REYKJAVIK, ICELAND: For the purposes of this discussion you need to stretch your mind back in time, to that golden moment when The Spice Girls held the world in thrall. I know, they are so 15 minutes ago and it is hard to believe that we cared, but we did so admit it.
As it happens, the five female pop stars offer up a perfect example of the difference between a fad and a trend, and how they gave form to a powerful example of the latter while they were the classic example of the former. And believe it or not, this is all going to affect the kind of vehicles you're going to get in the future and the ways you'll buy them.
This is certainly the opinion of Art Redmond, who is Ford's chief crystal ball gazer. Redmond's views of coming trends should therefore be of interest to consumers everywhere, since he is helping to define the future auto climate that we will all shop in and what we will shop for.
Redmond's real title is a lot more corporate-executive director of Ford's Global Consumer Insights Organization-and he is in the national art gallery of this country halfway between North America and Europe (where it's mutually inconvenient to everyone involved) explaining to auto writers his view of the future.
A trend is different from a fad, he explains, since the former is "a long-term change in society's viewpoint and is reflected in actions," while the later is "an amusement that's certain to end quickly, probably faster than the typical two- or three-year automotive cycle plan."