Product Description
"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 Gates
In 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You have to look at and interpret data to know what's going on, and that conventional wisdom is almost always wrong and outdated.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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 Small Shifts Lead to Big Change ( bestofyou )
MicroTrends is a must read for entrepreneurs, executives and professionals. In business, change is not just the norm. It now is accelerating at an unprecedented speed. The small forces described in MicroTrends have gathered momentum and new opportunities have emerged. As Darwin's study of evolution tells us, survival and success goes not to the smartest species, but to the most adaptable. MicroTrends provides information about micro-niches and opportunities in work life, health and wellness, money and class, technology, education, and other areas in the marketplace's "Long Tail" Long Tail, The, Revised and Updated Edition: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More. Entrepreneurs, executives and professionals can selectively use the 70 microtrends in this book to adapt and thrive.
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 Microtrends or Megatrends? ( berenicering )
We know that trends are forces that indicate us directions where we are heading to. As so, they shape the future of our society.
The authors describe important microtrends for 21st century using numbers and statistics to spot them.
Instead of claiming that our society is moving in a couple of big directions, the authors argue that America is moving in a hundred of small directions.
The microtrends shown here are organized in groups by subjects; if you read them all, you'll be able to spot some megatrends that are changing people's behavior and atittudes at our times.
Really interesting book for anyone!
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Cross-section of Present-day America ( woozymizzenmast )
Mark Penn is amazing. Or rather, his method of using polls to track small trends among average American citizens is unreservedly uncanny. You will catch yourself saying, "Who would've thought...[complete the microtrend] would spell ___ for America?"
As if identifying Soccer Moms wasn't an amazing enough feat for Penn, he now has identified 75 trends we should watch out for, that could really change America as we know it currently. I think one of the biggest microtrends I remember is Internet Marrieds - or people who meet on the internet and eventually get hitched. What does that mean for their kids? Will they be on chatrooms 24/7 until they forget about dinner? Will that encourage them to find a relationship by surfing the internet, rather than someone they know at school?
Seriously, you might even identify yourself with one of the microtrends. The strength of a microtrend is not so much in the numbers as it is in the passion - and that may enlarge its sphere of influence as more are encouraged to "be who they are."
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An intriguing and fun skimread ( slitheryj )
Do what reviewer Gaetan Lion says: read the introduction, then the conclusions, then skim the 75 micro groups he describes and read the ones that interest you. I was delighted to learn that some of my own lifestyle choices are microtrends. (It's not just me! I'm not a freak!) And I learned some very interesting and surprising things (I had NO idea that tattoos and unnecessary plastic surgery were so completely mainstream). If you were looking for new small business ventures to try, knowing about these 75 groups could give you some great ideas on a market to tap. This book provided a very pleasant evening but it's a skimread intro, with few indepth conclusions.
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75 Interesting Thoughts About the Future!
"Microtrends" is very informative. It looks at the beginnings of new trends by looking at some which may initially only show up in 1% of population samples. The reason 1% is used is because with populations so large, 1% can be a very large number, especially with the flattening of the world, where even isolated minorities can connect so easily via the Internet, etc and generate critical masses. The author, Mark Penn, is a polling expert and relates that numbers will almost always take you where you want to go if you know how to read them. The book is an easy read with about 3 -4 pages for each of the 75 'microtrends' covered. All were interesting, but a few caught my eye.
1. Sex-Ratio Singles. Because the percentage of single women is increasing and historians have documented that a society with too many unattached men leads to war, will a society with too many unattached women lead to peace?
2. Number Junkies. Americans love numbers, but not arithmetic. Despite the popularity of TV shows like 'CSI' and 'Numb3rs' and movies like 'Good Will Hunting', 'A Beautiful Mind' and 'The Da Vinci Code', Harvard last year only had 77 math majors out of 6700 undergraduates.
3. Eurostars. Since European couples are having less kids and since only and oldest children tend to be highly motivated, perfectionists and inclined to leadership, Europe's youth will be an especially talented group. The author notes that every US astronaut was an oldest child.
4. Aspiring Snipers. In a small poll of CA youths, 1% looked to be snipers in ten years. Sure, this could be troublesome, but since snipers, besides being so talented, are more needed in urban situations in war and is a more moral way to kill than bombing, since bombing kills so many innocent victims. Previously, one would have expected more youths to aspire to be military pilots. Perhaps video games caused the change. There is much to think about, here.
5. Protestant Hispanics. Which country sends the most Protestants to the US? Mexico. Interesting!
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