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Microtrends: The Small Forces Behind Tomorrow's Big Changes
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's most highly regarded pollsters, Mark Penn identifies the new microtrends sweeping the world:
*Single women by choice: More often than ever before, they aren't waiting for Mr. Right. They are raising children by themselves and buying their own homes.
*Splitters: A growing number of middle-class residents are shuttling between two homes, creating new communities and dynamics in the real estate market.
*Sun Haters: Environmentalists, skin cancer survivors, and parents concerned about the impact the sun is having on our health.
*Philo-semites: A growing number of people want to date Jewish men and women.
*Classical Music Dads: Older men who are fathers in their 40's and 50's and taking on a larger role in the nurturing of their children and becoming an important factor in consumer culture for kids.
Penn highlights everything from religion to politics, from leisure pursuits to relationships. MICROTRENDS will take the reader deep into the worlds of polling, targeting, and psychographic analysis, reaching tantalizing conclusions through engaging analysis.
*Single women by choice: More often than ever before, they aren't waiting for Mr. Right. They are raising children by themselves and buying their own homes.
*Splitters: A growing number of middle-class residents are shuttling between two homes, creating new communities and dynamics in the real estate market.
*Sun Haters: Environmentalists, skin cancer survivors, and parents concerned about the impact the sun is having on our health.
*Philo-semites: A growing number of people want to date Jewish men and women.
*Classical Music Dads: Older men who are fathers in their 40's and 50's and taking on a larger role in the nurturing of their children and becoming an important factor in consumer culture for kids.
Penn highlights everything from religion to politics, from leisure pursuits to relationships. MICROTRENDS will take the reader deep into the worlds of polling, targeting, and psychographic analysis, reaching tantalizing conclusions through engaging analysis.
425 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2007
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 269 reviews
August 8, 2015
This is an engaging book, although it seems to be overloaded with too many statistics, without a corresponding set of insights. Lots of interesting trends. This book is exactly the opposite of Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference. This book by Mark Penn explores what happens to trends before they reach the tipping point.
There are some very interesting microtrends that I would never have expected. For example, the trend for married couples to live apart. The trend for many children to become vegetarians or vegans (yay!). The trend for couples to vote differently. The increase in left-handedness. Knitting is growing in popularity.
This is a fun book, but not terribly enlightening.
There are some very interesting microtrends that I would never have expected. For example, the trend for married couples to live apart. The trend for many children to become vegetarians or vegans (yay!). The trend for couples to vote differently. The increase in left-handedness. Knitting is growing in popularity.
This is a fun book, but not terribly enlightening.
October 29, 2007
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 development or sibling rivalry."
Really? What, is this 1953? Fuck off, dude.
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 development or sibling rivalry."
Really? What, is this 1953? Fuck off, dude.
June 29, 2009
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 what he considers to be interesting. I finished the book because I'm strange that way--unless the book is actively offensive, I finish it. But it was hard work and I liked his voice less and less until finally at the end I really disliked it. My recommendation? Pick it up and skim through the parts that seem interesting to you but don't waste your time reading the whole.
September 27, 2009
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 knowledge of the author.
Before I continue, for the partisan-wary out there, I share much of the political leanings of Penn, so my criticism is not drawn from some sort of righteous indignation at the pokes and jabs at the political right scattered throughout the text. They were some of the only enjoyable parts, past a certain point.
If Penn had stayed on the topics where he has demonstrated himself a capable curator (he was the campaign manager for Bill Clinton's successful 1996 re-election campaign), this book might have remained valid if somewhat limited in scope. Instead, Penn takes us on a whirlwind tour of every tiny trend that he can seem to find. Much of the time when entering a new section of one of the 75 "Microtrends shaping tomorrow's big changes", I would wonder where the editor had wandered off to. Halfway through the book, it seems that Penn stops following his own rule on 1%. He keeps discussing topics that either fall far short of the 1% margin, or ones that are wildly over it.
Towards the end, it seems more and more clear that Penn is wildly out-of-touch with the current generation. One favorite example is when he takes data from a text-in poll of a couple hundred Californians aged 16 to 22 seriously. The question, "What profession do you want to be when you are settled in a career?". When about 1% (something like 4 or 5 people) responded with the answer "A Sniper", rather than taking this as evidence of the inherently vacuous nature of texting polls and ironic humor of young Californians, Penn takes this poll literally. What follows is a long diatribe on how the "Rules of Engagement" for war have changed and how interesting it is that so many young people are interested in becoming gunners. Isn't part of being a statistician knowing when your data is flawed?
