The Real Driving Forces
by Wanda Jankowski, Editor-in-Chief

At the end of the first long day at Heimtextil in Frankfurt, I had a little time before retiring. Reading proved too taxing, so on went the television. The only programs in English were the news networks’ coverage of the New Hampshire primaries.

What an interesting evening it was, not because my candidate did or did not win, but because the voting results—as with the Iowa caucuses—didn’t turn out exactly the way the media’s polls and political pundits predicted.

Isn’t it refreshing that the people through their votes are saying, “Wait a minute. You don’t have us all figured out. We’re going to do what we want and not what you say we want.”

Ultimately, no matter what trends are observed or forecasted during New York Home Fashions Week, at Heimtextil, Maison et Objet or at market events across the country, if your customer base doesn’t want them for whatever reason, they aren’t going to sell for you.

According to Unity Marketing’s Pam Danziger, the fine/formal watch market has been booming from 2004 to 2006. In Unity Marketing’s Jewelry & Watch Report 2007, half of surveyed consumers aged 18-to-34 agreed with the statement: “I generally don’t wear a watch much anymore, since I use my cellphone to keep time.” For young consumers, who embrace a casual lifestyle, a fine, formal watch no longer holds attraction as a coveted status symbol either.

“If I were a watch marketer, this attitude, which is so prominent among young consumers, would keep me awake at night,” Danziger says.

The first wristwatches appeared in 1900. Now, not-so-slowly because of recent technological advances, they are becoming unnecessary, replaced not by an upgraded model, but by a completely different device that happens to include its function.

I don’t think young people will opt to live without bedding and towels anytime soon, but the point of the above information is that you can’t lose track of who the goods that reflect trends are for, and what lifestyle developments are affecting their preferences.

Whether it’s the New York market, Heimtextil or other market events, regardless of what is shown or predicted there, it’s all about editing through the trends, options and opinions, and focusing on how they relate to your customers, who are changing every day and who continue to say, “We’re going to buy what we want.”