Bianca Bartz
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The emergence of trend spotting and cool hunting companies is changing the way people approach business; Nokia, the world’s largest cellphone maker, is one of the latest mega businesses to utilize these creative individuals. Cool hunters make a living scouring the world for new innovations and pride themselves on identifying the next big thing. It’s actually Nokia’s division in India that stared up the Nokia Design program comprised of 60 college students from the Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology. “It is a place that Nokia thinks might yield the next big innovation,” LiveMint said. These students scour the streets, the media and the web for upcoming trends—just like we do here at Trend Hunter. They look at everything from street style to emerging technologies and eco-initiates, a give Nokia the scoop to help them continue to create the latest and greatest for the cell phone market.  Big firms are turning to such small and focused niche gro-ups in search of trends and also to better understand consumers, especially in complex, developing markets such as India and China. In the case of Nokia and Srishti, the firm hopes to get these ideas by assigning projects to students learning art, visual communication or product design.
“This school is very sensitive to picking up societal change,” says Blom.
A cool hunter might talk to people about their interests or hang out at coffee bars, popular night clubs or cyber cafes to pick up the latest in social norms, icons, street fashion, music or ways of communication. Though their work remains vague and often undefined, the right finding can translate into big money by helping brands identify what is cool, what icons local consumers identify with, or sometimes even introduce new products.
(livemint)References: livemint Filed In: |
