Is it time to rebrand trend research? - MediaCat

Organizations often don’t have the time nor resources dedicated to these types of analyses and forecasts, or don't have their antennae tuned precisely to separate signal from noise. Clients are also biased. They work with their own truths. Cultural strategists and semioticians provide both external insight and foresight.

When it comes to these services, some clients have a perception that while the work will be interesting, it may not necessarily be useful – a mere coffee table book to spark conversations. For these semiotic insights to succeed and inspire action, we must go beyond just the research and into the realm of application. It’s not enough to paint a pict... See more

I’ve been thinking a lot about what is (or is not) a trend . Merriam-Webster defines “trend” as “the general movement over time of a statistically detectable change.” If fashion publications are all eagerly covering a particular item or style, thus causing a “statistically detectable change” in how much coverage something is getting, does that make... See more

Brands and commodities therefore need to be considered and critiqued on the basis of the specific cultural and economic contributions they make to society. People co-create their identities with brands just as they do with religions, communities, and other other systems of meaning. This constructivist view is incompatible with popular forms of post... See more