| Use these sources to identify business opportunities for new products and services as well as to analyze threats and opportunities in your own industry. See also our PEST Analysis guide for additional sources of political, economic, social and technological trends. 
Major Sources
- Faith Popcorn is a well-known analyst of trends that are driving changes in products and services. Search Factiva: trends and atleast2 faith popcorn
- The Futurist . Bi-monthly. World Future Society. - Browse in Horn Library or via ProQuest: View the Table of Contents first for the articles in the World Trends and Forecasts section. Brief articles are grouped under the following headings: Technology, Society, Government, Demography, Environment and Economics.
The Futurist provides an article summarizing worldwide trends. Recent articles included the following: -
Outlook 2008: Recent Forecasts from World Future Society for 2008 and Beyond. The Futurist. Nov/Dec 2007. Vol. 41, No. 6; p. 29+ (9 pages). Outlook 2007. The Futurist. Nov/Dec 2006. Vol. 40, No. 6, pp.S1-9. 53 Trends Shaping the Future
"Trends Shaping the Future: Economic, Societal, and Environment Trends," by Marvin J. Cetron and Owen Davies. The Futurist. Mar/Apr 2005. Vol. 39, Iss. 2; p. 27 (16 pages) "Trends Shaping the Future: Technological, workplace, management, and institutional trends," by Marvin J Cetron, Owen Davies. The Futurist. May/Jun 2005. Vol. 39, Iss. 3; p. 37 (14 pages) - Entrepreneur. Hot List. - each December issue has prediction on hottest business concepts and trends for the coming year. View initial article as well as following 10 or so pages.
- TRENDWATCHING.COM - Monthly newsletter on emerging international consumer trends. See also their site for new business ideas
INFLUX Insights - brief reports trends and how companies are using them "Ten Trends to watch in 2006" McKinsey Quarterly web exclusive. January 2006. You must register at site to view article. Low-Cost Methods for Spotting Customer Trends - from Startup Junkies.org
Demographic Trends
IBISWorld - Each industry report reports on trends in that industry.
- Population Profile of the United States. Every two years. United States Bureau of the Census. - The profile The latest published version of the Population Profile used 1999 data primarily and provides the most recent information on each topic as of October 2001.
American Demographics analyzes current population, psychographic and other market trends and their market implications. For example, the "Foresight is 20/20" series their July/Aug 2004 issue provides the outlook from 11 futurists. 
Trends in Specific Areas
- IBISWorld - each industry report reports on trends in that industry.
- MarketResearch.com Academic- In depth reports on population segments and consumer products. Browse topics by using Advanced Search and selecting Published: In the Last Year. Narrow to a particular category if you like. When searching for a particular topic, search all dates.
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About.com Retail Industry: Retail Trends and Hot Topics
- Standard & Poor's NetAdvantage - use in-depth overviews of major industries to derive business opportunities.
- ProQuest- Try searching: (trends or outlook) and yourtopic where yourtopic is an industry or product or population group. Example: (trends or outlook) and teen* (* retrieves different word endings)
Factiva - Example: industry trends and restaurants
RDS Bizsuite - combine the Concept Term: trends with your Industry. - See also our guide for PEST analysis.
Trend Trackers
Search the Library Catalog, ProQuest and EBSCOhost for books and articles by the authors Stan Davis & Christopher Meyer (Blur, It's Alive), Marvin J. Cetron and Owen Davies, as well as the authors below. Institute for Global Futures - the future gurus with focus on technology. - John Naisbitt & Patricia Aburdene - Authors of Megatrends.
- Faith Popcorn - search Factiva: trends and atleast2 faith popcorn
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- Yankelovich - Babson does not subscribe to their service, but some of his analysis is reported in the media. Try searching Factiva using the following strategy: atleast3 yankelovich
- TRENDWATCHING.COM - Monthly newsletter on emerging international consumer trends. See also their site for new business ideas
Compiled by Frances Nilsson |
