Defining Trends

[Amelia Torode]

I quite liked my pun-y headine. Anyway, back to the question.

The word Trend, like the word Insight, like the phrase Big Idea is often mis-used, over-used etc.

I've never really been happy with my definition of a Trend - anyone have a non jargon definition that works for them and in the spirit of T-shaped planning, be willing to share?

A

[farisyakob]

Hey meals!

Agree with you - we had that long panel debate about this at PSFK

http://www.psfk.com/2007/07/turning-trends-into-insights-panel-at-t...

but i doubt that will help much

i go back to - some general drift in culture, evinced by numerous examples [assumed initally unrelated by over time become imitative], which demonstrates a change from the way things used to be.

or a fad. like the crocs i wore last summer. ;-p

[vanessa]

I understand the desire to zig while everyone else zaggs, but over-use of a word shouldn't necessarily condemn it. Do you, instead, want the word to have a deeper meaning?

A trend is something just short of actual movement. [re: the road tends left, but doesn't actually turn]. Crocs were invented to give long distance hikers a light-weight means of fording rivers, they probably will never re-define (aka: move) the way people wear shoes. Ta-da: a trend in footwear.

Maybe a re-appreciation of the idea of a trend could deepen it for you.

[Jake Yarbrough]

I'm relatively new at this, so It's difficult to top the replies from Faris and Vanessa. And all I can do right now is expand on what they wrote.

Seems to me it's a ever-denser cluster of like minded actions within culture.

To go out on a mixed-metaphor limb here, are trends like the tributaries of the Great River "Movement" as humans flow through the eons?

Reaching, I know.

[Amelia Torode]

Thanks all -

Vanessa, I was certainly not looking to zig where others zag but really to find a pithy and non-wanky way of defining exactly what a trend actually is. Faris and Beeker were part of a great discussion at PSFK, but not sure if there was any sense of general agreement on a definition.

I love the flowing water analogy BTW!

For me a trend is something that is a deeper societal fundamental - like the desire to have more control, the need to participate, the move towards local.

In fact I even emailed Jeremy Bullmore to get a pithy JB definition but this was the reply:

Dear A -

V.sorry to disappoint but have no pithy (or otherwise) definition of a trend. Personally, I've never seen one coming so recognise them only when they've become the norm from which future trends will soon depart.

[farisyakob]

bullmore is such a legend. i need to think of something to email him about.

[vanessa]

Afterthought:

Today's Diane Rehm show was relevant to this conversation. You can listen to it here: http://wamu.org/programs/dr/

I haven't read the book yet, but it appears to address the difference in levels and types of trends.

----------------
Aired: 11:00 AM - Mark Penn: "Microtrends" (Twelve)

The political strategist and pollster who coined the term 'soccer moms' talks about some of the many small and emerging groups in our society and what they may signal about political, economic, and cultural shifts ahead
Guests

Mark Penn, worldwide CEO of Burson-Marsteller and chief adviser to Senator Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign.

[vanessa]

I do like that. It accommodates the idea of needs and wants as fluid and somewhat arbitrary.