January 6, 2010

We love Trendwatching.com. They’ve got hundreds of trendspotters around the world with a beat on what’s going on – and what’s going to be new next. They take all the info gathered and put it into tidy briefings organized into a list of 10 trends to watch for in the coming months. Simple and streamlined.

The January 2010 is no different: 10 Crucial Consumer Trends. We’re especially interested to follow the Real-time Reviews. While everyone posting everything they think as they think it online isn’t new – Facebook and Twitter are standard in this decade – what Trend Watching says will increase is the demand for specifics from each other – and only the specifics we each want. So you liked the new pub downtown, but what beer do they have on tap? What music were they playing? What are your other favorite places in town?

Trend Watching also touches on how this will affect companies whose products will be increasingly discussed without their influence, and makes suggestions on how to best get involved. Definitely an important topic to focus on in marketing plans.