Trending Waters

Yesterday afternoon my 5 yr old and I hit our local library. At the moment our neigbhorhood library is a temporary building as they complete construction on the new one. See rendering above. I'm a little too excited about the new one opening April 10th!!!

Anyway prior to our visit to the temporary libary yesterday, I had never set foot in the place. MLK Library on G street is our usual spot. I had been going there for well over 10 years. As my son was picking out every Dinosaur book ever written, I headed straight to the adult non-fiction. My son narrowed his armful of books down to 3.


I ended up finding this cool little 100 pager The Trendmaster's Guide Get a Jump on What Your Customer Wants Next by Robyn Waters. I started the book early this morning while on the train to work and finished it after I picked up the kids from school. Waters is a former vice president of trend, design and product development for one of my favorite stores Target.

The book offers an A to Z approach for understanding and spotting trends. One thing that stood out to me was 3H Design Theory which highlights the three main reasons a customer buys something.

Head-about the need -
TGS example I'm out of toilet paper.

Handbag-value and price-
TGS example Wow check out that deal. Maybe I should get 3 of them.

Heart-the desire
TGS example I absolutely adore that Mondrian.I have to add it to my collection.

In the guide Waters quoted Middle Eastern Philosophy and promots everything TGS stands behind. The TGS motto is "smalltown simplicity, big city tenacity"

The idea of mass customization dismisses the original definition of the word trend. Waters says "Trend for the sake of trend is not very trendy. The new mantra is "just for me "

Today's consumer is all about personalization and individuality. Anywho I know I'm geeking out a little here. I just signed up for Waters's newsletter and can't wait to read "The Hummer and the Mini: Navigating the Contradictions of the New Trend Landscape."

TGS APPROVED! GET THIS LIT!!