A recent article in Grazia caught my eye and made me wonder, how often do customers beat the trend makers? Kind of like asking the nature versus nurture question, but for fashion.
The article showed examples of girls using Celine zip-up cases for keys and coins or Marc by Marc Jacobs iPad cases as very stylish clutches.
The Tipping Point highlights specific individuals starting trends. Yet on the other hand we have game-changing innovations such as the iPhone, which admittedly build upon existing behavioural changes but itself creates new ones. Walmart started a new trend in retailing not from looking at customers, but initially looking at operations, as this interesting article by Scott Davis of Prophet describes.
Modern marketing, branding and design is all about being customer-led, suggesting that all trends come from customers.
I wonder, is it possible to create a genuinely new trend, that is not at all hinted at by other events? A world-changing new spark, the trend equivalent of 'the big bang'?
You? What do you think?
Meanwhile....sharing some of my favourite trend-spotting gurus: trendwatching; PSFK; LSN; Iconoculture; Scienceofthetime; Trend Hunter.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment