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Microtrends: The Small Forces Behind Tomorrow's Big Changes
by
Mark J. Penn
Mark Penn argues that the biggest trends in America are the Microtrends, the smaller trends that go unnoticed or ignored. One million people can create new market for a business, spark a social movement, or effect political change. In 1996, a microtrend identified by Penn ("soccer moms") was crucial in re-electing President Clinton. With years of experience as one of world...more
Hardcover, 448 pages
Published
September 5th 2007
by Twelve
(first published January 1st 2007)
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This book outlines the changes that are happening in our population which are likely to affect the next decade of purchasing decisions. I probably wouldn't have picked up this book if it weren't the only non-fiction business audio that I hadn't yet read at my local library, but I'm so glad I did. It's a cross between "Blink" and "The Long Tail" the way that it derives informations based on hard numbers. What makes it better than the "The Long Tail" or "Small Is the New Big" is that it actually h...more
Fascinating book by Democratic pollster Mark Penn. Famous for unearthing and coining the term "soccer moms," Penn explains how relatively small subgroups of the population can launch a social or political revolution. Penn believes George W. Bush can thank Protestant Latinos, who favored Al Gore in 2000, for his win in 2004. The book profiles the many "microtrends" he's currently watching: among them, for example, High School Moguls, Late Out of the Closet Gay Men, Marrieds who Met on the Net, So...more
Sounded neat, but it's just a bunch of intermittently interesting statistics tied together by the guy's out-of-touch observations.
For example, in a chapter on adults who play videogames:
"The games all focus on taking over worlds, dating, or killing. But what most 33-year-old men want is to make a killing in the stock market, or if they want to knock someone off, it's their boss and his corner office. Their female counterparts have just had their first or second baby, and are dealing with child...more
For example, in a chapter on adults who play videogames:
"The games all focus on taking over worlds, dating, or killing. But what most 33-year-old men want is to make a killing in the stock market, or if they want to knock someone off, it's their boss and his corner office. Their female counterparts have just had their first or second baby, and are dealing with child...more
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The author has been a political pollster. He was instrumental in getting Bill Clinton a second term in office.
The main thesis of this title is that big trends are easy to spot. Smaller trends, however, frequently converge, resulting in something which no one saw coming. So, by being aware of the smaller trends, and spotting potential convergences between these smaller trends, you're less likely to be surprised.
One of his discoveries for Bill Clinton was that, quite often, men and women within th...more
The main thesis of this title is that big trends are easy to spot. Smaller trends, however, frequently converge, resulting in something which no one saw coming. So, by being aware of the smaller trends, and spotting potential convergences between these smaller trends, you're less likely to be surprised.
One of his discoveries for Bill Clinton was that, quite often, men and women within th...more
This ground breaking book gives 75 examples of small changes that make big differences in society. Mark Penn is the master of "small things" and explains here how politically, sociologically, economically and commercially small percentages of people can swing votes and sway purchasing decisions. Penn's work for Clinton, Gates and Blair shows that his arguments are sound and that he has identified a significant change in the way people think, choose and act. He characterises this as a shift from...more
Study of emerging social trends
This book is useful, entertaining and, at times, a little strange. These qualities all arise from its core premise. Mark. J. Penn and E. Kinney Zalesne set out to reveal dozens of “microtrends” they say are reshaping U.S. and global society. They group these contained trends by topical clusters (work, health, etc.), and argue that Americans’ freedom of choice is allowing social fragmentation into more distinct niches. The result is snapshot after snapshot of 70 or...more
This book is useful, entertaining and, at times, a little strange. These qualities all arise from its core premise. Mark. J. Penn and E. Kinney Zalesne set out to reveal dozens of “microtrends” they say are reshaping U.S. and global society. They group these contained trends by topical clusters (work, health, etc.), and argue that Americans’ freedom of choice is allowing social fragmentation into more distinct niches. The result is snapshot after snapshot of 70 or...more
These is a lot that is of interest in this book, for example the perceptions of parental strictness, with some reservations. Firstly, it is written by a pollster. He puts great stress on the importance of data, but at a fairly superficial level. For instance, there is no mention of the fact that correlation doesn't imply causation, nor that self-reporting risks systematic bias. No actual statistical analysis is included, just graphs, and most of sources mentioned at the end are newspaper article...more
Mark Penn, former campaign manager of Hillary Clinton and controversial PR maven, is a man of numbers. He is the czar of polling and more so the analysis of polling statistics. His focus on numbers and statistics leads to a reversal of popular thought: where the world is accepting the notion of the global village and the world being flat, Penn asserts that it rather is the differences that show common behavioral trends. He calls these small statistical deviations "microtrends" and uses them to p...more
“Microtrends is based on the idea that the most powerful forces in our society are the emerging, counterintuitive trends that are shaping tomorrow right before us.” Penn argues, furthermore, that America is not so much a melting pot as it is an intricate patchwork of independent people creating their own small movements. Even if 1% of a population engages in one of these microtrends, potential impact (and opportunity) is significant.
