We founded Trend Influence back in "the year 2000" (I love how that sounds!) because strategic brand discipline is in our DNA and we have always had the desire and drive to understand how to bring this 'fuzzy science' into the realm of applicable knowledge. Since those first heady days, we have been enlisted by many of the world’s leading companies to help them gain insight into trends and trend influencers (not always who you think they are!). We identify trends and their macro social drivers in order to understand 'white space' implications for our clients. These implications often lead to innovative new products, brands or communications strategies.
Knowing who to observe and understanding how to observe is our calling card. Our dedicated and professional team have two common threads – we operate at the vanguard of consumer understanding, market intelligence and strategic planning, and we are all consumer culture junkies!
We spend a lot of time studying trends and decoding culture here. We’ve studied their origins as well as their trajectories and outcomes, and you know what we discovered? Consumer behavior movements, regardless of size, participants, or thematic aspects, begin not at some catalytic moment in time but rather through an extended, considered, albeit disjointed period of development. Trends are a result of a collective set of responses shared by small groups of humans addressing unmet needs in specific ways as a result of lifestyle or cultural influences. The similar trajectories of these small cells of human behavior collectively become a major longitudinal force, e.g. a trend. Whew! That was a mouthful, but it’s true! We can prove it. Even better, we can show you how to capitalize on them.
The net-net is that we have a pretty good idea of 'how' to get to the 'why' people do what they do (regardless of what they say they do) and through some fun work for some great clients like Volkswagen and The Coca-Cola Company, we met our future partners, MDC Partners. In spring 2007 MDC Partners acquired a majority stake in Trend Influence enabling us to continue to grow and develop our processes and services, focusing on increasing our international experience and adding a bevy of additional capabilities.