Microtrends: The Small Forces Behind Tomorrow’s Big Changes: Mark Penn, E. Kinney Zalesne
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
From “Soccer Moms,” the legendary swing voters of the mid-1990s, to “Late-Breaking Gays” such as former Gov. Games McGreevey (out at age 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,” people who travel 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 whole meals that fit in cup 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 net result of all this “niching” is “greater individual satisfaction”; as Penn notes, “not one of the fastest-growing sports in America… depends substantially on teamwork.” Penn draws similar 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”) while remaining energetic and entertaining throughout. Culture buffs, retailers and especially businesspeople for whom “small is the new big” will value this exercise in nano-sociology.
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From AudioFile
Take a timely look at an extensive inventory of small, sometimes unnoticeable, trends that are shaping and directing our economy, our society, and our world. In reading the tea leaves of these small movements, politicians, marketers, and entrepreneurs who get it right will be able to get the jump on those who await the coming of the significant movements as defined by the traditional polling apparatus. Narrator Brett BarryÕs pacing is excellent for the considerable amount of material the author covers: 75 intense identity groups who are demanding things that our current social structure isnÕt delivering. With a less able reader the listener could get lost–as the topics transition rapidly and often abruptly. M.C. © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine– Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine
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