Description
The purpose of the Trend Exploration Framework is to synthesize trends that relate to your initiative, and analyze the resulting implications and opportunities for your brand. This type of framework is often used by marketers to explore how changes in the marketplace might impact future strategic plans. The Trend Exploration Framework is typically completed as a group in a workshop format, where participants are required to come prepared with research on current and relevant trends. Completing the framework as a team can be an effective way to create a shared understanding of the impact of key trends, and to collaboratively explore emerging opportunities for an existing brand.
Questions
The Trend Exploration Framework helps to answer marketing questions like:
What trends are impacting our brand most significantly?
How can we use marketplace trends to our advantage?
How do we need to change to be more relevant in the future?
Steps
Identify aspects of your initiative that you suspect need to change the most. For marketers, this might be your product benefits, your service model, or your marketing communications. Capture up to 5 aspects.
For each aspect, research the latest trends. Capture these trends in a way that clearly describes the trend and the underlying cause. The connection between the trend and the initiative should be apparent.
Start filling in the framework by describing the current state for each aspect in the From column. Once completed, this should provide you with a snapshot of your existing context that needs to change.
Based on the trend research, explore how the current state might be reframed in a new way. For example, an emerging consumer trend might lead to a potential new produce line. Capture in the To column.
Review the completed framework, ideally with your marketing team, to identify and prioritize new opportunities together. Identify any additional research required to take these opportunities further.
Considerations
Analyze how different trends may be related and have similar causes, to identify new patterns
Revisit and update your framework over time to reflect the latest trends in your marketplace
The framework is most useful as an input to ‘big picture’ marketing planning
References
Kumar, V. 101 Design Methods – A Structured Approach for Driving Innovation in Your Organization. Wiley, 2013.