Robyn Waters, former vice president of Trend, Design, and Product Development for Target, Inc.
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Robyn Waters, author of The Trendmaster's Guide: Get a Jump on What Your Customer Wants Next, isn't all that intent on finding the “next big thing.”
“I want to help you figure out what’s important to your customer, to your market, to your guest profile,” said Target's former vice president of trend, design and product development to members of the Retail Consortium for Management Education on February 22.
“Trends are signposts, pointing to not just what's next out there in the marketplace. They're telling you what's going on in the hearts and minds of the consumer,” said Waters, who left Target three years ago to consult. Target was a $3 billion company with five people in the trend department when Waters came on board. Ten years later, the company had grown to $48 billion, and now has 120 people in the department.
During her 30 years of tracking and translating trends into sales and profit, Waters also discovered that there isn't just one next big thing. “There are many different next big things. And it really depends on who your customers are, in terms of what the trends are that matter,” she said. “Trends are things that make sense for a reason.”
Waters used brilliant storytelling and examples to lead participants on a fun and interesting journey through the alphabet to learn about trends and how to become trendmasters:
Antennae: Keep it constantly up. Keep your radar on, and your scanners turned on high.
Big Picture: Step back; what's really going on here?
Connect the Dots: The idea is to connect with people's values in a way that makes sense, bringing profit to your bottom line.
Design: The foundation of product development. Design is an endless opportunity, a tool that you use to take the trend and translate it to your guest to create new products.
Edit: Get to what's really important. After returning from a trend spotting trip, consider the 10 best things that you saw, or what were the three most important ideas? You have to put a stake in the ground somewhere.
Fusion: Many trends interact, and can be fused together in a way that makes them much more meaningful. Yogurt in a tube fused the trends of healthier snacks, convenience, and kids' desire to be cool and spawned an entire trend in the packaging industry.
Grace and Guts: Leadership requires both. How do you become first to market and how do you do it gracefully? One gutsy, graceful execution of a completely new idea generated attendance at an art museum and revitalized a whole city. Grace is a vital part of the formula if you want long-term success and not just be a flash in the pan.
Head, Handbag and Heart (the Three H Design Theory): Handbag is about value. “I'll buy it because it's on sale.” Head says, “I'm out of toilet paper. Better run into Target to stock up.” Heart says, “I'm filling up my cart with things that I didn't know I wanted when I walked in the door. It's my heart that tells me I love it, that I have to have it.”
Instinct and Intuition: We've forgotten about the right side of our brains. Albert Einstein said: “Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.”
Just for Me: This is about personalization and individualization, one of the biggest current macrotrends (mass customization). What about me?
Keep it Simple: By keeping it simple, Krispy Kreme found a way to really connect with its customers.
Lighten Up: You want your customers to think, “How cool” or “Isn't that fun?”
Magic Button: This is about connecting with your guests or your customers. What's important to them? Not just what satisfies them. What delights them?
No Secrets: This healthy trend has to do with authenticity, leadership, and knowing that what you put out there needs to be real and transparent.
Observation: Yogi Berra, Waters' trend hero, said, “You can observe a lot just by watching.” We don't do enough of that.
Passion and Possibilities: There are many different ways to design something to satisfy your guests. If you have enough passion behind a product, you have a good shot of getting that product on the shelves: for example, the Roomba.
Quintessence: This is about simplicity and things that are inherently good: Cracker Jacks, Swiss Army knives, Converse sneakers. A great quintessential product means not a lot of bells, not a lot of whistles.
Resonate: Hitting the right notes consistently, something resonant has an amplified effect. You want your product to stand out, to connect to your customers' values.
Soul: You instantly recognize it when you see it. It's about how it makes you feel, and it involves leveraging great design.
Translate: Take a trend and translate it into something meaningful to your customers. There is not just one right way. With eight notes in the musical scale, think of how many songs are possible.
Unabashed Enthusiasm: Help people get excited about new things, new ways of seeing. Sometimes, enthusiasm alone can carry a product to the shelves.
Voracious Appetite for Knowledge: Look for wisdom, not just knowledge, in books, magazines, and the Internet. Constantly read and learn.
Walk in Other Worlds: Take a risk once in a while. Get out of your box.
(E)xaggerate: Capture people's attention; exaggerate the benefits.
Yum, Yuck and Yawn: Take very seriously how your gut feels about something. Use both sides of your brain. To decide whether to go ahead with a product, take Waters' Yum Yuck Yawn test described in her book.
Zen: There is no one next big thing, there are many and they are opposites. It's being comfortable with trend/countertrend, yin/yang, left brain/right brain.
Waters also previewed her next book due out in October, The Hummer and the Mini: Navigate the Contradictions of the New Trend Landscape, the subject of which is embracing paradox. She developed paradoxical macrotrends for RCME participants: everything old is new again, mass customization, luxurious commodities, extreme relaxation, social capitalism, and the paradox of success.
“As a consultant, I'm a little different from most. I tell people, I don't have answers. I have ideas and possibilities.”
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