Marketing and Microtrends: Frequently Asked Questions

Willingly or not, you’ve probably found yourself in the midst of a discourse about microtrends. According to The Harvard Crimson, microtrends are “cycles of short-lived trends” that peak in popularity before being quickly forgotten.

Microtrends take the form of everything from aesthetics to slang terms, which marketers must choose to engage with or to ignore. Is it smart to pop a Gen Z buzzword into a social media post, or is it safer to stay away from passing fads? Let’s explore.

Do Microtrends Provide a Marketing Niche?

At a time in which the mainstream is overcrowded with brands, marketing towards a niche group may make the most sense for growing businesses. To use the term coined by Charles Etoroma, social media has created a kind of “hyper-niche-ification” in which people’s temporary, ultra-specific interests are instantly connected. As these interests and interest groups shift, microtrends come and go. Can brands find a niche by engaging with them?

Yes and no. Constance Beswick of Global Fashion Agenda contrasts traditional subcultures with microtrends, telling us that subcultures “go beyond mere aesthetics to embody specific beliefs and values”. Microtrends – and their corresponding niches – are shallower, more commercialized, and more rooted in aesthetics alone. Practically, this means that the marketing niche microtrends provide isn’t stable and can feel hollow and inauthentic.

Do Microtrends Dilute Brand Voice?

A successful brand voice should foster authenticity and build trust. If microtrends are shallow and transient, does appealing to them weaken brand voice?

It’s a give and take. Brands that engage heavily with microtrends may not attract a follower base that is seeking timeless values, but they can still market themselves successfully. Let’s take a look at the Canadian ecommerce retailer, SSENSE. In the last month alone, SSENSE’s meme-filled Instagram page has featured numerous current slang terms such as “yearning” and “it’s giving…”. SSENSE maintains authenticity by keeping the visuals of their posts consistent as they experiment with trendy language. Their regular engagement with trends and microtrends doesn’t feel inauthentic because this engagement has become part of the brand voice itself. SSENSE’s marketing strategy may not be for everyone, but with over a million Instagram followers and like counts in the thousands, the brand has been successful.

Do Microtrends Cause Cringe?

There are hordes of brands whose image is nostalgically – but irrevocably – associated with an old pop-culture moment in time. Engaging with fads pays off with temporary popularity, but the brand can quickly become passé as trends shift. Does appealing to rapid cycling trends always result in cringe content?

Not entirely. Let’s return to SSENSE. SSENSE posts twice a day on Instagram, staying vigilantly up-to-date with the culture. SSENSE is waging – and winning – a war of attrition on cringe by burying old posts in mountains of new content. Cringe posts from as recently as a few weeks ago are difficult to dig up, and followers are too engaged with new content to be looking for them. This strategy has allowed the brand to navigate several waves of microtrends – although we have yet to find out whether it will be viable in the long run.

Takeaways

Ultimately, the impact of engaging with microtrends depends on many brand-specific factors. A small fashion business without a marketing team may not be able to jump from trend to trend as effortlessly as SSENSE does. And in an era of overconsumption, microtrends themselves are steeped in ethical dilemma. There’s no how-to for marketing with microtrends – it’s a personal decision.

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