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Microtrends: The Small Forces Behind Tomorrow's Big Changes (Hardcover)
by Mark Penn, E. Kinney Zalesne
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Author: Mark Penn, E. Kinney Zalesne
Publisher: Twelve
Pub. in: September, 2007
ISBN: 0446580961
Pages: 448
Measurements: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.6 inches
Origin of product: USA
Order code: BA01085
Other information: ISBN-13: 978-0446580960
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- MSL Picks -
A friend of mine used to tell me that what most attracted him to a nonfiction book was the opportunity to learn something that would make for good dinner table conversation. My friend would rate Microtrends at five stars for sure. I don't recall a book with so many factoids that highlight minor trends in society. Here are a few examples:
1. There are more Christian Zionists than Jewish ones.
2. One percent of young Californians want to grow up to be military snipers.
3. As a result of the crime crackdown, one of the fastest growing population segments is newly released ex-convicts.
4. Knitting is making a revival among young people.
5. Those who love technology are more outgoing than those who hate technology.
The book also has some international examples. One of my favorites is that 82 percent of men aged 18-30 in Italy live at home with their parents. I felt like calling my sons to congratulate them on having moved out.
Mark J. Penn and E. Kinney Zalesne argue that you can build political conclusions from looking at such small trends. It's a lot easier to switch an independent voter than to attract a first-time voter . . . or to switch a voter who is loyal to the other party. Be spot-on with an issue that creates excitement for a small group of swing voters, and you may carry an election. The book is filled with references to the 1996 role that Soccer Moms played in Bill Clinton's re-election.
Beyond that, this is a book of trivia. There's not much analysis of products or positions that such groups might like. There's also no attempt to tie these small trends back to these people being independent voters.
Mark J. Penn and E. Kinney Zalesne also argue that contrary to what many Republican pollsters believe that swing voters are more interested in positions than in personality and character. I found that the book did more asserting of that point than proving of it.
In the brief concluding section there's a tiny effort to pull it all together: In a world with more choices, people will fragment in their selections. If you've read The Long Tail, you already knew that.
This is much too lightweight a book to have much significance. But it is fun to read. Don't feel like you need to read all of the sections.
I only found four tiny trends described that I hadn't already noticed, but I did find it convenient to see some estimate of how important the size of the trend is and a few reasons for the trend.
(From quoting Donald Mitchell, USA)
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Mark Penn was dubbed the most powerful man in Washington youve never heard of by The Washington Post. Penn is the worldwide CEO of Burson-Marsteller. He was pollster to President Clinton in his 1996 re-election campaign, and has been an adviser to Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, numerous corporations, and 25 foreign heads of state. E. Kinney Zalesne has served as a White House Fellow, Counsel to U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno, and Executive Vice President and President of two national social-change organizations.
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From Publisher
"The ideas in his book will help you see the world in a new way." -Bill Clinton"Mark Penn has a keen mind and a fascinating sense of what makes America tick, and you see it on every page of Microtrends."-Bill GatesIn 1982, readers discovered Megatrends.In 2000, The Tipping Point entered the lexicon.
Now, in Microtrends, one of the most respected and sought-after analysts in the world articulates a new way of understanding how we live. Mark Penn, the man who identified "Soccer Moms" as a crucial constituency in President Clinton's 1996 reelection campaign, is known for his ability to detect relatively small patterns of behavior in our culture-microtrends that are wielding great influence on business, politics, and our personal lives. Only one percent of the public, or three million people, is enough to launch a business or social movement.
Relying on some of the best data available, Penn identifies more than 70 microtrends in religion, leisure, politics, and family life that are changing the way we live. Among them:People are retiring but continuing to work. Teens are turning to knitting. Geeks are becoming the most sociable people around. Women are driving technology. Dads are older than ever and spending more time with their kids than in the past.You have to look at and interpret data to know what's going on, and that conventional wisdom is almost always wrong and outdated. The nation is no longer a melting pot.
We are a collection of communities with many individual tastes and lifestyles. Those who recognize these emerging groups will prosper.Penn shows readers how to identify the microtrends that can transform a business enterprise, tip an election, spark a movement, or change your life. In today's world, small groups can have the biggest impact.
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| View all 11 comments |
Publishers Weekly , USA
<2007-12-19 00:00>
From "Soccer Moms," the legendary swing voters of the mid-1990s, to "Late-Breaking Gays" such as former Gov. Games McGreevey (out at age 47), Burson-Marsteller CEO (and campaign adviser to Sen. Hillary Clinton) Penn delves into the ever-splintering societal subsets with which Americans are increasingly identifying, and what they mean. For instance, because of "Extreme Commuters," people who travel more than 90 minutes each way to work, carmakers must come up with ever more luxury seat features, and "fast food restaurants are coming out with whole meals that fit in cup holders." In a chapter titled "Archery Moms?", Penn reports on the "Niching of Sports": much to the consternation of Major League Baseball, "we don't like sports less, we just like little sports more." The net result of all this "niching" is "greater individual satisfaction"; as Penn notes, "not one of the fastest-growing sports in America... depends substantially on teamwork." Penn draws similar lessons in areas of business, culture, technology, diet, politics and education (among other areas), reporting on 70 groups ("Impressionable Elites," "Caffeine Crazies," "Neglected Dads," "Unisexuals," "America's Home-Schooled") while remaining energetic and entertaining throughout. Culture buffs, retailers and especially businesspeople for whom "small is the new big" will value this exercise in nano-sociology.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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Kirkus Reviews, USA
<2007-12-19 00:00>
"Sound and cleverly written....will undoubtedly appeal to marketing analysts and armchair sociologists, as well as fans of Megatrends and Malcolm Gladwell." |
Politico, USA
<2007-12-19 00:00>
"A striking window into 'Hillary's Brain'."
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Information Week, USA
<2007-12-19 00:00>
"If small is still the new big, then the biggest book of the moment is Microtrends...Penn sifts the sociological sands to come up with a fine-grained view of where we're headed."
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