CEO x COO Conversation: How to Identify and Leverage Trend-Driven Demand

This is a conversation between CEO Kurose and COO Sasaya. The topic this time is specific methods for identifying trends and leveraging them to drive sales growth.

Kurose: Today I'd like to talk about how to identify trend-driven demand.

First, let me share from a hands-on perspective what kinds of tools are available for tracking trends.

The most commonly used ones are Google Trends and Google Keyword Planner. For social viral data, we often use BuzzSumo.

We also search on Instagram and Twitter, and use tools like Keyword Tool that allow you to search across multiple platforms.

Sasaya: As a starting point, how do you actually use trends?

Kurose: What we do is mostly for existing products rather than product development. We search for related keywords in Google Trends to see whether the market a product belongs to is currently on an upward trend, a downward trend, or stagnant.

Even within upward or downward trends, there are further distinctions. Some markets grow gradually over 5 or 10 years, while others spike sharply due to sudden factors like the COVID-19 outbreak. The way you approach the market changes significantly depending on the situation at the time.

Sasaya: For example, when the market is rising, do you aggressively increase ad spend to capitalize on it?

Kurose: Exactly. When a market is growing rapidly, riding that wave gives you a strong chance of becoming the category leader. It's also a situation where top-of-mind awareness is easier to capture, so it's an opportunity to go on the offensive aggressively.

In a market that's growing slowly and steadily, it has existed for many years, which makes it harder to become the first mover. So instead, we think about how to differentiate from existing players.

Sasaya: I see. Is it also possible to understand the needs surrounding a particular category?

Kurose: Yes, that's also possible.

Searching category-specific keywords in Google Trends or Keyword Planner will surface surrounding needs as well. We also look at related hashtags. At StoreHero, we frequently use ahrefs for this research.

This kind of research also lets you see which brands within the same category are growing.

Sasaya: I see. I'd like to know when to conduct this kind of trend monitoring — do you do it on a regular schedule?

Kurose: Yes, in terms of timing, we always check when we begin supporting a new store to get a grasp of the industry. After that, we don't do it daily, but we monitor periodically.

Rather than noticing new needs through keywords, we tend to notice them through topics trending on social media or magazines, or through Amazon rankings.

When we want to monitor related topics as well, we use Google Alerts. We set it up to notify us when news related to the relevant category appears, and then we check the emails that interest us.

Sasaya: I recently learned that Google Trends also has a feature that sends trend updates by email at a frequency you set. You can narrow down categories and have it notify you of rapidly rising keywords once a week or once a month — it's quite handy.

Kurose: That is convenient.

Also, for brands that are not yet well known, competing in a large category market can be very difficult due to heavy competition, so we often focus on niches. Trends and needs that emerge unexpectedly are actually very easy for small brands to leverage.

Large organizations have approval processes that slow things down, but smaller, more agile companies can move quickly and respond to changes, making it easier to ride a trend. We especially recommend leveraging trends for smaller brands.

Sasaya: So smaller brands can more easily capitalize on sudden trends, while larger brands need to focus on reading the overall market movement.

Kurose: From a large brand's perspective, responding to a sudden trend may represent only a small portion of overall revenue and therefore ranks low in priority. But for a small brand, it can make a significant difference in sales.

Also, when only a specific brand or product sells out suddenly, stockouts can occur. But if you have inventory of similar products, you can step in and say, "We still have this product available."

Sasaya: I see. By the way, where do trends actually originate?

Kurose: There are often early warning signs.

Something often becomes a topic among a small online community first, and then gets picked up by television and explodes. So if you're doing solid social listening, you might notice it in advance — like getting a sense that it's about to hit TV soon.

One thing to be careful about is that some are just passing fads, while others spike and then settle at a higher level than before rather than dropping all the way back. Being able to distinguish between these cases is important.

Sasaya: Once you've ridden a trend and sales spike, how do you prevent it from being just a one-time phenomenon?

Kurose: Ultimately, it's about becoming the category leader. For example, if your brand becomes recognized as the go-to for chairs, people will search for you by brand name without you needing to run chair ads — which makes your business much more profitable.

While you're on an upward trajectory, satisfying your customers and creating a state where your product is being talked about on social media through UGC makes your momentum visible. Leveraging that buzz to approach media outlets makes it easier to get featured, and if things go well, even mass media may cover you — which is the ideal story for cementing your position as the category leader.

Sasaya: I see. So it's about steadily converting that momentum into lasting assets.

Kurose: Exactly. There are many cases where brands fail to convert the momentum into lasting assets — sales spike, inventory runs out, and by the time new stock arrives, the buzz has already passed. If you've built up UGC and a waiting list, you can recover when you restock. The key is whether you've prepared for that in advance.

Sasaya: So you need to have the strategy designed right from the stage of riding the wave.

Kurose: Whether you catch a wave involves an element of luck, so the key is to never let your guard down on preparation. Even if a trend doesn't come, regularly asking buyers to post UGC and consistently building your list means you'll be ready to capitalize when a boom does arrive.

On the other hand, in a downward-trending market, fewer people are actively searching, so running ads tends to be inefficient.

In those situations, it becomes important to protect your existing customers well and encourage repeat purchases. In some cases, it may even be worth looking for an entirely new category. The right approach to the market differs significantly depending on which situation you're currently in.

When you're running day-to-day operations, it's easy to feel like you already know what's going on, but periodically checking Google Trends allows you to take a more objective, bird's-eye view — and that's very valuable.

Search Console also allows comparisons, so you can see keyword differences between the most recent month and the previous month, helping you identify emerging needs. Since Search Console is based on your own site's data, for overall market trends you'd use tools like BuzzSumo or Google Keyword Planner as mentioned earlier.

In addition, we also look at inbound keywords for competitor sites, checking what products are selling well and reading their reviews. If there are complaints, we can highlight that our product doesn't have that issue (laughs).

We've covered various ways to research and use trends, but the reason we place so much emphasis on trends is that initiatives aligned with trends are more likely to produce results. Having no wind behind you is the hardest situation. It's extremely difficult for a single company to generate demand from scratch, so finding even a small trend and riding it gives you a much faster start.

Researching trends is a lot of fun, so please give it a try yourself.