Trends shape markets and can impact businesses in many ways. Understanding how to identify and react to them is an essential skill for marketers, product managers, and other business leaders looking to stay relevant in their industries. But relying on instinct alone can lead to missed opportunities, misaligned budgets and messaging that doesn’t resonate with consumers. This is where reliable market trend analysis can help.
Whether you’re tracking a new consumer demand like bamboo baby clothes or the drop in popularity of Alexa, analyzing trends can give you a deeper sense of how consumers are responding to broader cultural shifts. It can also tell you if that trend is sustainable, whether it’s a seasonal pattern or a long-term shift in consumer behavior.
There are several different approaches to identifying and performing trend analysis, including technical and fundamental techniques. In the world of trading, a trend is defined as an upward or downward movement in the price of an asset over a specific period of time. A common way to track these movements is by creating what are known as trend lines, which are straight lines that connect a series of price points (highs and lows) and extend into the future. These are commonly used in both technical and fundamental analysis.