Don’t rush to getting ideas. A little patience and a good preparation will pay off later! We are only looking for opportunities in the beginning. 

After the first lecture we have already started looking for business opportunities, that can later transform into ideas. We had a short brainstorm on trends in different areas:

Environment – where we have new trends in political attention as well as industry and consumer behavior.

Web and software – where we have new trends in business and marketing as well as social and gaming activities.

Marketing – where new media are dominating and more general trends in society and in the world influence the media and the messages in marketing.

Real estate – where we have several relatively new markets in fx the Baltic states.

Design and innovation – where topics like ergonomics and customization seem to be important.

The point of starting out with this trendspotting-brainstorm was to turn your eyes to the world and be sensitive about what is moving – and where. We stared out very generally, and of course it is quite complicated to gain insight in the whole environmental area – from renewable energy sources to organic food – so it is time to focus.

 If the area, that you worked with in the trendspotting session is very general – like marketing or environment – i recommend, that you start focusing more narrowly on specific issues of interest. If your area is the web in general, “social networks” might be a specific focus.

Start reading specialized media, that write about your topic. Be careful with general media, they often wait until things are peaking. Danish media only recently started to really talk about Facebook – though it has been in the market for a long time.

And talking about social networks: If you know anybody, who work in the area, that you are interested in, don’t hesitate to contact them and get a feeling about what is moving out there. People in the battelfield hear the bombings before the media arrives.

So simply start making your own trendspotting brainstorm.

Speaking to experienced people is the best way to get updated market information. People who works in and feels the market dynamics every day.

But statistics is a fine start to get an overview over market size and trends. In Denmark the general statistics can be accessed via Statistikbanken. It is free to use, but you have to register as a user. Most statistics are general, but you also might find some very interesting specific information about your market.

 Have a go!

If you don’t know your competitors yet, it’s about time to identify them. If you need to search for competitors on the danish market, I have a few tips.

Kompass is an international database with information about 2.2 million companies in 70 countries, where you can searc on specific products or product groups, and in that way identify potential customers. You can search products on a specific country or worldwide, and get basic information about companies supplying the product.

If you want the full information, you have to have a license, and fortunately, the library at Vitus Bering – and many other public libraries have a license, so you can use it for free there.

Other ways to find danish companies is fx. via Danish Exporters, where you can searc for products too.

Krak is a good database too. Unfortunately it is only in danish – so you might need some help.