Scope of fashion forecasting “Forecasting provides a way for executives to expand their thinking about changes, through anticipating the future, and projecting the likely outcomes.” (Lavenback and Cleary 1981).

To cope with the ever-changing world, the marketing segmentation and targeting techniques are rapidly evolving from traditional, static, demographic-based criteria towards dynamic, mood, lifestyle and psycho graphic influences. Fashion forecasting is the prediction of mood, behavior and buying habits of the consumer. It is no longer a question of identifying your customers by age, geography or income, but looking into how and why they buy, based on their mood, beliefs and the occasion.
Fashion is a style that is popular in the present or a set of trends that have been accepted by a wide audience. But fashion itself is far from simple. Fashion is a complex phenomenon from psychological, sociological, cultural or commercial point of view. Fashion trends are the styling ideas that major collections have in common. They indicate the direction in which the fashion is moving. Fashion forecasters look for styles they think are prophetic, ideas that capture the mood of the times and signal a new fashion trend.
Long term forecasting (over 2 years ahead) is used by executives for planning purposes. It is also used for marketing managers to position products in the marketplace in relationship to competition.
Short term forecasting is used by product developers, merchandisers and production managers to get a style direction.