Trends

As a trend watcher I follow visible changes in the behavior of people, society, or companies, as a result of changes in media or technology. I write about my observations in the ’day to day‘ section. These observations I compare to my long term predictions, I make a match between them, and then I give suggestions for next steps. That is my trend matching activity.

Trends can be grouped in different ways. For example one can look at them from a time perspective, and thus distinguish between structural, cyclical, and incidental trends. I mainly focus on structural trends. Although I extensively describe them in my book, I here made a selection for you:

• people trends: a series of findings, products, and services since the beginning of manhood which anticipate exactly the same motives of people through thousands of years. These trends you will find under ‘people trends’.
• marketing trends: a couple of important changes in marketing and branding which started about ten years ago and which will continue to have an effect on the marketing field for the coming ten years.
• brand trends: brands at some point in history just evolved. Because the world was changing, and there was a need for brands. In the course of the years, brands’ nature has changed tremendously. The world however keeps changing, and over the years to come branding will completely change. In fact it is changing already, only now old principles are still applied in new situations. Like you try to charge your mobile phone with a bicycle pump.
• trends 2007: some important changes we can expect this year, as a result of the growth of technology, enough understanding from today’s world citizens, and connection to human motives.