Trend is a term used to describe something that has a tendency to change or develop toward something new or different. Trends are often associated with fashion, but they can also be found in other areas of life, such as economic and political trends.
The most basic way to understand a trend is through the human experience. There are certain underlying values that human beings hold and that stay steady over time: convenience, value, security, status, fun, etc. These values help humans make decisions and keep them motivated.
These values are what drive us to adopt a particular style of clothing, or a type of food, or a certain technology. But those are just the basics — there are many more factors to consider, including economic conditions, societal shifts and cultural norms that influence consumer behavior.
In the fashion industry, for example, trend forecasting has been a staple of the fashion industry since the 1960s. Buyers and forecasters would attend fashion shows to note what designers had chosen for the upcoming season, and this information was then dispersed to mass market retailers and magazine readers.
But the process of identifying and predicting trends is not always easy. Experts in the field use a wide range of methods to identify trends.
Some of the most common methods are examining price action, trendlines and technical indicators. These tools can help to identify a trend and warn when it is reversing.
A trend is usually characterized by an uptrend or a downtrend. An uptrend is marked by higher data points, such as high swing highs and low swing lows, while a downtrend is marked by lower data points, such as low swing highs and high swing lows.
In business, trends can be used to predict changes in revenue, earnings or other business and economic metrics. They can also be used by investors who use fundamental analysis, which focuses on changing economic factors.
Colours can be a good indicator of a trend, but they aren’t always predictable. For example, a bright pink might appear on the runway for one show, and then disappear completely in the next. This happens because a colour may be a key theme for one season, but then move on and become a highlight color in a different season.
However, you can sometimes get a better idea of what will happen to colours by looking at how they’ve been used in previous seasons. For instance, a light pink that looks lovely on a model in a recent runway show might be used as a luminous highlight color for a new line of products.
This is a good example of what’s called “trend blending.” When multiple less significant trends merge, they create the next big trend. For example, e-tax filing became a popular trend because it meshes with other emerging trends, such as tax software and spreadsheet programs.
Trends can be a huge advantage for brands who want to market their goods to global markets, as some trend forecasting approaches go so far as to analyze different geographies and consumers. By combining the type of consumer with the nuances associated with their region, these trend forecasting panels are very helpful to brands when developing collections and developing marketing strategies.