On the other end of the scale, we have mystifying chapters like the one about porn on the internet. One is led to wonder what in the world a chapter on porn is doing in a book titled MICROtrends. Practically anyone over the age of puberty and with a computer has stumbled (either purposefully, or accidentally) over porn websites, as they are ubiquitous. Penn's treatment of the subject feels dewy-eyed and strange. (Amusingly, the outdated opinions of Penn were highlighted by the choice of the reader that was used for recording the Microtrends audiobook. The reader kept mispronouncing words like Yahoo, and Google, leading one to wonder from what rock he was recently unearthed out from.)
All of this is not to say that there aren't interesting parts of this book. However, the chapters that clearly miss the boat call into question the validity of the approach and the premise of many of the other chapters. I didn't start paying active attention to the methods used to gather the statistics that Penn uses in this book until my credulity was stretched too far. After this, I began to wonder about many of the chapters that I had already read, and I must admit that any magic the book might have once had was deflated. Penn would have done himself, and us, a favor to not stretch his attention between so many topics.
Before I continue, for the partisan-wary out there, I share much of the political leanings of Penn, so my criticism is not drawn from some sort of righteous indignation at the pokes and jabs at the political right scattered throughout the text. They were some of the only enjoyable parts, past a certain point.
If Penn had stayed on the topics where he has demonstrated himself a capable curator (he was the campaign manager for Bill Clinton's successful 1996 re-election campaign), this book might have remained valid if somewhat limited in scope. Instead, Penn takes us on a whirlwind tour of every tiny trend that he can seem to find. Much of the time when entering a new section of one of the 75 "Microtrends shaping tomorrow's big changes", I would wonder where the editor had wandered off to. Halfway through the book, it seems that Penn stops following his own rule on 1%. He keeps discussing topics that either fall far short of the 1% margin, or ones that are wildly over it.
Towards the end, it seems more and more clear that Penn is wildly out-of-touch with the current generation. One favorite example is when he takes data from a text-in poll of a couple hundred Californians aged 16 to 22 seriously. The question, "What profession do you want to be when you are settled in a career?". When about 1% (something like 4 or 5 people) responded with the answer "A Sniper", rather than taking this as evidence of the inherently vacuous nature of texting polls and ironic humor of young Californians, Penn takes this poll literally. What follows is a long diatribe on how the "Rules of Engagement" for war have changed and how interesting it is that so many young people are interested in becoming gunners. Isn't part of being a statistician knowing when your data is flawed?
On the other end of the scale, we have mystifying chapters like the one about porn on the internet. One is led to wonder what in the world a chapter on porn is doing in a book titled MICROtrends. Practically anyone over the age of puberty and with a computer has stumbled (either purposefully, or accidentally) over porn websites, as they are ubiquitous. Penn's treatment of the subject feels dewy-eyed and strange. (Amusingly, the outdated opinions of Penn were highlighted by the choice of the reader that was used for recording the Microtrends audiobook. The reader kept mispronouncing words like Yahoo, and Google, leading one to wonder from what rock he was recently unearthed out from.)
All of this is not to say that there aren't interesting parts of this book. However, the chapters that clearly miss the boat call into question the validity of the approach and the premise of many of the other chapters. I didn't start paying active attention to the methods used to gather the statistics that Penn uses in this book until my credulity was stretched too far. After this, I began to wonder about many of the chapters that I had already read, and I must admit that any magic the book might have once had was deflated. Penn would have done himself, and us, a favor to not stretch his attention between so many topics.
February 15, 2008
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 highlights all of the markets which are currently being under-served with products and services. It opens up a whole new world of industries and segments to market to and makes them easy to understand from a marketing perspective. If you're a business owner or in the advertising world, you need to wake up and read this book.
November 19, 2015
Borat, BlackBerries and MySpace. This is the single most 2007 book I have ever read.
June 25, 2009
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 from them, but I left the book in Texas when I finished it... so... yeah.
