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The Trendmaster's Guide: Get a Jump on What Your Customer Wants Next (Hardcover)

by Robyn Waters (Author)
Key Phrases: Mini Cooper, Krispy Kreme, Good Home

3.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)

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Product Description
According to Robyn Waters, it’s a myth that trends can only be spotted early by überhip Bohemian types who are ever so much cooler than everyone else.

She ought to know. As Target’s former VP of Trend, Design, and Product Development, Waters helped a dowdy regional discount chain become a national fashion destination. Today she consults for many different companies to help them stay ahead of the curve.

The Trendmaster’s Guide features her favorite tips and examples for understanding and anticipating trends. Every letter from A to Z offers an insight to help readers navigate the unknown and prepare for whatever their costomers want next. It’s a quick read that packs a lot of insight between "A is for antennae" and "Z is for Zen."

Anyone can use the tools in The Trendmaster’s Guide to become more aware of the world around them. Even if you weren’t born with a trendspotting bone in your body, you don’t have to be a follower forever. No one these days can afford to just be catching on when others are already moving on.

Waters stresses that recognizing and reacting to trends is a learned skill, and it can be acquired without spending time in the streets of Milan or the high schools of Orange County. If you’ve ever witnessed a trend unfolding and said to yourself, "I should have seen this coming," there’s hope. You too can become a trendmaster.

About the Author
Robyn Waters is the former vice president of Trend, Design, and Product Development at Target, where she worked with designers such as Philippe Starck and Todd Oldham to reinvent everything from teapots to lamps. She is currently a consultant.

Product Details

Hardcover: 144 pages
Publisher: Portfolio Hardcover (June 2, 2005)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1591840910
ISBN-13: 978-1591840916
Product Dimensions: 7.1 x 5.3 x 0.8 inches
Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)

Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #633,202 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Mini Cooper, Krispy Kreme, Good Home

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This book cites 9 books:

The Hungry Spirit by Charles Handy in Back Matter
Leading the Revolution by Gary Hamel in Back Matter
The Rise of the Creative Class: And How It's Transforming Work, Leisure, Community and Everyday Life by Richard Florida in Back Matter
The Age of Paradox by Charles Handy in Back Matter
Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable by Seth Godin in Back Matter

See all 9 books this book cites

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8 Reviews

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11 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Some of the biggest ideas come in small packages, June 2, 2005

By	Robert Morris (Dallas, Texas) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)

Don't be fooled by this book's diminutive size and brief length. The content is rock-solid and thought-provoking. Waters' suggestions and recommendations are eminently practical. This book is also written with a style which has Snap! Crackle! and Pop! Usually an A to Z organizing principle is merely a gimmick. Not so in this instance. Waters offers a series of brief but stimulating discussions of 26 subjects which range from A (Antennae by which to "tune in to the little things, the trivial nuances, and the irrelevant data which everyone else misses") to Z (Zen which embraces opposites, paradoxes, contradictions, etc. while celebrating duality and embraces polarity). Waters urges her reader to learn to practice "the Zen of trend."

As she carefully differentiates, a "trend tracker" is someone who is alert for indications that help his or her business to stay [begin italics] up to the minute [end italics] whereas what she calls a "Trendmaster" uses that information to determine [begin italics] where that minute is going [end italics]. Years ago when asked to explain his effectiveness as a hockey player, Wayne Gretzky replied that others know where the puck is while he knows where it is going to be. Larry Bird once said that when he played basketball, he saw plays develop as if in slow motion and he could "see" exactly what would happen next. There are countless other examples of precisely the same skills on which Waters focuses, all of which almost anyone can possess and then improve.

She may be overstating the case when suggesting that what she recommends is a "new way of looking at the world." The fact remains, however, that her insights will seem "new" to those readers who were previously unaware of "the invisibility of the obvious" and may have been captive to what Jim O'Toole calls "the ideology of comfort and the tyranny of custom." As a result, they have failed to recognize seemingly insignificant indications of emerging trends which (sooner rather than later) determine success or failure in any competitive marketplace.

