who are trend setters???

Trendsetters are consumers who are ahead of the curve, dictating what the mainstream sees as “cool.” They have a deep hunger for newness, and as a result, they make ideal research respondents for any company who wants to remain hip and relevant to this generation.

Initial response from some clients about trendsetters tends to be: “Why would I study trendsetters? My target is the mainstream.” But trendsetter research is not about appealing to trendsetters; it’s about using trendsetters to understand where the mainstream is going. Trendsetters provide a portal to the future of your target.

To identify and properly use trendsetters, it helps to define what you need from them. Some trendsetters are attitudinal leaders. These are people who live a broadly aspirational lifestyle, and have an amazing ability to articulate the shifting values of their own generation. We look to them for ideas about larger societal trends such as gender or workplace issues.

Trendsetters can also be recruited to match a level of forwardness that is right for your objectives. Maybe you need the most cutting-edge trendsetter in your category, the Initiator, who lives in Brooklyn, makes his own music and clothes, and reads underground blogs created by his friends. Or maybe you need the slightly less forward Influencer, who uses the newest popular social networking tools and listens to bands that haven’t quite hit MTV, but will soon. Or maybe you need just one step up from the mainstream: the girl who fills her iPod with all the brand-new hits and buys the latest styles in the mall, only to be copied by all of her friends. We are experts at categorizing trendsetters based on these subtle differences