Brand Relevance: Making Competitors Irrelevant - always yours

204 BRAND RELEVANCE
had a smaller plane in the planning stage. As a result, information
could be fi ltered and interpreted by both parties in order to
support their preferred strategies.
Evaluating Trends
The goal is to evaluate an offering and its associated category
or subcategory. However, because offerings will be motivated in
part by a marketplace or societal trend, the evaluation of a trend
should have a role in the overall evaluation process. Is it real
or a fad that will fade or even collapse? Will it persist or even
surge? It is crucial to evaluate correctly trends that are expected
to drive growth for a new offering and its associated category
and subcategory.
It can be damaging to miss an important trend. Schwinn,
the classic name in bicycles, proclaimed mountain biking a fad
in 1985 with disastrous results for its market position and, ultimately,
its corporate health.
It can be more damaging to assume a trend is strong when it
is weak or nonexistent. A “ mirage ” trend might last long enough
to attract investment that could have been productively used
elsewhere.
Some key questions:
What is driving the trend? The source of power and energy
of a trend is a key predictor of its strength. A trend, as opposed
to a fad, will have a solid foundation with legs. Trends are more
likely to be driven by demographics (rather than pop culture),
values (rather than fashion), lifestyle (rather than a trendy
crowd), or technology (rather than media). 9 There is thus substance
behind the trend that is enduring while a fad will have
little substance behind it. If there is a confl uence of two forces,
such as technology and lifestyle, the trend will be more stable.
Consider for example the forces behind the Twitter and
Facebook surges. Faith Popcorn observes that fads are about
products, whereas trends are about what drives consumers to