The Dynamic Factors Shaping Sales: Trends, Styles, and Consumer Desires
Common business problem number 8: market changes
I spent most of my career in the consumer products industry, namely in clothing, toys and seed products.
One of the benefits of selling consumer products is that it can be a relatively low barrier to entry. That means it doesn’t require much capital to get started. You can print a hundred t-shirts and start selling them under your new, super cool apparel label without a huge investment.
However, there is a big con that people often don’t pay attention to which is the necessity to take into consideration trends, styles and consumer desires. And that has led to failure after failure of some of the most iconic brands.
Trends: Cabbage Patch Kids
The Cabbage Patch Kids was a line of cloth dolls with plastic heads with soft fabric bodies, first produced in 1982 by Coleco Industries. It was said that they “grew” in a cabbage patch and no two were the same. And you didn’t buy them, you adopted them. Cute.
