Market leaders or companies that want to be first in their niche conduct daily research to identify current trends. One of the tools to identify these trends in Coolhunting. This article details the methodology of this tool and its necessity. After reading this article, you will be able to identify and stay ahead of your niche trends. Keep reading!
The Term CoolHunting
Coolhunting is a developmental discipline that identifies the impact of societal changes on the emergence of new needs and wants in consumers.
The needs of consumers are always in the first place when a company is forming a range of products it plans to produce. But today, the needs of consumers are challenging to meet. To be successful in the marketplace, companies must constantly stay ahead of their competitors in finding and shaping consumer preferences. For this purpose, companies use market research and try to analyze and anticipate the future intentions of consumers. One of the new methods of marketing research deals with these issues. Modern digital companies such as paper help is a company that provides writing services, and paper help discount code uses this method to identify general trends in the education market.
So, for marketing, the concept of cool brands is an opportunity to make a particular brand meaningful to the consumer, to include not only in consumer behavior but also in its living context.
Coolhunters track the sprouts of new phenomena in society and provide the industry with information about them. Special Coolhunting agencies are created. The main task is to research consumer markets with the subsequent analysis of the received data to identify new trends in society.
The Circumstances of Coolhunting’s Emergence
The values and needs of our society as a whole are changing due to the development of technology. In today’s world, there are daily changes in people’s lives. It causes us to become accustomed to innovation. Therefore, today’s market of products and services is incomplete and developing at a rapid pace.
The Coolhunting methodology makes it possible to identify new developing niches and determine threats and opportunities for business as a whole. This methodology applies the so-called relevance effect, determining what is relevant to the consumer at a certain point in time.
It allows companies to be innovators and launch products or services that do not yet exist in a particular niche, making it possible to stand out from the competition, entering the blue ocean of the market. By entering the blue ocean (you can read about the blue ocean in the book Blue Ocean Strategy by Renée Mauborgne and W. Chan Kim), companies can meet current and set trends for future user needs.
The main difference with traditional market research is that Coolhunting allows you to anticipate the future, while conventional research is a present-time analysis.
Coolhunting is a Search for New Trends
Researching trends and Coolhunting provides a current picture of consumer behavior and needs and offers an insight into the future development of tastes and preferences of the business target audience. It, in turn, allows us to know in advance and discover new trends for business, potential threats and uncover emerging niches.
Information technologies provide us with a wide range of tools necessary for marketing managers and businesses, in general, to hunt for future consumer demands. We can identify new consumer demands by following the innovators who move any niche forward. We can also determine future trends by analyzing the development of various sectors (using the so-called benchmarking), analyzing information from the media, and learning about the latest trends based on data from proposals in developed cities around the world. However, we must know how and where to look for relevant and valuable information to apply it to our business.
The popularity of trend research increased rapidly due to the use of the Internet. It made it possible for everyone to access all kinds of information and images regardless of location. Its presence was no longer managed by advertising agencies, magazines, or TV stations. Marketers who used to decide future fashion trends found it challenging to cope with a massive avalanche of messages, opinions, and different information that consumers shared non-stop. This led to the emergence of viral marketing, which was much better than word of mouth, making the marketers’ job much more difficult.
The Basic Stages of Coolhunting
The main feature of Coolhunting is the stages of building so-called sequential characters. These characters act in a bundle of steps, which sequentially replace each other, creating a “fish that bites its tail” effect.
First Coolhunting Step
The first stage is where we find the Innovators. These characters always stand out in the marketplace and strive to create different ideas, concepts, or products.
The first stage is characterized by finding innovators who move the market (Nike or Apple). Innovators always bring unusual new ideas to the marketplace and create innovative concepts or products.
Second Coolhunting Step
In the second stage, “early adopters” emerge, always happy to try new products or services that innovators create. Early adopters become brand prescribers because they bring the product or service to the masses by first using it.
This group of people follows trends as closely as possible because they want to set themselves apart from the masses.
The Third Coolhunting Step
The last stage involves the mainstream. A large mass of consumers under the influence of innovators and adapters have adopted the trend lately, which goes viral. Maximum consumer growth, in turn, dramatically increases company sales.
If you want to be a leader in your niche, you should diversify your riffs by focusing on several innovative products or services at once. This should be done because, at stage 4, adapters give up using a product. After all, it has become mainstream and is not exceptional.
What are the Advantages of Coolhunting?
Companies can reach many potential buyers and information about their products through searches on different search engines. This method is a great advantage since you can transmit your message according to your audience. Coolhunters know the most appropriate ways to collect data and information.
The good thing about this methodology is that it is essential for all companies, whether large, medium, or small. All organizations can use this method to reach their target audience, as the cost is not that high. It is the reason why companies resort to this form of market research after abandoning traditional marketing strategies. The advantage of Coolhunting is that it has a broader coverage compared to other market research methodologies.
In addition, this Method Enables us to:
- Relate the company’s innovations to the demands of society.
- Create an innovative product or service concepts
- Become market leaders through innovation
- Anticipating threats and translating them into opportunities for the company.
- To successfully launch new products or services on the market.
This stage raises the practical question of where you can apply Coolhunting to your company.
The Main Areas Where Coolhunting is Most Effective
A single employee can do coolhunting without creating an entire department in small and medium-sized businesses, startups, or government organizations. Several multiple departments and organizations benefit by using this method:
- Branding
- Services
- Marketing
- Communications
- corporate strategy
- R+D+I
- Management Department
- Product design
How to Spot Market Trends
Keeping up with market trends is not easy. After all, you have a day-to-day business to run. However, it’s essential to recognize that the industry is constantly changing. To stay ahead of the curve and prevent competitors from gaining an advantage, you must manage the times well for the benefit of long-term business planning.
The shaping of any niche trend depends on changes in consumer behavioral habits. Using the following types of analysis, you will be able to find out the trends that influence the efficiency of your business:
Track Influencers and Industry News
We don’t always have enough time or mental space to read all the interesting articles on relevant topics in our respective industries. So how can we keep track of industry trends? Social media is a powerful tool for tracking influencers, their views and ensuring you remain part of the conversation.
Analyze Industry Behavior
There are a wide variety of analytical tools and systems available at your fingertips. That’s great because you can let these tools do all the legwork to help you understand the big picture of your market much more quickly.
Digital analytics can help uncover trends that are increasingly sought after by consumers. For example, Google Trends shows a long-term overview of niche trends. Simultaneously, Google Keyword Planner lets you search for the most popular keywords used by your target demographic and potential scale for use as part of a digital advertising campaign.
Listen to Your Customers.
By now, we know that having a constant conversation with customers is critical to understand what they want. After all, they’re the ones who keep your business afloat. Don’t be afraid to talk to them and get more information about what your business can do to help them.
Regular quantitative surveys of your existing customer base or, if you’re a brand new company, your target market, could provide this valuable information about possible changes in their behaviors and needs.
Watch the Competition
The most successful companies don’t follow the crowd. Instead, they innovate and break new ground to distance themselves from the noise. However, observing competitors can often provide a good picture of market positioning and whether they react to what might be seen as an emerging trend.
Competitor analysis doesn’t have to cost the earth. By simply reviewing their website, customer reviews, and social media channels, it is possible to understand and compare yourself to your competitors.
Bio:
Elissa Smart is a writer and blogger who writes articles on educational topics for the PaperHelp blog. In her articles, she shares her experiences and writes about educational trends.
