I often get questions about Trends.

How to understand them, how to monitor them, and how to interpret them are questions that can play havoc in the minds of analysts and marketers alike.

If you’re not working at the strategy level, it may be difficult to see the point of trends beyond this week’s TikTok; but, that’s actually a great beginning.

Few people have made as large of an impact on the fabric of the United States as the Roosevelts, so it is to the eloquent and wild Teddy I turn to whenever I’m beginning trend work:

“Do what you can, with what you’ve got, where you are.” – Teddy Roosevelt

If you’re working at the kitchen level, start counting the orders going out each day. If you’re at the store, get the weekly, monthly, annual, sales of each category and plot them over time.

Now, compare what you see today to what you saw yesterday.

Then, what you saw last week to the week before.

Then, months, then years.

Now, you’re developing a picture.

(SHAKE IT LIKE A POLAROID PICTURE! HEEEEYYYY YAAAAA!)

This can be used to visualize what’s happening today versus what happened yesterday, what happened yesterday with what happened over the last week, month and year.

Now it’s time to find out why.

Look at your data. Do you see patterns? Is each December the highest month of sales? You may have a seasonal product on your hands. Is there a lower demand for your hot cocoa in the summer? Are there indicators as to why these patterns are happening? What’s available to you? Who can you speak to?

Once you get an idea of your big picture, it’s time to move outward. If you’re in a category that doesn’t have store level data, you can engage in the free reports released by outlets like Nielsen & Google; or you can pay experts to gather specific comparisions of you, your category, and your competion.

How do you compare? What’s different for you? Is there an average that you seem to be ahead of or behind? Overall, does the category seem to be growing or declining?

Take a look at the market around your sales location(s). Are they experiencing the same patterns? If not, dig into why by looking at census and other data.

If so, it’s time to look bigger.

Is there a recession? Is there a war? Is there a breakthrough communication that’s changing where consumers are learning about products?

Then, apply this data to your brand, your categories, and your competition.

Is this a negative force that your brand could combat with a solution?

This is what I like to call the Ted Lasso effect. After Global Isolation and division caused by the pandemic, the show features people from different demographics finding common ground over kindness - something lonely and struggling populations desperately needed.

If it’s something that your brand isn’t a fix for, it doesn’t mean that your hands are tied.

Your brand may need to update your communication structure or messaging to better resonate with the reality in which consumers find themselves.

Think Red Lipstick in the 40s. Wearing a “Victory Red” certainly didn’t help stop the war; but it did give a powerful rallying signal to women all over the United States increasing sales in spite of global rationing.

Your brand may need to adjust a product feature to make it more accessible in a new environment. (Think Zoom Backgrounds - sometimes we’re not working in a place that we want to share with alllllll of our co-workers.)

However you start, Trends are an excellent way to grow your global and local awareness. I recommend finding things that you like to nerd out about, and allow yourself to do just that. Dig into your favorite subject’s history, effect on culture and society, and evolution with the times. (See Barbie.)

Read everything. Watch everything. Look for the overlaps.

Start where you are, with what you’ve got, and do what you can.

You may find you’re actually pretty great at Trends.