Microtrends: The Small Forces Behind Tomorrow's Big Changes

In 1982, readers discovered Megatrends.

In 2000, The Tipping Point entered the lexicon.

Now, in Microtrends, one of the most respected and sought-after analysts in the world articulates a new way of understanding how we live.

Mark Penn, the man who identified Soccer Moms as a crucial constituency in President Clinton's 1996 reelection campaign, is known for his ability to detect relatively small patterns of behavior in our culture-microtrends that are wielding great influence on business, politics, and our personal lives. Only one percent of the public, or three million people, is enough to launch a business or social movement.

Relying on some of the best data available, Penn identifies more than 70 microtrends in religion, leisure, politics, and family life that are changing the way we live. Among them:

• People are retiringbut continuing to work.
• Teens are turning to knitting.
• Geeks are becoming the most sociable people around.
• Women are driving technology.
• Dads are older than ever and spending more time with their kids than in the past.

You have to look at and interpret data to know what's going on, and that conventional wisdom is almost always wrong and outdated. The nation is no longer a melting pot. We are a collection of communities with many individual tastes and lifestyles. Those who recognize these emerging groups will prosper.

Penn shows readers how to identify the microtrends that can transform a business enterprise, tip an election, spark a movement, or change your life. In today's world, small groups can have the biggest impact.

"Riveting....imaginative....Penn is as much a business consultant as he is a political junkie — a symbiosis that helps explain why so much of his book is so original." Financial Times

"The ideas in his book will help you see the world in a new way." Bill Clinton

"Mark Penn has a keen mind and a fascinating sense of what makes America tick, and you see it on every page of Microtrends." Bill Gates

"The guru of small things... Mark Penn is more than a high-powered Democratic pollster: His idea helped transform the Clinton presidency into a service provider for various niche voters." New York Times Magazine

Penn highlights everything from religion to politics, from leisure pursuits to relationships, in this look at those smaller, yet critical, trends sweeping the nation.

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, Mark Penn identifies the new microtrends sweeping the world:

• Single women by choice: More often than ever before, they 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 impact the sun is having 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.

Penn highlights everything from religion to politics, from leisure pursuits to relationships. Microtrends will take the reader deep into the worlds of polling, targeting, and psychographic analysis, reaching tantalizing conclusions through engaging analysis.