TrendWatching | Consumer Trend Radar

Who is it for?

Consumer-facing organizations

The radar can form the basis of a powerful annual or even multi-year Purposed Trend-Driven strategy planning session. It can be used to establish a clear strategy for your entire organization or a specific department or team.

Agencies and Consultancies

Use the radar to identify and plan the application of trends that are important to a (new) client.

What to expect?

Your end result will be a clear, one-page visual of your Purposed Trend-Driven strategy, outlining the trends that matter most to your business & how and when to apply them.

There’s no 'right answer' when it comes to developing your Purposed Trend-Driven strategy. That’s because your decisions on which trends to apply, along with the when and how, are rooted in the specifics of your organization - where it finds itself today and where you want to take it.

The three steps on this page are your guide to getting there.

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Step 1.

Select 6-8 trends using one of the following approaches:

If you have access to Amplify, our Trend Intelligence Platform, then please log in and turn to the Trend Mapper to enter your industry and the main areas of focus, and receive recommendations of trends to explore.

Scan the Trend Framework and its 16 Key Consumer Trends and consider if, in the future, you want your business to fit within these trends. Select the 6-8 that most apply. If you can’t decide, then run one session using the first 8, and another for the second 8.

If you don't have access to Amplify, you can also dive into MakeShift, our free weekly trend publication, and use the featured trends to explore what they mean to your business.

Step 2.

Explore The Opportunities

Put trends to work in solving your business challenges and delivering against your goals

Step 3.

Explore The Opportunities

Plot each trend on the radar, based on three core areas:

Innovation Type
Priority
Response

Before you start plotting trends on the radar, you need to explore the opportunities they present to the future direction of your business and how they will impact its growth.

To guide your thinking, start by considering how the trend relates to your purpose, mission, vision, goals, business challenges, capabilities, resources and more. In other words, ask yourself and your team members:

’What can this trend do for us?’

A. Innovation Type

In which area of my business will we apply this trend?

Select from these four types of innovations:

New Brand Vision
New Business Model
New Product / Service / Experience
New Marketing Campaign

Of course, many trends can, and often should, impact more than one—or even all—of these levels. In this case, we suggest you write the same trend on multiple post-it notes and simply place it on different parts of the radar.

B. Your Priorities

When will you apply the trend?

For each trend, choose from these three levels of priority:

> 'Now'

Within 6 months? Get started today.

>> 'Next'

Within 6 to 24 months? Start planning for the planning.

>>> 'Beyond'

Keep an eye on things but not a priority, yet.

It is difficult to apply every important trend right away. So, ask yourself which trends are both urgent and important for now, and which are more of a soon to be applied.

C. Your Response

What level of commitment will you need to apply the trend?

How intensely will you apply the trend?

'Light'

Launch new products, services or campaigns, quickly. No excuses.

'Intense'

Requires serious innovation commitment, including time, money, and multiple teams or departments.

'Total'

This leads to fundamental shifts in purpose, mission or vision, using resources from across your organization.

Ready for some action?

Unlock the true power of this tool and invite others to workshop your Purposed Trend-Driven strategy with you. Be it your direct team, your C-suite leadership, or brilliant brains from across your organization. Make sure you also download our free Consumer Trend Canvas, which helps you apply the trends you've prioritised with the radar - and end up with winning, meaningful innovations. Good luck!

Want us to run this workshop for you? Reach out to Giulia Bolzan, our Business Development Director, at workwithus@trendwatching.com.

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Our Trend Intelligence Platform

Amplify is our trend intelligence platform, giving you access to our full Trend Framework, Innovation Database with 31,000+ innovations, Industry Reports, Stats, Training, Analyst Support and more. Powered by humans and AI, and used by 100s of global B2C brands and agencies.

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Crucial intel and ideation

Understand, anticipate and ideate with AI's radical impact on consumer behavior and expectations — today.

Check out our portfolio of AI-centric consumer trends, innovations and ideation tools.

It's going to be a wild ride but we've got you covered!

See you soon?

We run highly curated free Webinars — including our upcoming webinar on AI x Trend-Driven Ideation on 12 September 2024.

Prefer the real world? Then check out our flagship Trend Events around the world.

Want us to come to you and present? Check out our Keynotes and Workshops.

Prepping for 2025 has never been this inspiring!

The Consumer Trend Radar