Microtrends: The Small Forces Behind Today's Big Changes - Hardcover

Why the smallest groups have the biggest impact

In Microtrends, Mark Penn, one of the most respected and sought-after analysts in the world, articulates a new way of understanding how we live. He reveals the real trends wielding large influence on society today and tomorrow. In every case these are small patterns of behaviour involving as little as one percent of the population, yet they can transform a business, tip an election, or spark a movement. These are the microtrends.

Relying on some of the best data available, Penn identifies more than 70 microtrends in religion, leisure, politics, and family life that are changing our lives. Among them are how people are retiring by continuing to work, why the most influential millionaires are the most shy, how the new geeks are the most sociable people around, and how even some of the most basic trends are being overlooked – like how women are driving technology and how Dads are older than ever and spending more time with the kids than in the past.

People have never been more sophisticated, more individualistic, or more knowledgeable about the choices they make in their daily lives, yet little is done to find the logical patterns that underlie their choices. Mark Penn believes that you have to look at and interpret the data to know what is going on, and that conventional wisdom is almost always wrong. In Microtrends he shows how we can all become better trendspotters.

A groundbreaking book, Microtrends is an invaluable tool in the quest to better understand our world and a remarkable portrait of the 21st century, where the most important trends are the smallest ones.

Mark J. Penn has spent over 30 years as an adviser and polling analyst to major corporations and heads of state. He has advised companies from Microsoft to BP and heads of state from U.S. President Clinton to U.K. Prime Minister Blair to others in Asia and Latin America. He started polling after graduating Harvard and attending Columbia Law School. Time Magazine has called Penn “The Master of the Message” and The New York Times has called him “The Guru of Small Things,” because of Penn’s unique ability to find and motivate niche groups in society. Penn is currently CEO of Burson Marsteller and President of Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates.

Writing with Penn is E. Kinney Zalesne, who has served as a White House Fellow and was Counsel to U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno.