Someone who specializes in spotting emerging trends is known as a trend spotter. Many trend spotters work in the fashion industry, but they also work in fields such as computing, technology, and a variety of others. Working in this field necessitates a broad knowledge base as well as psychological training in order to comprehend how trends emerge and why some trends are picked up while others are not. Many major corporations hire trend spotters to keep tabs on their industry in order to stay ahead of the pack.
Trend spotters scour the streets of major cities for new trends that their parent companies could adopt. Cities like New York, Paris, and Tokyo are popular among trend spotters because they have a well-informed and educated population that often drives trends. Styles seen on the streets of New York, for example, are frequently adopted residents of other American cities as a result of a trickle-down effect.
A trend spotter must determine whether new trends will be popular for an extended period of time and how successful they will be when identifying new trends. Some are geographically limited, rarely spreading beyond a small region, making it unprofitable for manufacturers. Others have the ability to spread, particularly if given a push.
Trend spotters look back at the history of trends, many of which are cyclical, and then send reports, photographs, and other materials to the companies that hire them. Companies must be able to quickly move into production in order to capture market share in the case of rapidly evolving trends, and major corporations compete to be the first to release a product that caters to a new trend. As a general rule, the more companies that produce something, the less desirable it becomes, so it’s critical to stay ahead of the curve so that fashion-conscious customers feel like they’re getting the best deal.
In a variety of industries, trend spotting and forecasting are critical. Many of the developments in the Web 2.0 movement, which focuses on user-generated content, were predicted savvy trend spotters, and many of these individuals were able to profit creating products that targeted the Web 2.0 demographic. Trend spotting is important in the development of new clothing styles, computer hardware, automobiles, architecture, and art, among other things.
To become a trend spotter, one typically receives extensive education and training in the industry in which he or she wishes to work. A fashion trend spotter, for example, would study and work in the fashion industry after graduating from college with a fashion degree. To improve their employability as trend spotters, many aspiring trend spotters study business, economics, and psychology. The trend spotter could begin working in company departments that predicted trends after receiving a thorough grounding in the mechanics and history of the industry, eventually rising to the rank of official trend spotter.