Remember when neon socks were all the rage?
A cautionary tale of trends
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Maybe you don’t remember, maybe you weren’t about then, but there was a time in the late 80s when school girls across the land were sporting neon socks with their school uniform and it was honestly one of the best and most affordable trends of which I’ve ever partaken! It was the start of the early 90s neon craze.
I had those socks in pink, yellow, green and orange. I’m not usually one to jump on a bandwagon. Especially with clothes. And even at a young age. In fact, if something is “in”, I’m usually out. So much so that when I mistakenly wore two different shoes to work one day (one was a shoe, one was a trainer), people noticed but didn’t say anything.
They just thought it was “a Danielle thing”. Clearly, I follow my own stylistic path! Except for this occasion when I was 8 or 9 and I was lured by the bright colours and the ease of adding a little pop of sumpin sumpin to my school outfit, without it being too dramatic.
Does that mean that neon socks were good? Best style decision ever? No. (Although to be honest I would still wear them now). It didn’t denote longevity or excellence in sock making. You could call it a success, but that depends on your view of success. It took another 30ish years for neon to reappear in the clothing trend. What I’m getting at here, is that what’s shiny and new, or on-trend, can lead to a very wobbly path. What I call the camel effect. In other words, what’s popular and often done, doesn’t equate to quality or success.
When you want something to be a success, whatever the metric, what you usually want is an uplift. A rise. An increase. Steady, fast or slow. A few downs are normal. And natural. But when you rely on trends, you get the camel effect. A constant, hump-like bobbing up and down. Rises that fall and never really rise enough to see a consistent improvement. The humps are chased. But even when they can be dramatically high, like when something goes viral, the chances of it leading to consistent success are extremely low.
Marketing is a sucker for a trend. Often hailed as “clever” or “genius” when a brand jumps on one. It can be really fun too. And drive awareness. I get it. But if that’s all you’ve got? You’ll end up stuck in the camel effect. Bobbing up and down but never really getting anywhere.
And trends can also go by other names, or be hidden in marketing speak. These words can fool you into thinking they are more than they are:
Trend
Fashion
Style
Best practice
Algorithm
Craze
Rule
Popular
Blueprint
Beware of following any of these things completely and blindly. They’re often filled with unethical practices and aren’t sustainable. Yes, even “best practices” can sometimes be code for “current trend”.
Enjoy them for what they are. Moving goalposts. Not anchors. They serve a purpose for a limited time, but should not be solely relied upon. This is true in marketing, in business and in life.
Now I’m off to search for neon socks to see if I can make them happen again. Might get some more leg warmers too.
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