Industry & Market Trends

Industry/Market, Trends and Challenges 101

Sometimes requests will ask for trends only, challenges only, or a mix of both. The information below guides you through both trends and challenges but only research and write about what the client needs.

OVERVIEW: TRENDS

Industry trends, from the past, current, and future, include those practices employed by top-of-the-market and/or innovative companies and brands within an industry. “Trends” can include practices that create efficiencies, make businesses more effective, and offer a high level of customer or product satisfaction.

SOURCING: IDENTIFYING TRENDS

Step 1: Identifying Trends

Start simply with Google search strings like “trends reusable bottle market” or “current trends US sports apparel”. Look for what industry experts are saying are the most-current or innovative trends in the marketplace for the industry within your request.

If you cannot find any trends in this way, drill down with a more specific search using keywords from the query (or your own market research), specific geographical regions, or particular years.

A third way to approach this is to find out which brands are industry leaders and explore what they are doing innovatively, and detail those for the client. Make sure the items you choose come from more than one industry leader.

Step 2: Recency

Ensure that any sources you find are no older than 2 years. If they are older and you believe they are important, you must explain why you used the source in your source notes and/or source summary notes.

Step 3: Methodology

If the request asks for “top” trends, or “biggest” trends facing a certain industry or company, you must clearly explain what criteria you used to determine your research strategy and why your findings are what they are. Best practice is to always describe how you researched the request so the source reviewer and writer completely understand your thought process.

OVERVIEW: CHALLENGES

Industry challenges include those items that are holding back companies in the marketplace: difficulties that trends tend to address.

SOURCING: IDENTIFYING CHALLENGES

Step 1: Identifying Challenges

Like when identifying trends, start simply with Google search strings like “challenges reusable bottle market” or “current challenges US sports apparel”. Look for what industry experts are saying are the most-current or most-widespread challenges in the marketplace for the industry within your request.

If you cannot find any challenges in this way, drill down more specifically with your search, use search filters, or explore the major issues faced by companies/brands within the industry. SWOT Analysis of a market/industry or multiple companies within an industry are good places to find these, as a last resort.

Step 2: Recency

Step 3: Methodology

If the request asks for “top” challenges, or “biggest” challenges facing a certain industry or company, you must clearly explain what criteria you used to determine your research strategy and why your findings are what they are. Best practice is to always describe how you researched the request so the source reviewer and writer completely understand your thought process.

WRITING: STRUCTURING YOUR RESPONSE

When writing a response to a trends / challenges request, follow these steps for success.

Step 1: An Overview

This provides a one-sentence description of each trend/challenge.

Step 2: Methodologies

An explanation of the methodologies used in determining the trends/challenges. You should be able to use the sourcers’ summary notes for this section.

Step 3: Separate sections for each trend/challenge

Provide a detailed overview of what the trend/challenge is, why it is problematic, and how companies in the industry are addressing it. Make sure to include at least two companies for each as examples. Use simple headers like “Trend #1: Reduced Email Marketing” or “Challenge #4: Not Modifying Marketing Per Demographic”. Make sure these are formatted as headers using the Wonder text editor.

Step 4: Create Insights

These can likely use the sentences you used from step 1. Insights should list each trend/challenge and provide interesting facts about the industry or companies/brands within that industry.

Step 5: Conclusion

Wrap up your work with a short conclusion that reiterates learnings. It’s ok if this overlaps with the Insights or Overview.

Best Practices

Recency

Trends/challenges should be no more than two years old, otherwise it is not considered current. The more-recent items you can find, the better, as in most cases. If you were not able to write about recent trends or challenges, you must clearly explain why in the methodologies section.

5- STAR EXAMPLES

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