"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You have to look at and interpret data to know what's going on, and that conventional wisdom is almost always wrong and outdated.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.

Customer Rating:
Summary: Very Interesting.... A Worthy Read
Comment: Society is changing in ways that few people see or understand. The authors surmise that focusing only on major trends that reach a "Tipping Point" leads to missing other very relevant movements. A successful trend - one that can benefit society or help the economy - can start out relatively small; even with one percent of a group of people.

It is very difficult to predict the future. Too often, future predictions are based on obvious trends and events. The "Microtrends" that exist, but are difficult to see, may be better indicators of societal movements than the more obvious trends. Many of the trends observed are counter-intuitive to what experts might expect. For example, terrorists are thought to be the product of dismal living conditions; however, the authors show that many suicide bombers and other terrorists are well-educated and at least middle class. The authors highlight 75 "Microtrends" in 15 different categories. These categories include Work Life, Race & Religion, Politics, International, Education, Money & Class, and Technology. Many of the noted Microtrends were featured from a perspective of the trend's impact on the USA; while also revealing the International picture. The authors state in the introduction to this book that America is being pulled apart by an intricate maze of choices that can involve or be driven by less than one percent of the population. Many of the trends have been expanded by the explosion of choices that globalization has provided.

This is very fast reading and offers many interesting tidbits. I recommend this book and give it a strong four stars.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Small Shifts Lead to Big Change
Comment: 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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Customer Rating:
Summary: Microtrends or Megatrends?
Comment: 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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Customer Rating:
Summary: Cross-section of Present-day America
Comment: 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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Customer Rating:
Summary: An intriguing and fun skimread
Comment: 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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