Micro-Trends in Mktg Niches #2
The Small Forces Behind Tomorrow’s Big Changes
Authored by Mark Penn 9/07 reviewed & enhanced by Peter/CXO Wiz4biz 8/13
Single Mothers by Choice is an example to show how single women who choose to adopt or bear children without a partner, can have an impact on business & finance. Home maintenance, home repair, & home security—traditionally male-oriented affairs—are now within a woman’s realm. Related companies therefore, have a large market of single women. Ditto for investment companies that have customarily courted males or couples as their primary clients.
Team Sports to Individual Sports is another trend that Penn spots in the shift of American participation. Sport participation in America is far from declining, but instead of playing team or partner sports such as baseball, volleyball, or tennis, more people are mountain-biking, kayaking, & skateboarding instead. This growing trend towards the individual will likely result in niche sports programming, Penn predicts, and it will likely mean that niche heroes will emerge along with niche sports in the movies.
Impacts of Micro-Trends. Because of its focus on the Political & Business Impacts that these micro-trends will likely spawn, this book will be of interest to readers concerned with not only business & politics, but it will also educate the general reader about a host of small – but growing – cultural trends. As Penn explains, some of these trends are hard to spot – even though they may be rapidly growing. The forces that are changing our world may be “hidden, operating just under the radar,” and Penn does a good job pointing them out.
With 75 different Trends discussed in one book, a reader might feel pushed to the limit of information overload in only a few chapters. One of the difficulties in reading this book is, that as soon as one trend is explained, another is introduced. Some of the trends conflict with others because, as Penn says, “for every trend, there is a counter-trend.” It becomes, therefore, harder to believe that each trend is truly significant. But Penn’s book does not predict that all 75 microtrends hold equal weight or that each of them will have the same type of impact on our future. Instead, “Micro-Trends” reads more like a radar, and Penn has done his part—and more—in plotting these small but potentially powerful movements on the map.
Comments: Do you see any Trends that an Entrepreneur could take advantage of?