I’m definitely behind the concept. Now more than ever, I feel t...more
I’m definitely behind the concept. Now more than ever, I feel t...more
This book started out interesting but bogged down quickly in partisan remarks, personal observations, guesses and random statistics. His thesis: microtrends change the world as the number of those who drive them reaches the "critical" 1%, is very interesting. But, as other reviewers have mentioned, he gets bogged down in reporting all sorts of less-than-1-percenters that he just finds interesting and his thesis loses steam. He goes from reporting statistically significant groups to ranting about...more
The premise of this story, that tomorrow's leading trends and political forces can be predicted by taking a look at the demographics of any group that reaches the critical 1% threshold of today, is an intriguing one and merited some additional attention. Unfortunately, after some promising early chapters of the book, where Penn manages to speak authoritatively on matters of his expertise (namely, politics), it rapidly becomes clear that the scope of this topic has overwhelmed and exhausted the k...more
Finished reading Microtrends on my trip home from Portland with Collin reading over my shoulder (well, more like my arm in the plane...) for parts of it. I had to struggle to finish this one, despite the fact that the book is divided into easily digestible sections of 10 pages or fewer. The premise is that we tend to look at the big trends (Anyone remember MEGATRENDS?) shaping the country and the world but we are increasingly a society of smaller groups whose influence has "shaping" power as wel...more
When I picked up this book, my endorphins spiked. Mark Penn, star Democratic pollster, wrote a book about microtargeting, the cutting edge of political campaigns; how much better could it get? The more of the cover I judged, the more excited I got. Bills Clinton and Gates, Tony Blair, and the Washington Post all recommended Mark Penn. This book is going to be fantastic, I thought. It was all downhill from there. What I failed to notice is that they were all recommending Penn the person, not Penn
...more
There is no unifying theme here like in the case of Blink or Black Swan. This to me is a great positive. This is not a book where you get almost entire message in the first quarter of the book while the rest is laborious expansion of the main theme. The book undercovers many micro-trends that we may never have thought of or known about. Of course, there are many others which are either trivial or fully-known except the exact stats. You learn a lot, although it is debatable whether they are of va...more
Very interesting and easy reading. But it seems that Mark Penn is doing exactly what he criticizes so much in others: ignoring some "atoms" of this world. After reading his book one comes with the feeling that, somehow, Latin America and Africa have just vanished, and that all that matters in this world is the US (which he insists in calling "America", ignoring the fact that for more than half of the world "America" is a continent, not a country: isn't that a trend?), some european countries, an...more
Penn was a pollster who advised both Clintons in their presidential bids and is credited with identifying the term "Soccer Mom". He defines a "microtrend" as an activity in which least 1% of the US population is participating and which usually has a stream of growing support. In the book he outlines about 30 trends and briefly conjectures regarding the resulting societal implications.
