1 / 29

Anatomy of a Trend

Anatomy of a Trend. Final Project Discussion. Final Projects. Go Local—Group 4, Group 8, Group 6 Outside the mainstream music—Group 3 Healthy eating on campus—Group 2 A Return to Courting—Group 1 Local coffee—Group 9 Bring back the phone call—Group 7 Anti-hooking up—Group 5.

kort
Download Presentation

Anatomy of a Trend

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Anatomy of a Trend Final Project Discussion

  2. Final Projects • Go Local—Group 4, Group 8, Group 6 • Outside the mainstream music—Group 3 • Healthy eating on campus—Group 2 • A Return to Courting—Group 1 • Local coffee—Group 9 • Bring back the phone call—Group 7 • Anti-hooking up—Group 5

  3. Final Projects Must Include • Group presentation and marketing materials (powerpoint, movies, audio, etc. be creative) that will be presented in class. Students will vote on the best presentation at the end of the course. • Three individual papers of 1,000 words. • Journalistic—the third-party observer who brings the “other side” to the project. The critical eye • The Marketer—the promoter who brings the “best side” of the trend to the project. The advertising eye • The Consumer—this is the person you are pitching to—will they believe it, buy it, or turn against you. (P.S.—I want to see that you have read “Anatomy of a Trend” as well as benchmarked the Ugg vs. Croc presentations that were given in class in your presentations and papers.)

  4. Anatomy of a Trend: Chapter 1 • Intuition? • Is there a science to trends that can be learned? • What is a trend? • A process of change that comes about because of product development that results in new products. But what causes the change? That is the question. • Is factual data important in a trend? (Remember this—we will keep coming back to it over and over again.) • Who are the trendsetters in your final projects? Who are you going to seed your trend with on campus?

  5. Anatomy of a Trend: Chapter 1 • What’s the difference between Jackie Kennedy and Swedish furniture? • Short term vs. long term • How did one museum retrospective (40 years after Jackie was the First Lady) create a short-term trend? • We will call a short-term trend—a fad, a craze, a mania—a CROC in this class. • How will you save yourself from being a CROC?

  6. Anatomy of a Trend: Chapter 1 • What is the simmering process happening in your final project trends? • Local • Courting • Music • Coffee • Phone calls • Hooking up—or not

  7. Anatomy of a Trend: Chapter 1 • The hierarchy of needs. Pg. 23 • Difference between trends and “major social change.” • Do megatrends matter? • Can they affect trends? • Why do we need to look for a change in human behavior to become adept trendspotters?

  8. Anatomy of a Trend: Chapter 2 • Trend creators vs. Trend setters • difference between Roseanne Barr and Ellen DeGeneres • The “mehndi” trend: who is the creator and who is the trendsetter? • What sets trendsetters apart from other people? • “I don’t care what other people think?”

  9. Anatomy of a Trend: Chapter 2 • Youth culture • How did economics play a role in creating the youth culture movement outlined in the book? Pg. 34 • What economics are at play in the articles about women and marriage? • What role will economics play in your generation’s culture? • How does where you live inspire the way you dress? Pg. 35 • Hip hop • Harajuku girls—the precursors to Lady Gaga?

  10. Anatomy of a Trend: Chapter 2 • Designers, artists, wealthy people, gay men, celebrities. • People who aren’t afraid of being different or have no concern that being different will ostracize them from the group. • “But if everyone is doing it, it ain’t cool,” Charlie LeDuff—now a journalist with the Detroit News about sporting a Mohawk at Burning Man—along with several thousand other people. • Who sets the style trends for your generation? • So if gay men want to get married does that mean marriage will have a resurgence? • I mean, if gay men started the tattoo trend then who should we be watching if you want to know what the next big trend is?

  11. Anatomy of a Trend: Chapter 2 • Why are underground subcultures important? • How do brands that you use use them? • The Scion example. • Why are polysocial groups important? Pg. 53 • Do we live in a polysocial community or a monosocial community in Ann Arbor?

  12. Learnings (and things to use as you ponder your own trends) • Trends are created by people—so be curious and watchful • Trends are always simmering below the surface before they become mainstream. • Trends that stretch across two or more industries are more likely to be an Ugg rather than a Croc. • Trends often are simply about doing something different from the mainstream.

  13. Learnings (and things to ponder as you consider your final projects) • Watch for trend creators • Then watch for trendsetters • Can trend creators be manufactured?

  14. Remember our shopping trip: Is shopping our new religion? Niketown Chartres Cathedral

  15. How will you create desire? • Through Affluence? • The customer is unworthy—so they feel they want it more. • “You can’t have this.” The red velvet ropes in front of a nightclub. The bouncer who won’t let you in. • Being “in the know.” Special sales, trunk shows, invites to special events. • Sales clerks who make decisions on who is worthy—and who isn’t • Use of specific types of sales clerks to set the standards for who can shop there—and who can’t.