The topic is an interesting one, interesting enough for me to read non-fiction (a rarity). Penn is a successful pollster and he has pointed out 75 examples of how small groups can yield political and social power once they become 1% of the population. And some of his findings were very interesting - I have and will continue to mention them conversationally. For example, there are more straight women out there than straight men, so there are going to be a subset of the female population who never gets married because there aren't enough guys. What bugged me is that Penn, in the quest for the nice round number 75, started mentioning things that in no way approached 1%, which by his definition wouldn't make it a microtrend, so he shouldn't have mentioned them in a book about microtrends. The one that pissed me off the most was his look at Calorie-Restricting Diets. By his own admission in that section, he says that there are really only several thousand participants of this specific diet, which is a long way off 3,000,000.
Other trends are tough to quantify, yet he still tried to - ex. Long-Attention-Span People must all run marathons because that takes a long time?!?
I think had Penn taken his 20 or 25 strongest microtrends and expounded upon them, he would have had a more solid thesis and if he had listened to an editor, he would have had a more well-written text. But as it stands, this book was a chore and a bore.
The topic is an interesting one, interesting enough for me to read non-fiction (a rarity). Penn is a successful pollster and he has pointed out 75 examples of how small groups can yield political and social power once they become 1% of the population. And some of his findings were very interesting - I have and will continue to mention them conversationally. For example, there are more straight women out there than straight men, so there are going to be a subset of the female population who never gets married because there aren't enough guys. What bugged me is that Penn, in the quest for the nice round number 75, started mentioning things that in no way approached 1%, which by his definition wouldn't make it a microtrend, so he shouldn't have mentioned them in a book about microtrends. The one that pissed me off the most was his look at Calorie-Restricting Diets. By his own admission in that section, he says that there are really only several thousand participants of this specific diet, which is a long way off 3,000,000.
Other trends are tough to quantify, yet he still tried to - ex. Long-Attention-Span People must all run marathons because that takes a long time?!?
I think had Penn taken his 20 or 25 strongest microtrends and expounded upon them, he would have had a more solid thesis and if he had listened to an editor, he would have had a more well-written text. But as it stands, this book was a chore and a bore.
February 17, 2018
I occasionally chose to read a book that purports to tell the future, or gather together trends that will be continuing or growing. And sometimes, I read one of these books with some age on it. As I read this, “Microtrends” is over a decade old. In this book, the author recognizes and documents a few dozen trends, and on review, he has a pretty good track record. Many, if not most of the trends discussed include one small but noticeable microtrend, but also its polar opposite. Sort of like if you recognize a small but growing group of people that really love soup, if you look there’s probably a similarly sized group of anti-soup zealots. So these trends are a kind of a double dip. (And I’m surprised he didn’t notice the soup one, that’s one I’ve been noticing for a decade or so). When you read older futurist books, you look for the mistakes. I didn’t notice a bunch here. There was a couple of times where then-current technologies were expected to continue to grow, like Blu-ray and HD-DVD. The author also missed some technology trends, or underestimated them, in particular mobile and cloud technology and their impact on many areas of society. But overall, I found this interesting, and pretty well done. I see the author has a follow-up book, and if I find it in audio, that’ll go on my reading list.
November 9, 2007
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, Sons Who are Caregivers, Social Geeks, Female Clergy, Pro Semites, Vegan Children, Knitters...the statistics and analysis of these groups and what they may mean for our culture and politics are incredible.
June 6, 2017
The author introduces a very extraordinary idea, of how the power that underlies in 1% of a population is significant enough to create new trends in our day to day lives. Such concept reshapes our current understanding of trends and economics, but it really puts into perspective, how the current disruptions that we are now living with have happened. These micro trends are illustrated under several examples that Mark has identified through his career in politics. Such examples, that were exposed 10 years ago, are now proven to be very real and I would love read a current edition of this book re assessing these speculations and the impact that most of them caused.
June 3, 2011
There was lots of great facts and analysis, stuff I love. There was also a lot of not. And it didn't read so well. And while I thought 2007 was current enough, it's crazy how things do change. I'm reading the section on middle income folks investing in a second home thinking, I can't believe things have changed so much in four years. All his microtrending did not predict a certain economic meltdown.
August 24, 2020
This had some interesting trends, but being an older book I was curious how they examined trends and took action or connected them to larger events. It never really did that for me.
August 5, 2024
Microtrends no matter how small can have a large effect on our society. For every small affect long term changes can occur. The media as always plays a large part to the acceptance of these trends. We are a changing society continually evolving. We need to sort out what is best for posterity.
