The Merchants of Cool

The merchants of cool spend many days researching and analyzing what will be the next "Big Thing." If they are able to discover the next trend then it will end up being an approximate 150 billion dollar reward. These markets will do whatever it takes to find that trend. I believe that the merchants for the most part have not gone too far. They build off of what the teenagers do. The teenagers are the ones who are building the market and the different trends that appear is because of them no matter how outrageous it may be. I believe that the lengths these merchants go through to find the trends are realistic. They speak with teenagers and analyze their daily life as it changes. I feel that if you really want to find out what the next "big thing" is then you have to take these procedures in order to discover it. I believe that surveys and focus groups are two of the most popular tactics when trying to discover a research question. They do what it takes to find out the popular trend and they do not do anything that is illegal in order to produce an answer. I do not feel that the markets have gone too far because they are very successful and if someone is being hurt by their research then they have the option to opt out of the process. Each survey, research group, or analyzing data from following around teenagers daily is all done by their permission. If these markets starting using illegal tactics and techniques, then I will start to believe that they have gone too far.