Trendspotter

Track your trend's potential with these questions.

Henrik Vejlgaard, author of Anatomy of a Trend, offers the following questions as a means of determining whether something is a trend:

• Was the trend first adopted by one or more of these groups: young people, designers, artists, gay men, performing artists/celebrities or wealthy people?
  
• Are there many people among these groups who have adopted the trend?
  
• Did the trend gain a following in Los Angeles, New York City or San Francisco?
  
• Is the trend observable in two or all three of these cities?
  
• Are media that have typical trendsetters as a target audience writing about the trend?

Says Vejlgaard, "If you can answer yes to these questions, this is a trend that will go mainstream."

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This article was originally published in the March 2008 print edition of Entrepreneur's StartUps with the headline: Trendspotter.