Kathryn's Sharebook 

A fad starts out from somewhere and seems to gain popularity among a small group initially. As the fad finds itself being observed by a much larger group of people amused by the antics of its faddishness, so begins the cycle. This can be a fashion item, high-tech gizmo, celebrity, entertainment curiosity, and the like. As more and more people begin to follow the fad and emulate its antics, it develops into a craze. Until someone clever enough to devise a way to make money out of the craze and it becomes a retail item. Everybody follows suit and the retail item soon becomes aspirational.

Pied Piper

The fanfare that accompanies fads and crazes resembles the sights and sounds of the proverbial parade doing the rounds of the town. As the band aboard its wagon plays its Pied Piper tune, everybody else hitches their wagons to it. The bandwagon extends the life of the fad as it exposes itself to a broader consumer group that its phenomenon conjures along the way. The next events that follow tell the story of retail springing up from mere fad and then the trail of business exploitation that accompanies it.

Big-time retail

As soon as big retail business sniffs the fad out from the media or any other well-informed source, it quickly cashes in on its relevance and begins mining its potential as a viable commodity. It seduces its creator, inventor or innovator with a worthwhile deal. As soon as an agreement is forged, you have a new thing coming at the stores soon. It will be packaged, branded and marketed as heavily as the retailer can afford to do so. The fad that has turned into a craze soon develops into the latest retail item trending in the consciousness of the consumer.

A whole new retail product/service business model is thus brought to life. It will come with its inimitable brand story, retail method, and value delivery and can even be made available to you, the average consumer, via business telecom like, say, a RingCentral toll free number. In the process, a brand is born. In some cases, new companies are born too. Depending on how well the company and its new retail item or commodity is marketed to the various consumer groups it appeals to, the fad-turned-craze-turned-retail item-turned-trendy item will rake it in for the manufacturer and retailer. The inventor-creator-innovator, depending on what kind of deal he/she has signed up into with any company, will also be making a lot of money, ideally.

Enter the competitor

The trendy item will be in vogue for a certain period of time. How well the retailer handles its novelty as a product determines how long consumers may find it aspirational to buy and own one. The bandwagon continues as more and more people buy into the trendy item’s idea as purveyed by its retailers. Updated versions of the item will be created to satisfy more consumers both old and new. Accessories will be thought up, manufactured and sold alongside the trendy item to bolster the product even further and the sales figures will balloon. Until competitors also cash in on the trendy item and the cycle goes into its penultimate stage.

The saturation point

The demand for the trendy item will hit its all-time high and it will be irresistible for the retailer’s competitors to just let this slide without a decent fight. They come up with their own versions of the trendy item and a price war ensues together with marketing pitched battles. Imitations and knock-off products by lesser imaginative retail industry players will join the fray and further drive prices down to cutthroat level. The trendy item soon experiences a plateau in its viability especially as its aspirational product novelty dips. Consumers by now have become fatigued by its over-exposure. The once trendy item has hit its market saturation point. It’s the end of the retail parade. Whatever fanfare you hear now are mere echoes of the bandwagon that went laughing all the way to the bank --- yesterday.