Capitalizing on Trends and Fads

One of the secrets of building a business legacy and lifestyle that will endure is developing the ability to distinguish a long-term business trend from a short-term effort. Trends represent a pattern of occurrences and events over an extended period of time. Fads can be characterized as short term trend or whim that is often evidenced by the hot item or issue of the present. Long-term business can be leveraged to build up a successful business. However, fads tend to rely of short term efforts that rely heavily on  immediate results and thus serve a  less reliable business model upon which to build a viable enterprise.

Leveraging long-term trends is vital for a legacy of business success for two reasons. First only long term trends can be relied upon to produce predictable and measurable returns for your business, since you will be attracting and capturing a cluster of customers that are already moving in a certain direction of their own accord. However, if you follow a fad, then you may well end up chasing a customer based on a single action they have taken.  

If long-term strategies are so vital, and short term approaches tend to be less reliable, then it is essential that you know one from the other. But how do you do this?  The best way to approach this is to consider some examples. A good example of a long-term business trend that can be leveraged is the growth of the personal computer over the last twenty years. A good example of a short-term fad is the world of fashion, where designs and a number of other variables can and will change season in and season out.

If you were to realize early in the trend cycle that progressively more people would be using personal computers, then you could have postured your business to take advantage of this over time. You could have had a hand in shaping how the market dealt with these changes and could have begun building a very strong business legacy. However, a fad in this scenario could have been expanding heavily into floppy disks – profitable in the short term, but overtaken by the broader curve of the trend.

The best method of distinguishing a trend from a fad is to honestly appraise the time lines in conjunction with the number of prospective customers. A good quality trend will take place over several years or more, and involve a very target and sufficiently broad cross section of people in a given market segment. A fad will typically have a lifespan that is measured within a relatively short time frame, perhaps months. This will often involve a very specific type of person within a very narrow market segment who seeks to satisfy that specific need during that specific time. You can witness this phenomena every holiday season, especially Christmas where items are purchased on impulse. 

Relying solely on such speculative strategies can present a mortal threat to businesses. The properties of a long-term trend may not look that exciting to begin with, but over time they are immeasurably better than fads as model upon which to build your legacy. Avoiding fads can be tricky. When they arrive they can look extremely promising, with huge popularity and the potential for massive profits. However, let’s recognize that this facade of success may diminish very quickly.  Many savvy marketer have learned to incorporate fad products, that are relevant to the market that is being served, into their promotional effort to help promote the company and to maintain visibility to the public.  

In summary, if your goal is to build a business legacy and enjoyable lifestyle, then there is perhaps no more important skill than to develop a knack for being able to distinguish a fad from a trend. But running this business successfully in the long term will rely on your ability to effectively leverage and to balance the use of these fads and trends.