September 6, 2011
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, and very few asian nations. It's funny to read in the chapter dedicated to Chinese artists that, as Mr. Penn says, "in the West" porcelain is called simply "china". Surely Mr. Penn ignores that it is called like that ONLY in the US and some english-speaking countries, whereas there are specific words to call it, at least in Spanish (porcelana) and French (porcelain). Last time I checked Spain and France (not to mention spanish and french-speaking countries in Latin America) were also considered to be in "the West", but it seems that for Mr. Penn "the West" is ONLY the US.
He even says that most of people in the US wouldn't be able to find on a map countries like Turkey and Morocco. I'm sorry if he personally cannot do that, I have some good american friends who are very capable to find those countries (and many others) on a map and who see the world in a wider way than Mr. Penn does.
A pity that such a brilliant mind as his is so locked up in such a narrow vision of the world. As far as I know, he worked as a consultant for Mrs Clinton. No wonder why she lost...
He even says that most of people in the US wouldn't be able to find on a map countries like Turkey and Morocco. I'm sorry if he personally cannot do that, I have some good american friends who are very capable to find those countries (and many others) on a map and who see the world in a wider way than Mr. Penn does.
A pity that such a brilliant mind as his is so locked up in such a narrow vision of the world. As far as I know, he worked as a consultant for Mrs Clinton. No wonder why she lost...
January 28, 2012
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 to bring to the author's attention by writing to his website and which he did not bother to acknowledge or correct. The corporal punishment or "caning" or various offenders in the Republic of Singapore (where I have resided for the past 30 years) does not take place in public venues. Clearly, he supported President Clinton's efforts to reduce the penalty for a teenaged American offender, Michael Fay, bur fails the highlight the widespread support the Singapore verdict received in the USA nor Fay's subsequent misbehavior and legal troubles after he repatriated from Singapore.
Still an essential book if you want to get a handle on recent currents in American politics. The pollsters and spin doctors like Penn, the late Lee Atwater and Karl Rove wield mighty influence. It is worthwhile trying to understand their craft.
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 to bring to the author's attention by writing to his website and which he did not bother to acknowledge or correct. The corporal punishment or "caning" or various offenders in the Republic of Singapore (where I have resided for the past 30 years) does not take place in public venues. Clearly, he supported President Clinton's efforts to reduce the penalty for a teenaged American offender, Michael Fay, bur fails the highlight the widespread support the Singapore verdict received in the USA nor Fay's subsequent misbehavior and legal troubles after he repatriated from Singapore.
Still an essential book if you want to get a handle on recent currents in American politics. The pollsters and spin doctors like Penn, the late Lee Atwater and Karl Rove wield mighty influence. It is worthwhile trying to understand their craft.
July 29, 2009
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 niche groups. The book provides just a few pages on each one. If you’re familiar with a trend or, conversely, find it too quirky (“Young Knitters”), these few pages may seem long. If you haven’t encountered some of these trends, the entries will seem tantalizingly short. No matter what your niche, Penn and Zalesne will surprise you at some point, and their explanations of the forces shaping society are detailed and often quite original. As a result, getAbstract recommends their book to all marketers, especially those seeking niche audiences, and to everyone whose business requires planning for social change.
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 niche groups. The book provides just a few pages on each one. If you’re familiar with a trend or, conversely, find it too quirky (“Young Knitters”), these few pages may seem long. If you haven’t encountered some of these trends, the entries will seem tantalizingly short. No matter what your niche, Penn and Zalesne will surprise you at some point, and their explanations of the forces shaping society are detailed and often quite original. As a result, getAbstract recommends their book to all marketers, especially those seeking niche audiences, and to everyone whose business requires planning for social change.
October 12, 2015
Tác giả Mark J. Penn đã kể cho chúng ta nghe câu chuyện đầy màu sắc về xã hội Mỹ đang quay cuồng trong một mớ rối tinh rối mù của những lựa chọn - những xu hướng cực nhỏ nhưng tiềm ẩn sức mạnh to lớn. Lớn đến mức, nó "có khả năng thay đổi tính chất một loại hình kinh doanh, làm thất bại một cuộc bầu cử, hay phát động cả một cuộc nổi dậy". Nhưng câu chuyện này không phải thể loại giả tưởng, mà nó được dựng lên dựa trên những số liệu thống kê chính xác và nghiêm túc, mở ra cho ta cái nhìn đầy hiện thực mà không kém phần thú vị về những triển vọng thay đổi tư duy hay tiềm năng kinh doanh to lớn. Chúng ta sẽ nhìn thấy ở đấy không chỉ xã hội Mỹ, mà còn rất nhiều những đất nước khác, và có khi biết đâu đại diện cho xu hướng đó lại chính là bạn bè, hay một người quen của chúng ta. Dù khác biệt ít nhiều về văn hoá, lối sống hiện đại với nhiều đặc điểm giống nhau là minh chứng rõ nét cho mô hình thế giới phẳng.
