Saturday, June 2, 2007

Fad v. Trend

just curious how these two words are used in different situations...somebody already tackled this topic at wisegeek. This is my interpretation.

A fad refers to a fashion that becomes popular in a culture relatively quickly, but loses popularity dramatically. Some examples are: beanie babies (1990s), pet rocks (1970s), Rubik's cubes (1980s), and Pokemon (1998-2000). Fads tend to be short-term. For more fads, check out http://www.crazyfads.com/

A trend is a general direction in which something tends to move. Trends carry out over a longer period of time and have a greater influence on the future of a given market. This is what planners need to pay attention to in long-term brand development planning.

Fads seem more gimmicky -more product (not lifestyle/mindset) based. We can take advantage of these to gain and peak current interest, but need to watch trends to see where we can go with a particular movement of message.

just found flip.com and this search-worthy archive for "what is a trend at your school."
Go frolic and play, it's the weekend!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Erin,

Love the premise behind your blog. Planners are surely made not born.

You might want to take a look at this NYT article on fads, trends and phads which tussles with the same issue in conversation with Reinier Evers of TrendWatching.com ...

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/10/magazine/10wwln_consumed.t.html?ex=1323406800&en=bb790ef38bed972a&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

Plus, Joel Best published a book about fads from last year called "Flavor of the Month" (ISBN 0520246268)

Unknown said...

Pokemon is still going strong, its the top selling game right now if I'm not mistken and my roomate and his friend have been playing it.... :/