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Product Description
Bill Clinton
'Mark Penn has a remarkable gift for detecting patterns and identifying trends. The ideas in his book will help you see the world in a new way.'
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Time
'The Master of the Message'
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
A friend of mine used to tell me that what most attracted him to a nonfiction book was the opportunity to learn something that would make for good dinner table conversation. My friend would rate Microtrends at five stars for sure. I don't recall a book with so many factoids that highlight minor trends in society. Here are a few examples:
1. There are more Christian Zionists than Jewish ones.
2. One percent of young Californians want to grow up to be military snipers.
3. As a result of the crime crackdown, one of the fastest growing population segments is newly released ex-convicts.
4. Knitting is making a revival among young people.
5. Those who love technology are more outgoing than those who hate technology.
The book also has some international examples. One of my favorites is that 82 percent of men aged 18-30 in Italy live at home with their parents. I felt like calling my sons to congratulate them on having moved out.
Mark J. Penn and E. Kinney Zalesne argue that you can build political conclusions from looking at such small trends. It's a lot easier to switch an independent voter than to attract a first-time voter . . . or to switch a voter who is loyal to the other party. Be spot-on with an issue that creates excitement for a small group of swing voters, and you may carry an election. The book is filled with references to the 1996 role that Soccer Moms played in Bill Clinton's re-election.
Beyond that, this is a book of trivia. There's not much analysis of products or positions that such groups might like. There's also no attempt to tie these small trends back to these people being independent voters.
Mark J. Penn and E. Kinney Zalesne also argue that contrary to what many Republican pollsters believe that swing voters are more interested in positions than in personality and character. I found that the book did more asserting of that point than proving of it.
In the brief concluding section there's a tiny effort to pull it all together: In a world with more choices, people will fragment in their selections. If you've read The Long Tail, you already knew that.
This is much too lightweight a book to have much significance. But it is fun to read. Don't feel like you need to read all of the sections.
I only found four tiny trends described that I hadn't already noticed, but I did find it convenient to see some estimate of how important the size of the trend is and a few reasons for the trend.
1. There are more Christian Zionists than Jewish ones.
2. One percent of young Californians want to grow up to be military snipers.
3. As a result of the crime crackdown, one of the fastest growing population segments is newly released ex-convicts.
4. Knitting is making a revival among young people.
5. Those who love technology are more outgoing than those who hate technology.
The book also has some international examples. One of my favorites is that 82 percent of men aged 18-30 in Italy live at home with their parents. I felt like calling my sons to congratulate them on having moved out.
Mark J. Penn and E. Kinney Zalesne argue that you can build political conclusions from looking at such small trends. It's a lot easier to switch an independent voter than to attract a first-time voter . . . or to switch a voter who is loyal to the other party. Be spot-on with an issue that creates excitement for a small group of swing voters, and you may carry an election. The book is filled with references to the 1996 role that Soccer Moms played in Bill Clinton's re-election.
Beyond that, this is a book of trivia. There's not much analysis of products or positions that such groups might like. There's also no attempt to tie these small trends back to these people being independent voters.
Mark J. Penn and E. Kinney Zalesne also argue that contrary to what many Republican pollsters believe that swing voters are more interested in positions than in personality and character. I found that the book did more asserting of that point than proving of it.
In the brief concluding section there's a tiny effort to pull it all together: In a world with more choices, people will fragment in their selections. If you've read The Long Tail, you already knew that.
This is much too lightweight a book to have much significance. But it is fun to read. Don't feel like you need to read all of the sections.
I only found four tiny trends described that I hadn't already noticed, but I did find it convenient to see some estimate of how important the size of the trend is and a few reasons for the trend.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Lametable. For a book that is primarily about data analysis the quality of analysis and explanatory graphics is shockingly low.
On example may serve to illustrate my point: a seven-fold increase in over-the-counter spend on pharmaceuticals, over forty years, is taken as evidence of a surge in self-medication; no mention is made of the role of inflation over the period - in fact, depending on the index used, a strong argument could be made for a real decrease in spend.
