Using TikTok to Capture Trends in the American Market. TikTok is a showcase for emerging trends and the purchasing preferences of American Gen Z

TikTok is a gigantic focus group that companies and startups can leverage to their advantage

As of today, TikTok is not only an effective communication channel towards new generations of consumers but also a strategic tool for developing a product development and sales strategy in the American market. Let’s see why.

In 2022, TikTok was the fastest-growing brand in the world. This was thanks to the increase in social media consumption during the pandemic, but also due to the nature of this app: short, vertical videos, catchy music, 34 million new content pieces daily, a maximally simplified interface, and an algorithm that personalizes the user feed in such a way that it gives them everything they want.

It was easy for this social media platform to eclipse Facebook and put Instagram in crisis, which, although popular, does not have the same grip that TikTok has. After all, Instagram has never entirely succeeded in detaching itself from its original role (that is, being the “mirror” of its users’ lives where dialogue remains limited to the circle of followers)

On TikTok America, however, those who post videos can be seen by the whole world and interact with anyone. In fact, while the algorithms of other social networks give absolute priority to content in line with the user’s taste, TikTok tries to provide new recommendations that may help discover new topics and products. TikTok’s lesser “intimacy” has thus made it a community of people open to many realities and, above all, the perfect space to communicate with Generation Z.

Food, Cosmetics, and Fashion Sectors: Some Examples of Product Development for the American Market with TikTok

TikTok helps companies aiming to establish themselves in the American market to monitor consumer trends and has become a disruptive force in the field of product research and development, overturning the paradigm that the purpose of business is to find ways to sell existing products to the desired target: thanks to resources like this, companies have the opportunity to know the needs and desires of the audience from the start and can use their knowledge for developing new products as well as correcting existing ones.

To help you understand why it makes sense to use TikTok to sell in the United States, here are the examples mentioned in an article from the Wall Street Journal:

1. The Chipotle quesadilla (a well-known Mexican fast-food chain) is reimagined by a TikTok influencer as a custom off-menu item and is renamed “Keithadilla.”
2. This reimagining goes viral, and Chipotle locations are flooded with custom orders.
3. The chain decides to make the Keithadilla a permanent menu item to not lose the demand generated by TikTok and capture younger consumers.

In the Food segment, the “Pink Sauce” is also an example of how to use TikTok strategically. In this case, a savvy company turned a TikTok trend into a product distributed throughout the United States in just 90 days.

1. A Miami influencer and chef starts dressing her dishes with a bright pink sauce (posting all the videos on TikTok).
2. The sauce becomes an online phenomenon.
3. A food product company that recognizes the potential of the sauce forms a partnership with the influencer and becomes responsible for its production, distribution, and sales. The company modified the formula to make the sauce vegan, less complex, and suitable for mass distribution.

Tarte Cosmetics, an American cosmetics company, strategically used trends analyzed on TikTok to develop new beauty products, like a multipurpose lip gloss that changes shade based on the skin's pH, which quickly became their best-selling product.

There are also those, like fast fashion companies, who use monitoring technologies that identify trends and styles to copy and produce entire collections. A business model that is no longer based on forecasts that followed fashion weeks, because with TikTok, there’s no need to guess. Today these companies produce on-demand, turn to external manufacturers, and place orders in small batches, keeping inventory levels low: this way they can dispose of items more quickly and create collections that reflect the trends of the moment.

TikTok is a showcase for emerging trends and the purchasing preferences of American Gen Z. Contact us to understand how to use TikTok to enter the American market