Fads and Trends

SWOT – Google Car  /520746/data-shows-googles-robot-cars- are-smoother-safer-drivers-than-you-or-i/ /520746/data-shows-googles-robot-cars- are-smoother-safer-drivers-than-you-or-i/

Have you ever heard the saying: When opportunity knocks, make sure you are listening?

Ideas vs. Opportunities  There is a difference between ideas and opportunities. Idea – a thought or concept for a product or service. Opportunity – a need, want, problem, or challenge that can be satisfied by an Entrepreneurial venture.

What comes first, an idea or an opportunity? Sometimes an Entrepreneur will identify a problem, see an opportunity, and then come up with an idea to take advantage of the situation. When the opportunity arrives first and you think of an idea to fill it, it is called:

Market-pulled Entrepreneurship  Example: You hear from friends, family and even people in the community that there needs to be a place on the Northside to buy Tacos.  You know of a long stretch of highway where there are no fuel stations, and you hear of people complaining.

When an Entrepreneur comes up with an idea first and then attempts to find an opportunity for it, this is referred to as Product or Service Driven Entrepreneurship.

Product or Service Driven Entrepreneurship You have a great idea to sell Cake Pops at the Boyce Farmer Market, however there is no market for these. Most people don’t even know what they are. So you set up a booth and for 3 weeks you display, sell and give away lots of free samples.

Determine if a venture is “Market Pulled Entrepreneurship” or “Product/Service Driven Entrepreneurship.” Be able to explain your answer to the class.

Video  Ice Hotel - Canada Ice Hotel - Canada

Change  Successful Entrepreneurs are aware of change.  From change comes both ideas and opportunities.  There are two main types of change that an Entrepreneur focuses upon: fads and trends.

Fads  Short lived products or services.  Arrive out of nowhere, experience a BOOM in sales and then disappear.  Some fads may reappear years later.

Trends  A trend is longer lasting than a fad.  Furthermore, a trend impacts society and our lives, where a fad does not. A trend changes the way that we live.  Entrepreneurs will encounter more long term success with trends than fads.

Organic Food  Organics have grown at a rate of nearly 20 percent per year for the last seven years, and industry experts are forecasting continued growth.  One study forecasted that overall, the everyday use of organic products of all kinds will be both accepted and routine by the year 2025 Environmental Concerns

Forecasting Trends  Entrepreneurs do not just wait for trends to happen, but instead attempt to forecast them. Why? So that they might create ventures that take advantage of them.  Accurate forecasting depends on your ability to organize data in a way that will help you see patterns.  One of the easiest ways to forecast trends is through “Time Series Forecasting.”

Time Series Forecasting  With this method, you plot data from the past and present on a graph.  Next, you analyze the trend that you see and make predictions about the future.  With each set of data a trend will emerge (growth trend, stable situation or declining trend) as well as lines for each (linear, curved, irregular, or cyclical).

Types of Trends Growth Trend: Declining Trend Stable Situation

Types of Lines on a Graph Linear Irregular Cyclical Curved

What is the line and trend? Cell Phone Contract Subscribers Answer – a curved lines with a growth trend

Some Trends of 2012  “Decadent eating”, trendy cafes, theme restaurants, theme café’s, “digital eating”  Super hero reality, from lip stick, T-shirts to cereals and clothing. Hero inspired products.  Social Fitness, interactive fitness, fitness and technology merging to make fitness more trendy, and keeps peers socially accountable.

Some Trends of 2012  Invisible look, minimal design and minimalist approach. This also includes ‘unlabeling”. People/ consumers are craving simplicity.  Strategic viral. Brands and videos that engage us and entertain us online.  “There’s an App for that” Insert Barely There Image here

What Trends/Fads dominated 2013?  Frozen yogurt  Harlem shake  “#yolo”  Vine videos  “selfies”  Twerking  Foodies  Snap chat  Beats by Dre  Camo clothing (Duck Dynasty)  Candy Crush (iphone games)  Zumba  Specialty TV  Netflix

Cereality Test Question  Take a look at Cereality, an absurdly obvious small business idea that never quite took flight.  Come up with your own cereal

Speaking of Trends

“I’m bringing it back” Thinking back through the fads you have experienced, think for possible venture ideas that could be brought back for another cycle. It is hard to identify a trend or a fad when we are “in it” but try to imagine what products and services we are experiencing today that will soon Bust and or Boom.

What are Hush Puppies? Hush Puppies are a great example of a fad that was brought back.

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