the trend prophet

Meet the ‘coolhunters’

Trendwatching’ is an industry that has been around for a while. The fashion industry relies on colour forecasters to tell them what shades to stock in store a whole three years in advance. Companies who favour the youth market source ‘coolhunters’ to immerse themselves in the culture they are targeting. Ad agencies pay schoolchildren to attend weekly meetings to tell them when tamagotchis will come back into vogue…again.

Coolhunters in suits?
What is more interesting is that these supposedly subversive coolhunter types are now making their way up the corporate ladder. Companies are actually employing and giving the huge corner office, a flash company car and no doubt keys to the executive WC to in-house trendwatchers.

Award-winning journalist, David Rowan, writes that Hallmark Cards now employ a female in-house zeitgeist (Source: The Times). According to Hallmark, she keeps an eye on ‘evolving societal attitudes and behaviors to help product and creative groups at Hallmark stay ‘on trend’.’ Well that’s cleared that up. I’m sure you’ll be glad of her thoughtful insights the next time you buy some colour co-ordinated party invites for the kids’ birthday bash.

Will Generation C take over?
But it’s not only trendwatchers who could be taking over the boardroom. Generation C is already upon us - consumers who gain more and more power through technology, by writing blogs, self-publishing online and creating audio-visual ads at their favourite companies’ websites. They too could skew the traditional balance of marketing power.