I found most of the trends interesting to learn about, although I admit to skipping/skimming several. Some trend...more
I found most of the trends interesting to learn about, although I admit to skipping/skimming several. Some trend...more
Interesting perspectives from a famous pollster and political organizer. Penn highlights a range of burgeoning developments and what he terms Microtrends which signal key changes in society. He covers both American and international. The book is perceptive and well researched. A worthwhile and breezy read.
There is clearly a pro-Clinton bias that permeates a lot of the writing. He worked for Bill and was a key operative in Hilary's campaign. The book did include one major error which I attempted...more
There is clearly a pro-Clinton bias that permeates a lot of the writing. He worked for Bill and was a key operative in Hilary's campaign. The book did include one major error which I attempted...more
This book is interesting for a specific audience. If you have an interest in public relations or publicity, then read this book! If you don't, then read the introduction and read chapters of interest. It basically tells you that all you need to push a product, campaign or image is a small group of interested/dedicated people. You can target groups like never before, bringing your product for a tailored audience. The rest of the book consists of examples.
This is definitely a book that should be...more
This is definitely a book that should be...more
This book reminds me of two different books I have read: BLINK, and THE CLUSTERING OF AMERICA. Like BLINK, it touches on many different subjects, from pet ownership to art in China. Like The Clustering of America, it's more a loosely bound collection of factoids than an in-depth analysis.
Each chapter in this book deals with a different subject. The chapters are bound together in sections, for example "work" or "health and wellness" or "technology." Some of the facts presented, when taken on an i...more
Each chapter in this book deals with a different subject. The chapters are bound together in sections, for example "work" or "health and wellness" or "technology." Some of the facts presented, when taken on an i...more
Mark Penn - worldwide CEO for leading PR firm Burson Marsteller - outlines 75 microtrends, which he describes as an intense identitify group that could make up as little as 1 percent of the wider population but can make an impact on society. The trends are interesting, particularly in industries hat are watching for groups of people to target, but the research does seem thin. Instead of gathering research and identifying the trend I had a feeling that he identified the trend and then pulled some...more
Although initially a book of intimidating length, it actually is broken out into 75 different mini-chapters each with an interesting "trend" that Penn predicts will shape the future of marketing, purchasing and business decisions geared for the consumer for the next several years. He defines a significant trend as 1% of a population. Some of these trends seem dubious at best in terms of coming to fruition and being helpful, but others about aging populations, health, and cultural shifts are defi...more
هممممممم .. لا أدري حقيقة كيف تحمست ووصلت إلى ٣٠٠ صفحة في هذا الكتاب (الكتاب ٥٠٠ صفحة)
بداية الكتاب محمسة حيث تبدأ بقراءة كثير من التحركات الصغيرة والتجمعات الصغيرة التي بدأت تتضخم لتملأ مكانة قوية في المجتمع الأمريكي أولا وقد تصل للعالم بعد ذلك
طريقة الكاتب هي لعلها المشكلة. فهو يسرد ويسترسل كثيرا في شرح الكثير من الظواهر التي لايستدعي إلى شرحها سوى اسطر معدودة .. فتجده يأخذ فيها ١٠ صفحات وفي النهاية هي رأي شخصي لا يتعدى ذلك
كثير من التوجهات التي يذكرها ليست لها علاقة بمجتمع غير المجتمع الأمريكي و...more
بداية الكتاب محمسة حيث تبدأ بقراءة كثير من التحركات الصغيرة والتجمعات الصغيرة التي بدأت تتضخم لتملأ مكانة قوية في المجتمع الأمريكي أولا وقد تصل للعالم بعد ذلك
طريقة الكاتب هي لعلها المشكلة. فهو يسرد ويسترسل كثيرا في شرح الكثير من الظواهر التي لايستدعي إلى شرحها سوى اسطر معدودة .. فتجده يأخذ فيها ١٠ صفحات وفي النهاية هي رأي شخصي لا يتعدى ذلك
كثير من التوجهات التي يذكرها ليست لها علاقة بمجتمع غير المجتمع الأمريكي و...more
I had decided in the first quarter of the book that this was not a good read, but as with most other not-so-good books I have read in the past, I had to finish it - some kind of an OCD need to come to a conclusion? Once I decided to hate the book, I was going to start taking notes in the margins of the points I disagreed with and the shoddy throwaway attempts at humor that peppered Penn's research, but I am far too lazy to do that. So then my next plan was to just dog-ear some pages and quote fr...more
Microtrends is an eclectic collection of statistically significant bits and pieces. They are broken down into categories of family, work, health, money and more. The book has one overarching theme: that there is great change coming, and that 1% of a population only needs to buy into an idea to give it mass. Thus, all these statistically significant bits and pieces are things which exhibit a buy-in of at least 1% of the population.
