Does it annoy you yet?

The fact so many ads, posts, landing pages, and products look the same?

Because human beings are hardwired to want variety and novelty, I’m guessing all the copy-pasting that’s going on leaves a foul taste in your mouth the same way it leaves one in mine. 

Yet, what do we still do? Download the templates. Spend ridiculous amounts of money on trend analysis. Watch the trending topics section of our social media accounts.

Chasing a trend can feel like a shortcut to winning. After all, a trend suggests that, if you follow a specific, pre-cut path, the risk of failure is smashed to smithereens. You can feel good that you’re delivering what people want, too.

But what if people want OTHER things in addition to the trend?

What if you could be more yourself and still sell well, just by fully getting to know your audience and acknowledging what ELSE they’ll respond to?

What if you’re not delivering what ELSE could be a trend, just because you’re too focused on what you’ve already spotted?

What if you’re actually distorting the perception of what audiences want by forcing them, through limited choice, to select the trend again?

How much are you leaving on the table because you’re not looking at people 360 degrees?

How smart does chasing trends look now?

For details on how abandoning trends can work in your favor, read the Mind Uncensored newsletter on LinkedIn or explore the content below.

How do you currently see trend data as a personal or company brand? Leave a comment on LinkedIn!

Why Chasing Trends Will Kill Your Brand and Limit Success

Have you checked the trending section of your social media platforms today? What about what’s popular in your market?

Trends have become central to personal and professional operations. We use them to make some predictions about what others will pay attention to and buy, the thought being that if we can ride a trend wave, we can make serious cash. Who wouldn’t like that?

Trends also follow one of the first “laws” of business: Success happens when you figure out and deliver what people want. The idea is so foundational that most organizations make trend analysis a core part of their marketing and strategic planning.

Trends have a larger value in that, to a degree, they provide a mirror for the direction of culture. It says something about a given people when they go nuts for beverage containers, adult coloring books, or fast furniture.

But what if chasing trends is cutting your personal or professional brand authenticity off at the knees, preventing you from getting a holistic view of your audience?

The question people forget to ask

When people identify a trend, the assumption is that that path is the path. It becomes code for “what works.” Everybody starts doing the same thing to “deliver based on demand.” The same kind of products. The same style in ads. The same kind of sound, flow, and flash.

Over time, the adoption of the trend can become so pervasive that it becomes an industry standard, with the mentality shifting from “option” to “this is a must-do to survive.”

This process is built on a degree of truth. People did show interest. They did respond. But when a trend takes over, creators and companies typically fail to ask one critical question:

What else could audiences like that I’m not delivering that aligns with my authenticity?

If people can’t access kiwi, they’ll buy bananas

Trends tend to create tunnel vision around what audiences prefer, creating a rather one-dimensional portrait. As a result, creators and companies can completely miss other opportunities that fill other interests and preferences audiences might have.

Let’s take my industry — writing — as an example.

Right now, romance books are having a serious moment. Writers and publishers who look at this trend are producing tons of content in the genre as a result.

But as a reader, and as someone who watches comments from other readers on social media daily, I can tell you that most readers don’t pigeonhole themselves. The fact an audience likes romance books doesn’t mean they can’t also like a spy novel. Maybe they’d even read a memoir here and there or an anthology of existential poetry.

But how can they read those alternatives they see value in if nobody’s delivering those alternatives?

They can’t.

This has been one of my biggest frustrations as a wordsmith — because writers and publishers focus so much on trends, writers often chase pay and make more of what’s selling, denying what they’d prefer to write, while readers become more limited in what they can see and buy. The saving monkey wrench in this broken system is self-publishing, which is allowing writers to bypass big publishers and make more kinds of work available to readers.

But it’s the same with any other product or service. You might love kiwi fruit, but you’re going to buy bananas if the grocery store doesn’t make the kiwi available. In this way,

trends can become misleading and create a cycle of sameness. The more people buy a specific product or service based on sheer availability, the more creators and companies assume that that option is what people want, and the more they push to make and sell even more of it.

None of this erases practicality. You’re not going to be able to produce everything audiences like. But

if you assume that audiences like only what’s trending, you miss the chance to find what else they’d respond to that matches who you really are. Instead of being authentic, you bury your truly unique differentiators and never see your audience for how beautifully complex and dynamic they actually are.

Don’t be doomed — explore your audience

A trend represents one way you could make an audience happy. But failing to look beyond a trend dooms you to behave and look like everybody else in your industry.

If you want to more easily stand out, don’t ask what others are doing. Don’t compare or copy. Instead, get to know the audience fully. Deliver where there’s less competition and you can be yourself. You’ll never know what else audiences will respond to if you never give them a chance to try anything different.

The original version of this post appeared in Wanda Thibodeaux’s Mind Uncensored newsletter November 28, 2024. Like this content? Subscribe to Mind Uncensored!

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