and driven by emotions.