  16. Creating desire? • What is the Gruen Transfer? • How does Abercrombie & Fitch take you from being a customer to one who will impulsively buy? • How did shopping become more about the customer than the product? Do you buy something because it’s high quality or because someone else is wearing it? • The shift from climate controlled malls (Somerset and Briarwood) to “historical” places like Quincy Market or South Street Seaport or Times Square—minus the sleaze? Anything like this in your hometown? • Now the shift to “authenticity.” Fake Main Streets and downtowns when they are actually malls? • So what keeps Ann Arbor from becoming this? Why is there no Gap downtown or Anthropologie or A&F?

  17. Carpet and Muzak • Hard material on the floors versus carpet in the stores. • Muzak: not just for elevators anymore. • Now we even buy the music that we hear in a certain place i.e. Starbucks mixes, W Hotels, and? • We have gone beyond the concept of “third places”—not our work or our homes—but to the creation of brand “places” that characterize who we are and what we want to be. • Examples: REI, Whole Foods, ????

  18. Remember… • Where could we see the “Decompression Zone?” • An example of the “Invariant Right?” • The Butt Brush? Or lack thereof? • The Gruen Transfer? • Music and furnishings?

  19. Where does your trend live? • Trendsetters—people who don’t care • Trend followers—people who care about the people who don’t care • Early mainstreamers—need to see more people following a trend • Mainstreamers— “everybody is doing it.” (which can be death to a trend) • Late mainstreamers-- • Conservatives • Anti-innovators

  20. Where do you find these people? • Youth • Designers • Artists • Wealthy people • Celebrities • Other subcultures • Who are these people on campus?

  21. Settings…where did your trend start • Benchmark your trend to uncover insights and research that you can use in your final projects • Think back to our discussions of relationships and marriage, your news stories, to our discussions of race, religion, celebrity. • Can you define the time and place that your trend started? • And then how did it grow? Was it started in one of the cities in the “Anatomy of a Trend?” What was its path to Ann Arbor?

  22. So what do you need to start a trend? • Several groups that are polysocial (what does that mean again?) embrace a new trend • Large numbers of trendsetters need to embrace it to catch the attention of trend followers • The media that appeal to these groups must report on it… • So how will you get the media to report on your trend? • ???? • Benchmark the ideas that are “Anatomy of a Trend.” • Blue jeans, motorcycles, inline skates, iPod

  23. Starting a trend…what do you need? • New product or idea • Media • Trend setters and followers to pick up on the trend… Your goal is to make this happen…so that your trend doesn’t simply fade away…

  24. Deeper social change… • How does your trend relate to a deeper change happening in society? • How will you promote that to the media? How will the media report on it and will it resonate with the consumer? • What are the deeper social changes inherent in: • Local music • Phone calls • Healthy food • Courting • Anti-hooking up

  25. What makes a trend break out? • Is it observable? • Can it be copied—or can people take part in it easily? • Is the media talking about it? • Where is your trend at on the Diamond-Shaped Trend Model…see page 153 • What is the sweet spot for your trend—still with trend followers or has it hit the mainstream? • The way you approach these two groups will define how you target your consumers and your media.

  26. Trickle Down or Bubble Up • Bubble Up • Today, trends start in many places among many different types of people. We consider these to be “organic” trends—not started by any corporation or organization. Any ideas on “organic” trends? • Trickle down • Historically, trends started with the wealthy. Today, that is not necessarily the case. But trickle down does start from companies who work to create trends or piggy back on deeper social issues to create a market for their products and services.

  27. Why does all of this matter? • Trends are key to a consumer market • Investors want to know that a business can catch a trend—why is that the Microsoft Zune couldn’t compete with the Apple iPod • Businesses hire trend spotters, cultural anthropologists, and the like to roam the world looking for new products, services, ideas, that they can capitalize on. • But not everything that is new is cool—so “cool hunters” got a bad rap in the late 1990s and early 2000s. • So what can you do not to get caught up in thinking “everything new is cool.”

  28. Trendspotting main clues • The new trend is a reaction to the mainstream • Different trendsetters adopt the trend • A high number of trendsetters adopt the trend • The trend emerges in a city known for its trend creation • The trend spreads quickly • Ongoing product development • Products are imitated and copied • There is a connection between celebrity, media, movies, and the trend

  29. Wednesday • Read “Epilogue” in “Anatomy of a Trend” for discussion on how media are used in shaping trends—and how digital media differs from traditional media • Explore economic trends and how they affect you. • Final assignment: writing a personal opinion piece

More Related