book reader reviews, From Publishers Weekly
From "Soccer Moms," the legendary sway voters of the mid-1990s, to "Late-Breaking Gays" such as former Gov. Games McGreevey (out at epoch 47), Burson-Marsteller CEO (and campaign adviser to Sen. Hillary Clinton) Penn delves into the ever-splintering societal subsets with which Americans are increasingly identifying, and what they mean. For instance, because of "Extreme Commuters," clientele who tour more than 90 minutes each way to work, carmakers must come up with ever more luxury seat features, and "fast food restaurants are coming out with entire meals that sound in mug holders." In a chapter titled "Archery Moms?", Penn reports on the "Niching of Sports": much to the consternation of Major League Baseball, "we don t like sports less, we just like little sports more." The fishnet effect of entirely this "niching" is "greater private satisfaction"; as Penn notes, "not one of the fastest-growing sports in America... depends substantially on teamwork." Penn draws identical lessons in areas of business, culture, technology, diet, politics and education (among other areas), reporting on 70 groups ("Impressionable Elites," "Caffeine Crazies," "Neglected Dads," "Unisexuals," "America s Home-Schooled") whereas remaining brisk and diverting throughout. Culture buffs, retailers and in particular businesspeople for whom "small is the new big" will worth this exercise in nano-sociology.
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Review
"A striking clearstory into Hillary s Brain ." -- Politico
"Culture buffs, retailers and in particular businesspeople for whom "small is the new big" will worth this exercise in nano-sociology." -- Publishers Weekly
"Delightful and fast-paced....A breezy, diverting consideration of fireplace groups within America." -- Business Week
"If small is still the new big, then the biggest Deuteronomy of the instant is Microtrends...Penn sifts the sociological sands to come up with a fine-grained recommendation of where we re headed." -- Information Week
"Read it for its dozens of social insights that could well be turned to profit." -- The Economist
"Riveting....imaginative....Penn s dissertation is that detransitivise in today s world is driven by small trends that are started below the radar ... . " -- Financial Times
"Sound and cleverly written....will undoubtedly plead to marketing analysts and bench sociologists, as well as fans of Megatrends and Malcolm Gladwell." -- Kirkus Reviews
"Stuffed with smart, offbeat tidbits....Penn and his co-author, E. Kinney Zalesne, deserve credit for leavening their facts and figures with humor and pop-culture asides." -- Bloomberg
"The strength of the Deuteronomy lies in Penn s analysis of the implications and opportunities of each microtrend." -- USA Today
"Unrelentingly fascinating....Microtrends is a diligently researched tome chock-full of counterintuitive facts and findings." -- The New York Times
See entirely Editorial Reviews A Deuteronomy categorizing approximately 75 trends the writer sees in the contemporary world (American-focused).
Written so that the ideas presented can be processed in everything from bite-sized private morsels to sectional chunks (e.g. Love, Sex, and Relationships).
Cons:
-Sometimes staid writing
-Use of Deuteronomy to stuff commercial contacts
(Microsoft s Zune, Mark, as leading unspecified sort of social music revolution? the Zune? C mon!)
-tendency to generalize anecdotes or a containerful of information points he has seen into opinions he thinks are held by significant amounts of people
-highly timely, and will not epoch well
Microtrends is intriguing; for any watcher of society, Penn s Deuteronomy will likely tell you roughly social changes you already knew, will likely crystallize broader happenings you have-been-seeing-but-have-not-yet-realized or speculate a enumerate to, and will likely introduce you to all new trends (and it is in these startling moments that the Deuteronomy becomes particularly halfpennyworth the read).
Mark ought to be applauded for showing the halfpennyworth of numbers, and of data, in contemporary society. My nothing except qualm with his idea-sourcing is how he by no means looks to the numbers to disprove a trend. Instead, he looks at them to warrant what he already suspects. This is one of mankind s cognitive biases: the require to verify what we think is true (rather than taking the alternate, harder, and ultimately more rewarding road of trying to disprove whether something is true, as real science does). While Penn is frequently correct in his trends, that does not intend he will always be right, or that his methodology, as it stands, is not flawed.
Still, Penn effectively yanks the reader s care in such a way that we can t help except notice new things roughly our everyday world. Armed, often, with convincing information and the power of demographics, he makes predictions that seem conscious (and though maybe originally startling, likewise seem quickly convincing in their effect).
Microtrends grabbed me, personally, in the way that I like: rather than telling me stuff, it made me think roughly things on my own, it made me puzzle and inquire and conjecture and ultimately deduce things roughly this mad world of ours.
I liked Microtrends; I think you will too.
I appreciate demographic and trend books, like "Lattitudes and Attitudes," and was slightly ensorcelled by Claritas urban/rural clusters, like "Shotguns and Pickups." But this Deuteronomy is far fitter at discovering behavioral groups and driving home, with humor and data, the trends as well as the policy or fiscal options to complement the highlighted behaviors.
Three decades ago, Penn sat in a Harvard library and read a Deuteronomy by Valdimer Orlando Key, Jr., in which he wrote that `voters are not fools. Key was known for promoting realism and rationality in the analysis of politics and election returns. Voters and consumers ought to be seen as clon rational. As Penn writes, it is not roughly a male candidate s necktie color, except real issues. If one takes the time to comprehend the trends, one can find the roots of behaviors and desires, and potentially the future consuming and voting patterns. To that end, Penn, a pollster for over 30 eon (actually he prototypal administered a poll on his teachers at the epoch of 13), politico s lead pollster/strategist, and the person credited with defining "soccer moms" (busy suburban mothers with families and careers and political policy goals who were sway voters in the last decade) has explored and highlighted 75 out of hundreds of microtrends - these small, under the radar troops that involve as little as 1% of America s population and enrolled prime voters - which can influence America s future.