November 10, 2024
O carte despre microtrenduri, scrisa in 2007 si luata cu emotie de la Shakespeare and Company. Ce moment mai bun decat, 17 ani mai tarziu sa vezi, sa simti, sa analizezi daca si cate din aceste trenduri au murit, s-au dezvoltat, s-au schimbat?
Pasajul asta rezuma intr-un mod sintetic si expresiv esenta cartii:
We are undergoing massive change in contradictory ways - a society that is fundamentally older, yet working more; a society that is striving to be healthier, and yet has never had higher obesity or caffeine consumption; a society that is increasingly discussing politicians’ style and personality, and yet is more educated than ever before.
And the world itself is undergoing some very counterintuitive changes: as science becomes more important, we have had a rise in religion; as economic freedom and capitalism are winning out, democracy and human rights are lagging; societies that give the greatest encouragement to childbearing are showing some of the greatest population declines.
The new laws of trends are coming into focus. For every trend, there is a countertrend. For every push to modernization, there is a drive to hold on to old values. For every dash to the Internet, there are those who want to knit and seek peace and quiet. For every rush to have instant information, there are people who want it long, detailed, and thoughtful. For every surge in homes without kids, there is a surge in homes with pets.
Pasajul asta rezuma intr-un mod sintetic si expresiv esenta cartii:
We are undergoing massive change in contradictory ways - a society that is fundamentally older, yet working more; a society that is striving to be healthier, and yet has never had higher obesity or caffeine consumption; a society that is increasingly discussing politicians’ style and personality, and yet is more educated than ever before.
And the world itself is undergoing some very counterintuitive changes: as science becomes more important, we have had a rise in religion; as economic freedom and capitalism are winning out, democracy and human rights are lagging; societies that give the greatest encouragement to childbearing are showing some of the greatest population declines.
The new laws of trends are coming into focus. For every trend, there is a countertrend. For every push to modernization, there is a drive to hold on to old values. For every dash to the Internet, there are those who want to knit and seek peace and quiet. For every rush to have instant information, there are people who want it long, detailed, and thoughtful. For every surge in homes without kids, there is a surge in homes with pets.
December 14, 2025
Un ottimo lavoro di un importante consulente dei politici USA e non solo (anche se l'ultima esperienza con Hillary Clinton, non � andata benissimo per Mark Penn).
Il libro ha il dichiarato obiettivo di portare alla luce del sole alcuni fenomeni sociali di nicchia che si stanno sviluppando negli Stati Uniti e che possono diventare sempre pi� importanti per le scelte strategiche di imprese, politici e pubblicitari.
Penn sostiene che l'epoca dei megatrend sia al tramonto, e che l'attuale offerta di beni e di possibilit� del nostro tempo, porti piuttosto ad una diversificazione sempre pi� spinta di consumi e costumi.
Un pregio del libro � quello di parlare sempre di dati concreti e di essere organizzato in tanti capitoli, riguardanti i diversi ambiti di analisi (lavoro, sesso, alimentazione, famiglia, etc.).
Il libro � apertamente focalizzato sulla societ� americana, quindi in qualche caso le analisi riportate non sono particolarmente calzanti con la nostra realt�. Allo stesso tempo per� i dati presentati sono un buon modo per conoscere il gigante USA in una maniera pi� approfondita di quanto di solito non facciamo attraverso i soliti stereotipi hollywodiani.
Il libro ha il dichiarato obiettivo di portare alla luce del sole alcuni fenomeni sociali di nicchia che si stanno sviluppando negli Stati Uniti e che possono diventare sempre pi� importanti per le scelte strategiche di imprese, politici e pubblicitari.
Penn sostiene che l'epoca dei megatrend sia al tramonto, e che l'attuale offerta di beni e di possibilit� del nostro tempo, porti piuttosto ad una diversificazione sempre pi� spinta di consumi e costumi.
