Trend Hunters Shed Light on Gen Y Culture

As Generation Y slowly transitions into the demographic with the most disposable income (see earlier post here), marketers must continually revise their understanding of youth pop culture and fads in order to market to this segment effectively.

Giving a little guidance to those out-of-touch marketers trying to stay "in the know" are a group of young, tech-savvy, Internet watchdogs known as trendspotters. This group of individuals, hosting web sites such as coolhunting.com, trendcentral.com, and trendhunter.com, are becoming so popular that they have become corporate entities themselves.

Trendhunter.com identifies trendspotting as the "the science of identifying emerging shifts in our social behavior and aspirations." A more practical view is given by expert trendspotter Josh Spear, who says that he is merely searching for cool things that are "not popular – yet."

With companies such as Nielsen BuzzMetrics and Forrester providing detailed research tools to marketers with a price tag, trendspotting web sites offer a viable – and cheap – alternative for insights in to the Generation Y culture.

As the holiday shopping season enters full swing, expect products that receive the green light from the trendspotters to be filling shopping carts and expanding the wallets of the marketers behind them.

Check out this article from The Times Online to learn more.