When you put a hundred of them together, it's not quite 100% (as t...more
When you put a hundred of them together, it's not quite 100% (as t...more
This book drastically underwhelmed me. I read it because it was by Mark Penn who was very highly regarded for his handling of Bill Clinton's campaigns and Hillary's senate campaigns (among other work). He has done a terrible job with Hillary's presidential campaign so I wanted to see what his book was about.
I was expecting a list of trends with a concise description of their (unmet) needs and how to market a campaign to them. So first of all it was not a strict political book but that wasn't bad...more
I was expecting a list of trends with a concise description of their (unmet) needs and how to market a campaign to them. So first of all it was not a strict political book but that wasn't bad...more
Feb 13, 2008
itpdx
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
marketing, political junkies
Shelves:
non-fiction
A very interesting book by the pollster who discovered and named the Soccer Moms. He discusses sometimes surprising groups of people that are small but possibly growing trends. Some of them were old news to me. For instance my daughter's summer camps offered vegetarian options more than a decade ago (see Vegan Children) and I have been aware of Pet Parents for longer than that. But I have never run into a Christian Zionist!
I had quibbles with some of his conclusions. He says that left-handednes...more
I had quibbles with some of his conclusions. He says that left-handednes...more
This is not really the kind of book one reads cover-to-cover. It's built for skipping around and reading what interests you.
I picked up this book out of curiosity, and because, as a therapist-in-training, I'm ever curious about some of the small, up-and-coming groups that may show up for therapy someday, or may benefit from psychological study, say in the form of a PhD thesis.
Thus far, I've found reading this book to be a strange experience. Some of it is kind of exciting. It's great to read a...more
I picked up this book out of curiosity, and because, as a therapist-in-training, I'm ever curious about some of the small, up-and-coming groups that may show up for therapy someday, or may benefit from psychological study, say in the form of a PhD thesis.
Thus far, I've found reading this book to be a strange experience. Some of it is kind of exciting. It's great to read a...more
This book is interesting for discovering which direction the trends are moving which have an impact on how we live. I think living in Portland it's easy to spot new trends because individuality is fostered heavily in the city and people aren't afraid to try something new and different. Some of the trends I was not aware of evangelical mexicans, LAT (Live Apart Togethers), the growth of sports that you can do individually not as a team. The author devoted a chapter to teen knitters. As a hard car...more
The democratic pollster who identified “soccer moms” as a key Clinton constituency in the 1996 re-election campaign evaluates trends that involve up to a million people; he theorizes that this is the size that a trend must reach before it becomes a major force. Some of his micro-trends are interesting and likely have significance (e.g. retirees are continuing to work, there are more stay-at-home workers) and some less so (more teens are interested in knitting.)
This book is divided into small (2-4 pages) chapters about emerging trends; Penn defines microtrends as common behaviors or characteristics among 1% of the population. I'm finding it interesting and illuminating, although some of his statistics seem to be on shaky ground. For example, he'll present data from two years (e.g., 1975 and 1995), draw a line between them, and discuss a huge increase (or decrease) in the parameter of interest. I'd like to know what the data say in the intervening years...more
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