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Audiobook12 hours
Microtrends: The Small Forces Behind Tomorrow's Big Changes
Written by E. Kinney Zalesne and Mark Penn
Narrated by Brett Barry
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
3.5/5
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About this audiobook
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, Penn identifies the new microtrends sweeping the world:
SINGLE WOMEN BY CHOICE: Women 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 sun's impact 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.
MICROTRENDS highlights everything from religion to politics, from leisure pursuits to relationships and will take the listener into the worlds of polling, targeting, and psychographic analysis, reaching tantalizing conclusions through engaging analysis.
SINGLE WOMEN BY CHOICE: Women 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 sun's impact 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.
MICROTRENDS highlights everything from religion to politics, from leisure pursuits to relationships and will take the listener into the worlds of polling, targeting, and psychographic analysis, reaching tantalizing conclusions through engaging analysis.
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Reviews for Microtrends
Rating: 3.4366630666666667 out of 5 stars
3.5/5
150 ratings8 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This book provided killer insights into small cultural shifts that are already shaping larger changes in our society. Penn couldn't win the election for Hillary, but he certainly proves he understands cultural observation and insights. The man who invented the 'soccer mom' archetype gives us plenty of food for thought - including couples in the UK who are Living Apart, Together (that is, monogamous and long-term without co-habitating.) Worth reading for anyone who relies on a keen understanding of trends for work or entertainment.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Interesting look at different niche markets. I listened to this on audio CD in the car.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This book alternates between facinating and infuriating. The author's thesis that America is hardly a melting pot, but a pointalism painting that must be examined on the small-scale to be appreciated as a whole is rivetting and enlightening. However, the slightest knowledge of statistics, research methods, or polling methods makes his use of numbers and polls down-right frustrating. He never really properly addresses the problems of bias, skewed results, or problems with the ways questions are formed. And while many of his assertions are interesting, some of them are too hastily made (and many are down-right silly), which distracts from the overall message. However, by ignoring his playing fast and loose with numbers and rush to hypothesis, it's a great book. In other words, if your looking for an interesting introduction to polling, go for this book. Most people can find themselves in at least one of the categories-I'm a bit of an oddball so I was suprised that I was only in the "Upscaled Tattoo" group (in which he makes NUMEROUS errors in assumptions-the Macdonaldization of tattooing is a terrible idea). This helps support his overall thesis-we can't insist everyone be "American," when there are so many ways to be American. Plus, he points out many things that are easy to overlook. For instance, railing against illegal immigrants may not be a great idea for politicians because, even though the aliens can't vote, chances are they have family and friends in country who CAN.But if you want serious numbers and accounting of actual trends in America, this book will leave you wanting.
- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5This guy is seriously sexist and racist!!! Don't waste your time.
- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5Sounded 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.1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5You'd think a book about all the many little trends in the country would be interesting, and this book is interesting... at least for the first few pages. Then it gets repetitive and you wonder why anybody would care about these so-called "trends." So what if there's a small group of people who have long attention spans and another with short attention spans and another with really long commutes and another with really short commutes. I got bored fairly quickly with this book.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Some mildly interesting data about overlooked segments of society, but distorted with bizarre personal remarks and hamfisted explanations. Best skimmed.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5You pick up a book with a title like this and a back cover listing:*”People are retiring but continuing to work.”*”Teens are turning to knitting.”*“Geeks are becoming the most sociable people around.” …. You think: “Hey, this sounds just like my friend, Charlie…”*”Women are driving technology.” …. and wonder, “I am…?”*Dads are older than ever and spending more time with their kids than in the past.” You flip to a page and soon become so engrossed in it that you don’t know you’re beginning to smile. Then you start to chuckle. Wait, you do know someone just like that—yourself! Before you know it, you’ve chortled your way through a humorous chapter. A lot of the details are plain hilarious!Mark Penn just has a way with words. His wit lends a lot of levity to what easily could have been one of those tedious analytical tomes for intellectual heavyweights (just a nice euphemism for pedantic bores). He could write fiction and be a hit! He is just that funny.But don’t let this lead you to thinking that this book is too breezy to be serious reading. Microtrends is a serious analysis. It’s a fascinating account of emerging social behaviors that are or will be powerful enough to influence how society will think, act, and be in the next several years. Penn writes:“In fact, the whole idea that there are a few huge trends that determine how America and the world work is breaking down. There are no longer a couple of megaforces sweeping us all along. Instead, America and the world are being pulled apart by an intricate maze of choices, accumulating in “microtrends”—small, under-the-radar forces that can involve as little as 1 percent of the population, but which are powerfully shaping our society. It’s just not that small is the new big. It’s that in order to truly know what’s going on,…we need the equivalent of magnifying glasses and microscopes…polls, surveys, and statistics. They take a slice of the matter being studied and lay it open…and inside, you will find yourself, your friends, your clients, your customers, and your competition, clearer than you ever thought you might.”Microtrends is really about “small ideas that can lead to large changes”. “A microtrend is an intense identity group, that is growing, which has needs and wants unmet by the current crop of companies, marketers, policymakers, and others who would influence society’s behavior.”Although Penn’s focus is trending American society, he does go further to include similar global behavior. In a global economy, trends spread fast and could become international driving forces that may, in the future, upset or enhance established social norms around the world.Who should read this book? Those who need to be one step ahead of competition have to watch and be aware of these growing groups whose unique requirements are changing the way things are. But it would do most of us, “go with the flow” people, a lot of good to be enlightened. Let us not wake up one day and say, “What’s the world gotten into?” ; but say, “ “We’ve known , we’ve read, and we’ve been watching.”So, grab a copy. I guarantee an easy, fast read—a page-turner! For a non-fiction novel on sociology, that’s saying a lot! If only more analytical books were written like this, we would all be more “in the know”. Well, hey, maybe Penn just started a trend!My Mark : Excellent