Un pregio del libro � quello di parlare sempre di dati concreti e di essere organizzato in tanti capitoli, riguardanti i diversi ambiti di analisi (lavoro, sesso, alimentazione, famiglia, etc.).
Il libro � apertamente focalizzato sulla societ� americana, quindi in qualche caso le analisi riportate non sono particolarmente calzanti con la nostra realt�. Allo stesso tempo per� i dati presentati sono un buon modo per conoscere il gigante USA in una maniera pi� approfondita di quanto di solito non facciamo attraverso i soliti stereotipi hollywodiani.
April 11, 2020
Even though this book is now over 10 years old, it was still interesting to read. Almost all of the microtrends outlined in the book are well known today, and I am so interested to know how fringe (or not) they were when the book was written.
It is also interesting to see how many new trends emerge as almost an opposition to others. With the expansion of the internet, there are more people wanting dedicated time away from it. With the decline in people having children, there is an explosion of pet parents. Fitness is more popular than ever, but the population is also more obese than ever.
It is also interesting to see how many new trends emerge as almost an opposition to others. With the expansion of the internet, there are more people wanting dedicated time away from it. With the decline in people having children, there is an explosion of pet parents. Fitness is more popular than ever, but the population is also more obese than ever.
May 22, 2018
I figured as much reading a book from 2007 about trends that come and go in the blink of an eye, that this book would be outdated. I wanted to read Microtrends 2.0 which came out this spring and wanted to have the background first. Kind of interesting listening to these trends surrounding My Space, SIMS, and the TV show House which all seem like so long ago but are written like they're the greatest rage that's here to stay. Also, great to hear the fascinating piece on left-handedness and all the amazing lefties out there.
September 24, 2023
This book seems to contain a lot of opinionated information represented as facts, but aren't facts. Some of it's interesting, some of it's fluff. There's not a whole lot of useful information.
Compare this book with Gladwell's works, for example; Gladwell remarks on trends, and then attempts to explain the phenomena - how they happen, or why. Penn attempts so such thing. He just remarks on phenomena occurring throughout the world (trends that may or may not be current since 2005), and moves onto another one.
I struggle to find the purpose in reading this book.
Compare this book with Gladwell's works, for example; Gladwell remarks on trends, and then attempts to explain the phenomena - how they happen, or why. Penn attempts so such thing. He just remarks on phenomena occurring throughout the world (trends that may or may not be current since 2005), and moves onto another one.
I struggle to find the purpose in reading this book.
July 8, 2018
Reading this almost a decade after publication, I found the book both fascinating and a bit prophetic. By the end of the book I was losing a bit of steam and skimmed through the subjects, which were in line with personal and academic observations from my MBA marketing and corporate governance courses. Good read for those wanting to understand the power of minority or small groups. Highly recommended for business and/or marketing students and pros.
February 19, 2019
Fascinating 👌🏼
In this book Pollster Mark Pen claims that the future is not shaped by society’s broad forces but by the quiet changes within narrow slices of the population. This book was so much fun to read for the geek inside me & for anyone interested in opinion polls. I am fascinated by the analysis of these counterintuitive poll opinions & their impact on economy and sociology.
In this book Pollster Mark Pen claims that the future is not shaped by society’s broad forces but by the quiet changes within narrow slices of the population. This book was so much fun to read for the geek inside me & for anyone interested in opinion polls. I am fascinated by the analysis of these counterintuitive poll opinions & their impact on economy and sociology.
October 10, 2018
Reading this well after the publication date was extremely interesting because we could see the trends in hindsight. Penn was accurate in so many of his predictions. My husband and I spent hours upon hours in conversation sparked by this book.
April 17, 2019
Some of the trends were interesting, and I see how powerful they really are now. (This book was released in 2007.) Others were odd, but overall, I get what the author’s message is: don’t count the outliers out, as they can seriously change the trajectory of things.
September 5, 2019
Found this refreshing and helpful in looking at ways to see how behavioral patterns shift markets and the ways we access them. I have the 2007 version, reading it now 12 years later, some of the assumptions are spot on. Great read!
August 11, 2017
If you think USA Today is a good source of news and factoids masquerading as information, this is the book for you.
January 14, 2018
I love statistics overload-it was a fun book
July 18, 2018
No longer relevant as it is out of date.
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