What's more, each of us denies that we are moved by the most recent trends. We believe we are truly drinking the most recent energy drink because it tastes good and offers us a short term boost of energy that we need. We are convinced it has nothing to do with being part of a popular trend. Although all trends eventually pass beyond their life expectancy like Air Jordan's used to be the best basketball shoe money could buy. We may truly find ourselves smack dab in the middle of the fullness of a trend. We may want to deny our involvement and do not want to believe we are capable of contributing certain parts of what makes that trend popular. We want to believe we are the exception. We want to be seen as individuals, not just like everybody else. The truth remains, we are like everyone else.
I am writing a blog for business. Millions are doing it. It does not set me free nor provide my life with one of the great requirements for success and happiness. It is a trend. It is a trend that provides my inner self with some sense for being included in a society that wanders about finding all types of emotional glue that eventually holds our vast interests together in an acceptable pattern of understanding. It is a trend. I am a contributor to that trend. All trends are fickle. Don't get fooled. I will not be writing a blog for business until I am 99. This trend will change and I will change as well. Trends are fickle.
Business owners who want to be successful for a very long time must get this truth down very well. They must not fall in love with the Hula Hoop. If you entered your business model making cinnamon rolls for gatherings and small business offices, you know what I mean. Eventually, you need to add some chocolate and maple bars in order to survive the fickle move away from cinnamon rolls for awhile. Trends can become a difficult moving target. Not only are trends tough to identify for your business they are different from region to region. I once attended a furniture market in Dallas, Texas and one evening we 'hit' the social strip checking out some of the more popular night clubs. I was amazed to discover some of the clubs had a lot of their patrons wearing a single leather glove on their drink holding hand with the glove finger tops cut off. You know the type of glove I am describing. It was the tight leather motorcycle glove that has little breathing holes in its design with the finger tops missing so your fingers can feel and touch what they are holding. I have never seen this trend happen anywhere else in my life. I am also sure it is no longer happening there anymore. Trends can be seasonal, regional, sectional, fashionable, driven by gender, by age, by industry and even political; but all of them are fickle. They come and they go.
If you entered your business to produce one single item that served a popular trend, your future has a limit. Its life is nearing its end. It has nothing to do with what you want it to do. It has all to do with what the market decides to do. Don't get fooled, customers are fickle. They change and they can change abruptly, without warning and permanently. In a matter of some short moments your best selling stuff is no longer part of what they want. Poof, it is gone.
Searching for the next best trend is a lifetime project for most business owners. The most difficult part of trend hunting is to find the ones that become what most people desire. I am not good at it. I usually find those most popular trends when they are at their peak. The best money was made when they were growing up to become a popular trend. I usually come onto the scene just about the time the trend hits the top of its bell curve. I invest money much the same way. I buy when it is high and sell when it is low. This is not good business policy.
If you own a business you know you cannot afford to practice this type of product development or sales. You will not last for very long when you buy high and sell low. Knowing when the trends are best to link along can be vital to your future of success. Moving along side each trend is risky business but can be very rewarding, financially, if you get in and out at the proper times. Timeliness is one of the 5 parts to the magical components of value. There are five legs to the components of value. Timeliness is one of those five legs.
Do not open a new floor covering business offering a wide selection of self-stick vinyl squares. That trend is gone. You will starve. Although I remember having a back warehouse room full of stacked boxes of self-stick vinyl tiles displayed with the top box opened and one tile pulled out to show the customer what the rest of those stacked boxes had inside. I remember making sale signs for each of the flavors and patterns. It was a hot item. Poof, it is gone. Today, they have longer boxes now with the same approach but the boxes hold laminate flooring that looks like wood. As trends usually are; same thing, different stuff.
Learn how to 'read' what your market is doing. Do not fall in love with how your market is moving today. If you fall in love with what your market is doing today, at least learn how to fall out of love quickly. Your money should carry more respect than the trends you prefer to hang on to. Being on the wrong side of the bell curve is an expensive love affair. Know when the stuff begins to quit its moving patterns. Get out of it early. Earlier is better than later. The consumer is fickle and will stop before you can believe they will stop. You may get caught holding the bag of out of fashion stuff and even the discounts you offer as you try to get rid of what you do not need, will be hard for customers to accept. The profits you gained during the peak of the trend will quickly disappear as you struggle to get out of what you should not have. It can be a slippery game. Consumers truly do not care about your out of date inventory.
Energy conservation is a fashion. Green building materials are a fashion statement more than they are a logical desire. That may be a difficult concept for many to comprehend. However, it is true. If you approach your business model in a logical and sensible way of thinking, you will eventually discover how much your customer does not. Be very careful when you design your business model around too much logic. Your customer is not. Eventually the two concepts will either collide or grow apart. Neither of these effects should be considered a good thing. Both of them push customers quietly away. Some business owners will try to prove this truth wrong but their business checkbook will present the eventual truth sooner or later. Customers are fickle, don't get fooled.
Customers will often look like logic. They will walk like logic. They will describe to you how logical they are. Yet McDonald's still sells more hamburgers than any one single outfit sells on the globe. It is not a logical food source, unless of course we consider the success of marketing possibilities like convenience and campaign advertising. Consumers move in recognizable patterns. Get lined up with how they are moving. Help your business model recognize how they are moving. For goodness sake, above all, do not fall in love with what movements you find to be correct. Always remember, customers are fickle, don't get fooled. Your business checkbook does not deserve to go downhill. Bell curves are real things. Polka music is out for now.
Until next time...
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