Some consumer trends are obvious. Take for example seasonal trends, purchases of Christmas trees will sky-rocket in November/December but be almost non-existent during the rest of the year. Or taking it to the individual level life-event trends, someone who has just had a baby will be buying much more baby food, nappies, baby wipes then they usually do. Knowing existing and stable trends within your company isn’t that hard to spot either. Even basic data reviews can show you patterns and trends on how your consumers shop.
But trying to understand when the next social media craze-trend will take off and what it will be is more difficult. Think about the emergence of fidget spinners in recent years or under-sized sunglasses, the interest in these products seemed to jump out of nowhere. But if you were around on social media before or at the start of the take off for these crazes you may have been able to predict their looming take over. Like many different sensations, the sudden interest in certain products often originates in social media.
With connections between almost everyone on earth, trends travel quickly across social media. You only need one well-known account to show interest and suddenly it will be all you see for a while (albeit a brief while in most cases). So social media seems like the obvious place to advertise such products. This makes total sense, it is where their interest originates from, it is where they become popular and it is where people display or show them off. However, advertisers need to get in there quick, crazes can disappear just as quickly as they come onto the scene. Hard and fast advertising strategies seem to suit better, no point wasting money advertising products after they are last days/weeks news.
When it comes to social media consumer crazes advertising is logical, if everyone wants a product that you have then let them know. But be aware of the fickle consumerism that is present on social media, because the product that everyone wants today, nobody may want tomorrow. When advertising for social media crazes be sensible, keep an eye on your expenses and keep an eye on social media to understand the demand for your product.