Trend is a continuous pattern of change that occurs in either a condition, process, or output.
Trends that show condition - wearing facemasks during pandemic
Trends that show process - preserving food
Trends that show output - organic soap
There are 5 characteristics of trends: duration of time, acceptability, cultural roots, transitory increase/decrease, and versatility.
Duration of time - prevails for a considerable period of time; not short-lived.
Acceptability - accepted and embraced by a number of people
Cultural Roots - based on traditions, systems of belief, and accepted values
Transitory increase/decrease - may experience a rise/decline in popularity and acceptance
Versatility - flexible or open to changes and adjustments
There are 3 elements of a trend: basic need, driver of change, and innovation.
Basic need - fulfills essential human need
Driver of change - the way emerging trend bends, modifies, and replace existing ones
Innovation - geared towards the improvement of an old trend
There are 3 types of trends: megatrends, macrotrends, and microtrends
Megatrends - originated a long time ago but continue to exist and influence people. Example is climate change.
Macrotrends - focused on specific components or part of a megatrend. Example is e-sports.
Microtrends - limited to specific people, location, or conditions. Example is when Facebook was only intended to be used inside the university where it was founded.
Trend Spotting - deliberate efforts involving the identification, analysis, and interpretation of shifts in society that is commonly applied in business setting. Example is migration of OFWs, business, and social life (elections).
There are 2 trend spotting methodologies: qualitative and quantitative
Qualitative - tracing paradigm shifts and gathering in-depth stories and accounts of everyday life.
Quantitative - searching for regularities and irregularities with analysis of time series graphs'
Trend and fads are commonly used interchangeably but are 2 different concepts in social sciences.
A fad as a collective behavior: unstructured, popular, and performed without other's compulsion.
There are 3 kinds of fads: useful product (jelly shoes), novelty product (bobbleheads), and activity fad (ice bucket challenge).
A fad is an intense and widely shared enthusiasm for something, especially one that is short-lived and without basis in the object's qualities; a rage or craze.
There are 3 elements of a fad: appeal, purpose, and impact.
Appeal - captures the attention of people
Purpose -fads are not necessarily useless
Impact - has effects at the individual, group, and societal levels.
There are 4 characteristics of a fad: perceived novelty, short life span, limited scope, and heterogeneity.
Perceived novelty - people tend to be attracted to new or strange products and experiences
Short life span - the popularity decreases after the saturated point has been reached
Limited scope - influential only to a segment of a population.
Heterogeneity - people and organizations adopt in different ways
Trendsetter - something/someone who starts or causes a trend
Trendspotting refers to the study of trends and the way they develop and affect society.
Part of a whole - a trend is as an elaborate thing that makes the whole idea of the trend working and producing an emerging pattern.
Emerging Patterns - are items in which frequency are changing overtime that are important indicators that set the progressive movement of data to understand the distinctive direction to where the trend is heading.
Data Patterns of trends can be classified into 3: linear, exponential, and damped.