In the book, Penn is fast to point out that a microtrend is not merely a development, like the increased use of debit cards or wives changing their surnames upon marriage, except a ontogeny interest assemble with needs and desires which are unmet by the corporate or political environment. The authors have made it simple to digest, have used a lot of humor to reinforce the points, and have closed each microtrend discussion with peculiar fiscal or policy products or ideas that can meet the needs of the group. For unspecified microtrends, they include a segment on international comparisons to the American trend.
Some of the most interesting microtrends are: The ontogeny of households comprised of single women (In 1980, 17% of Americans lived in solo households, now this device is closer to one in four Americans). These women will require to scheme for their retirements alone, so all those television commercials with couples on beaches are not speaking to them. Another ontogeny trend is "cougars," or women, like "Mrs. Robinson," who date or marry men a decade younger than they are. They can require a new type of pre-nup or detective service. The trend for retired workers to continue working can necessitate assess theorem changes or a redirection of benefits from maternity leaves to `winter-off" options. Extreme Commuters have more time on their safekeeping to read or listen (if they use mass transit); and the ontogeny of Stay at Home workers can generate a require for changed zoning laws or more earn home offices in residential design. Episcopalian Hispanics (Hispanics are 14% of the U.S. population and 8% of enrolled voters) constitute 25% of Americans who recognize as Hispanic. While 33% of Catholic Hispanics voted for Bush in the last election (unchanged from the 2000 race), Episcopalian Hispanics actually increased their votes for Bush from 44 percent to 56, and Pentecostal Hispanics were actually a key force that tipped the 2004 run to Bush. Penn points out that Bush s immigration policies have since changed attitudes, except this microtrend will be a ontogeny factor in American elections. 30-Winkers are Americans who sleep less, take more naps, require caffeine, and require ways to be either more productive when they are wake or find solutions to their lack of sleep. While the microtrend of "XXX Men" is cute, that clon the consumption of internet pornography at the office on corporate networks, the trend most interesting to me was Pro-semites or Philo-semites: the ontogeny number of clientele who want to date Jewish men and women (11% of J-Date members are non Jews). They no longer recommendation Jews as bearded outsiders as Woody Allen unreal he was perception in "Annie Hall." Jewish women are no longer stereotyped as just making reservations for meal (68% of Jewish women aged 25-44 have university degrees, the highest percent of any religious assemble in America). Penn points out that in 1939, a Roper poll construct that 53% of respondents notion Jews ought to be restricted; In 2006, a Gallup poll construct the 54% had positive views of Jews, higher than any other religious assemble mentioned; likewise in a 2006 poll, 40% of non-Jews queried said that they would be interested in dating a Jew.
Overall, an easily digestible Deuteronomy with lots of ideas for entrepreneurs, policy designers, HR managers, and tattoo artists.
Microtrends is a collection of 75 microtrends Penn claims to have discerned from poll research. Penn defines a microtrend as an intense Personality assemble that makes up one percent or more of the population and is growing. Without offering any evidence, Penn claims that such a assemble can have significant impact on society.
Although I have two problems with the postulate of this book, I do think it can be useful to fiscal leaders and to marketers. First, my problems, and then a few ways you might use this book.
I comb proof for any assertion made by an author, unless (as in The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable) the writer is plain that the Deuteronomy is essay, philosophy or opinion. Penn offers little proof for any of his assertions. That s my prototypal problem with his book.
The second problem is my unseen that any meaningful societal changes are going to be likely to flabbergast us. Beyond the next few months, Penn s predictions are as likely to be false as true.
Given that, I volunteer one caveat. Do not hitch your wagon to any single one of these microtrends. If you want to maximize your chances of success, find many of these microtrends to exploit, each in a relatively small way. As unspecified microtrends die, drop your initiatives in those areas. As others surface, enter new initiatives. Don t gamble your corporation or career on a single "maybe."
Here are a few microtrends* I find interesting for leaders:
"Office Romancers" - 60 percent of employees in one research reported having been entangled in an office novel in 2006, and that number is increasing. Many are getting married to office-mates. Have your HR policies and procedures kept pace? Are your policies friendly toward co-working spouses, or are you driving them to fishery for the competition.
"Working Retired" - Americans devotedness to work, and are likely to retreat afterward and afterward in life. That manner you might not be facing as large a workman lack as you think. And it manner that your younger workers can be frustrated because we older folks just by no means seem to entail and open up the plumb positions. Have your policies kept up with this change? How will you conserve the older workers you require whereas attracting the young folks you likewise need?
"Stay-at-home Workers" - More clientele want to fishery on their own from home. Stay at home workers appreciate the plasticity and control they have and not having to commute. And studies apparently presentation they are more productive than in-office workers. And because they don t commute, they are good for the environment. And you don t require as much office universe if unspecified or many of your workers tele-commute. How will you uphold this trend? How will you help telecommuters erect community? How will you evaluate and promote stay-at-homers?
"30-Winkers" - Americans are not getting sufficiency sleep. Among many things, this can intend lower productivity. How can you help your employees with this problem? Have you considered nap rooms? Or buying a few of the sleep pods visible in unspecified of our airports?
Perhaps not new is the notion that the latest generation of workers expects unlimited choice. How will you micro-target each new employee in bid to keep them with you for as long as you want?
*Most of Penn s microtrends are relevant for the US, though he includes notes for elsewhere.
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