2011: Trendspotting for the Next Decade

Are you a trendspotter? Do you know the secret forecasting secrets of professional trendspotters? Feel daunted by new ideas, trends, and the race to keep up?

Richard Laermer , author of the newly released “2011: Trendspotting for the Next Decade” tells us everything we need to know about trends, customers, brands, and smart sellers. (You have to buy the book to learn about Fnords, couchsurfing, ubiquity, Fred Trump and how cities were overtaken by lingerie.)

Richard Laermer is the nonstop author of six nonfiction guides to business including the prophetic Trendspotting and award-winning Full Frontal PR. He is the CEO of veteran trendspotting public relations firm RLM PR. He is also the host of nationally syndicated Unspun Radio and his book Punk Marketing was one of the top selling business books of 2007.

Q: What keeps you inspired to write more books?

Richard: I’m really a writer at heart, I started as a writer, my early career was as a full-time writer for newspapers and then a magazine journalist. I love writing.

Q: Your book is such a decadent read in terms of all the information businesses can take from it and benefit by doing so…

Richard: The book took me a year and half to write because there was so much to do and I just wanted to do it all. I really got steeped into what I do, how I do it and why I do it.

Q. What are businesses missing out on in terms of customers and connecting?

Richard: They need to do more listening. They need to talk to people who fit the demographics they want to reach, ask people what they are doing. Sometimes people think too much about the numbers and don’t actually invite the customers to really tell them how they’re feeling. Say to your customers, “What do you need, what is the one thing that’s pissed you off most about your experience with us?” Even just pointed email questions can help you.

Ask them for honesty, when you find people who actually might be your customer, you can’t pander to them. And remember influencers are real and they are people who will take time to talk about the product, and the access they got to people that asked them what they thought about the product.

Q: How do businesses stay better informed in terms of trends?

Richard: Go to a book store, get off the sidewalk and go into a mall and buy ten different magazines and read them cover to cover. Get everything. If you’re only looking at your own vertical, you’re too limited.

Keep a diary on trends, ask people what they see when they’re out on sales calls, what they hear about, get anecdotes. Have a party online where you give away prizes and ask people to share the stories they’ve heard – that’s how trends come out. That’s how the best media coverage works as well.

If you share it and it gets out and everybody is using that information, it’s a differentiator and there are very few of those available in these days. You want to show why you’re different, why you’re useful, but more than ever is why they should care.

My Favorite Trendspotting nuggets of wisdom from Laermer’s book:

Trend: “Since we are the most networked people in the history of history, you can’t get away with stating anything sloppily anymore. When communicating with your customer, be careful.

“A good trendspotter knows how to separate the wheat from the chaff, how to distinguish today’s passing fancy or fading passion from tomorrow’s something hot.”

Trend: Mediocrity is ending in the next year or so, as soon as we amble out of the 2000s.

Trend: Fame is morally neutral, so learn how to be more famous than ever before, or you are going to fail at gaining attention.” (“Fame is morally neutral.” Edward R. Murrow)

Trend: Consumers will look askance at companies that seem like they’re cool, but in a sense are just marketing themselves to appear that way. They’re fakes.

Trend: In the future, people in charge are going to say, “Enough with the spell check,” and everyone is going to be responsible for the work they produce (or don’t bother showing up).

Trend: In a society where we know everything, beta testing is no longer viable. It’s hooey – let the new product loose on a public that is with it not being perfect.

Here are my favorite new trendsetting words from the book:

Intrigesting, Laermered, TechoStalgia, Neo Laziness, Practactics, Peerspective, SpontaNoEity, Postponation and Disruptitude.

Here is my favorite Trend from the book, "We will all begin to realize that "being different" outside of work, that is, trying to be one person one hour, another during another, is an implausible waste of energy. Welcome to finding a career to match our personalities, circa 2011."


And as Louis Armstrong sang, "And I think to myself...what a wonderful world."

Welcome to the Back Flap

Welcome to this eclectic book blog. We'll feature author interviews, book reviews and our love of books. And along the way we'll tell you about some inspiring books, beach reads, comic books, fiction, and non-fiction, all focused on helping you with our virtual library recommendations of what you don't want to miss!