I highly recommend this book, especially to decision-makers in small-to-midsize companies which have limited resources and thus must somehow do more and do it better, do it sooner, and with less. I agree with Warren Buffett who said something to the effect that "price is what you charge but value is what others think it's worth." This is especially true of current and prospective customers. Mastering the use of various tools which Waters provides will help each reader to become a Trendmaster. Because trends evolve in sometimes unexpected directions, the same tools and skills can then be used to make necessary adjustments of the given strategies and tactics.

Waters includes a brief section, Recommended Reading, in which she lists a number of outstanding sources. To them I presume to add five others: Thomas S. Kuhns's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Joel A. Barker's Paradigms: The Business of Discovering the Future, Eileen C. Shapiro and Howard H. Stevenson's Make Your Own Luck: 12 Practical Steps to Taking Smarter Risks in Business, and two by William Bridges, Transitions and Managing Transitions. To varying degrees, all five of these books develop in much greater depth several of Waters' core concepts.

She does include Seth Godin's Purple Cow on her list (which I think is terrific) but his recently published All Marketers Are Liars is, in my opinion, even more relevant to those who intend to become a Trendmaster. So, I recommend reading both of Grodin's books as well as Waters'.

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8 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Fulfilling a Dream, July 10, 2005

By	Dennis B. H. Ang "bakhwee" (Singapore) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The book purportedly has 26 ideas (A to Z) but being a consultant, she gave very little away to the reader. One would just have to read and make the quantum leap yourself. Most of the more detailed sharing were from her days at Target. All in all, the book fulfils her dream of writing and publishing a book and that is about it.

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Infantile, April 13, 2009

By	Lightman (New York) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

A is for Apple.

B is for Bunny.

C is for Cookie.

We're all familiar with these sorts of books from reading to our kids - usually in the age 2-4 category.

This is the format that Robyn Waters, self-styled trendmaster par excellence has chosen for this book.

Given the nature of this work, it's a good choice. In the introduction Waters writes, "My goal is to simplify and demystify the art and science of trend". Instead, what she's succeeded in doing is writing a skimpy and simplistic book that insults the intelligence of her reader.

So - A is for Antennae.

B is for Big Picture.

C is for Connect the Dots.

And so it goes...

The main content is a conglomeration of anecdotes and stories about products the author apparently likes. Some may be mildly interesting, but certainly nothing rises to the level of helping the reader to "Get a jump on what your customer wants next".

Along the way we encounter platitudes, nonsense, and much that's just inane. A couple of examples -

"When you're faced with an important decision, why not try the Trend Taste Test? Think. Feel. Swallow. Yum? Yuck? Yawn? You know what to do next".

"Think of each small trend you observe as a thread that you can weave, twist, braid, knit, or splice together with other common strands into a tapestry of opportunity. Get creative. Create a masterpiece".

OK, I think you get the idea.

Trust me, if you skip this one, you won't be missing a trend.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars My new business partner
Fast, fun and, better yet, memorable. Since reading the book, I've put Robyn's A to Z advice to work in my business. Read more

Published 9 months ago by Beverly Bachel

1.0 out of 5 stars This Book = Not Worth Your Time
Frankly, not impressed at all with this book nor its writer. Full of fluff and "truthiness" (a person who claims to know something intuitively, instinctively, or "from the gut"... Read more

Published on December 11, 2006 by Jack Johnson

1.0 out of 5 stars Save Your Time and Money on This Awful Book!
This book was very disappointing, to say the least. It was terribly superficial and shallow, and lacked any intellectual sense of marketing expertise. Read more

Published on January 9, 2006 by Couture LeMas

5.0 out of 5 stars Tendmaster's Guide is the new trend
This book is the trend catechism, a must-have for any company or department trying to understand how to make their company, products or services more appealing to consumers. Read more

Published on August 20, 2005 by Patrick Hanlon, Thinktopia, Inc.

5.0 out of 5 stars Pithy & Powerful
I have never read so much in so small a space. Ms. Waters has captured the essence of trend-watching she's obviously learned from her years in business (especially as a... Read more

Published on July 26, 2005 by George Z. Lopuch

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