What are the benefits and challenges of conducting trend research in a global market?

1 Benefits of trend research

Trend research can help you gain a competitive edge in a global market by providing you with insights into the current and future needs, wants, and pain points of your target audience. By understanding the trends that shape their behavior, you can tailor your products, services, and messages to their specific context, culture, and values. Trend research can also help you identify new opportunities, niches, and segments that you can tap into with your offerings. Trend research can also help you avoid costly mistakes, such as launching a product that is outdated, irrelevant, or offensive to a certain market.

2 Challenges of trend research

Trend research in a global market can be challenging due to data availability and quality, cultural diversity and sensitivity, and complexity and uncertainty. For instance, you may face difficulties in finding reliable and relevant data sources that can inform your trend analysis. You must also be aware of the cultural norms, values, and expectations that can influence how a market perceives and reacts to trends. Additionally, trends are dynamic, complex, and often unpredictable. They can vary across regions, countries, or even cities within a market. Therefore, you need to be flexible and adaptable to cope with these changes and avoid relying on outdated or obsolete information.

3 Tips for conducting trend research

To effectively conduct trend research in a global market, you must first define your research objectives and scope to narrow down your focus. Additionally, you should use a mix of data sources and methods to get a comprehensive view. Utilizing tools and frameworks, such as trend maps and trend matrices, can help you organize and communicate findings. Furthermore, it is beneficial to collaborate with other experts, stakeholders, and customers from different markets to enrich and validate your research. You can use online platforms, forums, surveys, interviews, focus groups, and tools such as Google Trends or BuzzSumo to monitor conversations and sentiments around your trends.

4 Examples of trend research

To illustrate how trend research can be applied in a global market, here are some examples of trend research projects that have been conducted by different organizations and agencies. IKEA's Life at Home project is an ongoing research effort to understand how people live at home in different countries and cultures, as well as how their needs and preferences change over time. TrendWatching is a trend research agency that provides reports, newsletters, webinars, workshops, etc. to help businesses and professionals identify and understand the trends that shape consumer behavior and expectations. Mintel is a market research company that provides data, analysis, and insights on various markets, industries, and consumers in different regions and countries. All of these projects use a combination of data sources and methods to collect, analyze, and curate the trends that are relevant, impactful, and actionable for their clients and subscribers. They also produce reports, podcasts, videos, blogs, webinars, etc. to share the findings and insights with the public and the industry.

5 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?