Most topics are accompanied by ink-intensive data-lite charts, plucked straight from the Excel Hall of Shame: page after page is wasted by plots of between two and four data points on a 50% grey background, often joined by meaningless straight lines. In most cases the data would be significantly better illustrated by a simple table.
Could do better.
On example may serve to illustrate my point: a seven-fold increase in over-the-counter spend on pharmaceuticals, over forty years, is taken as evidence of a surge in self-medication; no mention is made of the role of inflation over the period - in fact, depending on the index used, a strong argument could be made for a real decrease in spend.
Most topics are accompanied by ink-intensive data-lite charts, plucked straight from the Excel Hall of Shame: page after page is wasted by plots of between two and four data points on a 50% grey background, often joined by meaningless straight lines. In most cases the data would be significantly better illustrated by a simple table.
Could do better.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book is relatively lightweight but nonetheless an intriguing read. The bulk of the book consists of 75 small chapters most of them four to five pages long each of which describes and speculates about social trends suggested by opinion poll results. The author's American English grated on me at times but the small chapters made it easily digestible. Trends discussed include:
* older first-time fathers,
* teenage entrepreneurs,
* race differences in obesity rates,
* the rise of knitting as a pastime,
* the growth of the non-profit sector
and many others.
Hard social research it isn't and few solid conclusions can be drawn, except perhaps with regard to what pollsters ask about. Numbers and percentages are tossed here and there with abandon and I suspect that the book would have many professional statisticians rolling on the floor laughing.
On the other hand this is, as another reviewer has said, a highly thought-provoking book and that alone stands much in its favour. Also, in providing a snapshot of poll results in the first decade of the 21st century, the book may well turn out to be a useful historical document a hundred years on. If the authors produced a revised edition every ten years, they might provide future historians with much to ponder.
I toyed with giving a 3-star rating. On the whole, though, it's worth 4 for being so facinating.
* older first-time fathers,
* teenage entrepreneurs,
* race differences in obesity rates,
* the rise of knitting as a pastime,
* the growth of the non-profit sector
and many others.
Hard social research it isn't and few solid conclusions can be drawn, except perhaps with regard to what pollsters ask about. Numbers and percentages are tossed here and there with abandon and I suspect that the book would have many professional statisticians rolling on the floor laughing.
On the other hand this is, as another reviewer has said, a highly thought-provoking book and that alone stands much in its favour. Also, in providing a snapshot of poll results in the first decade of the 21st century, the book may well turn out to be a useful historical document a hundred years on. If the authors produced a revised edition every ten years, they might provide future historians with much to ponder.
I toyed with giving a 3-star rating. On the whole, though, it's worth 4 for being so facinating.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
These trends can turn into business and investment oppurtunities
I picked up this book because as a professional investor, I am constantly looking for investment opportunities to place money. Read more
Published on 15 Nov 2009 by Mariusz Skonieczny
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. Read more
Published on 29 July 2009 by Rolf Dobelli
Microtrends - Micro-ambition more like...
I bought this book on the back of a review in a broadsheet newspaper, thinking it was in the mould of popular economic books like Freakonomics or The Long Tail. Read more
Published on 9 Oct 2008 by Mr. Joel C. A. Cooney
Entertaining snippets rather than in-depth analysis
For anyone expecting in-depth statistical analysis to support the various microtrends that Penn lays out, this is not the book for you. Read more
Published on 23 July 2008 by N. Harrison
Measuring Tiny Trends Provides a Complex Mosaic of American Society
A friend of mine used to tell me that what most attracted him to a nonfiction book was the opportunity to learn something that would make for good dinner table conversation. Read more
Published on 29 Nov 2007 by Donald Mitchell
An engaging read on human behavior with a bit of a liberal bias
Microtrends is a collection of essays, grouped in categories ranging from technology,to politics, lifestyle, teens and many others. Read more
Published on 14 Nov 2007 by Dimitris Athanasakis
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