Book Summary: Microtrends - Part III-concluded

Here are more Microtrends to look out for:
Tailor Made Religions : Religions and churches are becoming more adaptable to people's needs. New religions are being created.

The Homeschooling Boom: More and more people are homeschooling their kids today. As a result, seminars are curricula are increasing too.

The blurring line between the sexes: no comment.

French Teetotalers: The consumption of wine in France is now going down. This is partly for health reasons, partly because of religious reasons(due to France's growing Muslim population) and partly because of the major decrease in the time it takes to have dinner from decades ago.



As a result, the wine industries of Australia and the United States are gaining ground. This would be as big a revelation as would be if the Chinese were to give up Tea and the Japanese were to give up Susi.

Vietnamese Entrepreneurs: Though strongly communist, Vietnam's economy growth is outperforming Indian and Chinese economies. More multinationals are investing in Vietnam and Vietnam's exports to the US is 5 times the quantity it imports from the US.

Italian Stay Home Men: While living with parents is generally frowned upon in the United States(a la George Castanza of Seinfeld and Norman Bates of Psycho) 82% of Italians live with their parents. Some experts attribute this to Italy's growing unemployment. The unemployment in Italy is in turn caused by a fall in Italian Exports, thanks to increased competition from China.



Russian Swing Voters: According to surveys, Russians are no longer very infatuated by democracy and most Russians prefer a strong leader than to a democracy. With Russia preparing for its democratic government, with Putin and Chess great, Kasparov leading some parties, the swing voter may be the key to whoever wins the election.

European Only Children: The population of Europe is falling at an alarming rate. Many European couples are settling for just one child. This, the author believes will mean that a younger generation of increased confidence, and strong will. This generation, will be outnumbered in Europe by the elderly.



Chinese Picassos: With the increase in income and improved lifestyles brought about by China's growing economy, China's artists are growing in popularity. Many of the World's most famous museums plan to open branches in China.

Indian Women Rising: Indira Nui of Pepsi, Sania Mirza of tennis fame, Sonia Gandhi and Mira Nair are some examples the author gives

Educated Terrorists: Contrary to popular belief, most terrorists today are well educated and come from well-to-do families. Many have studied abroad. Even Usama Bin Ladin is a civil engineer.

Microtrends are testimony that individuality is being celebrated more now, than ever before. Some may be fun, but the author insists that they all have a serious undertone. Together they come together and bring about a collage of varigatedness.

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Book Summary: Microtrends - Part II

Also among the rising trends:

Shy Millionaires: These are millionaires who contrary to popular beliefs, stay out of the spotlight. Most of them attended public schools but have kids that go to private schools. They may be seen at the Targets looking for bargains or looking for Financial planners.

Tattooing has gone mainstream. The author asks: Where is the Mcdonalds of Tatooing? He believes that there is a big market here.

The growing popularity of cosmetic surgery, thanks to advances in technology, falling prices and almost negligible recovery time.

Techno Fatales: Radio shack and Best Buy are missing out on this segment.It is the techno crazy women they must target. Apple and Sony seem to have caught on with multi colored laptop offerings and the like. We are also seeing dressy laptop bags and other such accessories to cater to this segment.

Petite women still exist. Thanks to the arrival of Latino and Asian women, we have more petite women than ever before. The fashion industry must open its eyes to this segment, says the author who claims that it is focusing more on making larger sizes.

Fashionably Techie: While the geek of yore stayed away from everyone else, using technology as her ally, the modern trendy people of today use it to stay closer to one another. The author uses MySpace and Facebook as examples.

The TechnologyPhobes: Believe it or not, this segment is growing too. These are people who are vary of opening up to technology and to others around them. Publishers, and yoga therapists can make use of a great opportunity by targeting this segment. However, finding these people can be a challenge as they cannot be found online.

Gaming Adults: People over 55 account for 1/3 of the video gaming industry. However, the gaming industry only seems to target the younger generation. The author believes that there is an existing market for the older generations that the video game makers must target. He suggests a game based on corporate finance or a game that has to do with relationships to target this segment.

Classical Music: a paradox
While CD sales of classical music has gone down, online listeners of classical music is growing. About 14% of iTunes downloaded are classical.

The Bankrupt: Unable to keep up with inflation, more and more middle class people today are filing for bankcrupcy.

Second Home Owners: This is another growing segment. Contrary to popular beliefs, the average salary of second home buyers is only 75K.

Foreigners Buying US Homes: With the fall of the dollar and the comparatively easier process of home buying, more foreign nationals are buying homes in the US.

XXX: This trend is too well known. The net has made getting porn easy. Speak amongst yourselves!

Committed Adults Living Apart: This is a trend growing popular in the UK. Couples committed to each other decide to live apart to make it easier for themselves and each other to rule their own territories. When partners have to care for children from prior relationship or an elderly parent, this option allows them to reduce the complications in their lives.

Cougars:These are older women who seek younger men.

College Dropouts: While the media might glorify Bill Gates and James Woods for dropping school or Ted Turner or Woody Allen for being booted out, college dropouts rarely make it big. The author believes that there is a tremendous opportunity in aiding this segment with courses in completing the degrees they signed up for, when they went to school.

Number addicts: While not too many Americans enroll in Science or Math majors compared to the Chinese or Indians, the author believes that there is a fascination for Math and Science that can see a resurgence of these. He thinks, among some others, Al Gore is responsible for this. He cites the popularity of CBS shows, Numbers and CSI as evidences of this trend.

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Book Summary: Microtrends -Part I

While Alivin Toffler's Future Shock and John Nasbitt's Megatrends made predictions about the coming of the information age, the global economy and other sweeping changes that would change the world as we know it, the author of this book attempts to identify smaller more subtle changes that are extremely important but may skip the naked eye as they are barely visible. Personally I found the guy's view a bit too liberal.

The author, Penn claims that once a trend or behavior reaches a critical mass of a million it becomes a 'Microtrend' that a businessman or politician can use to his or her advantage. Penn has worked with Bill Gates in identifying growing needs and with the Clintons(yes, both of them )in identifying segments of the population to target for votes.

Penn claims that he was the first one to coin the term 'Soccer mom'. Some trends he identifies are obvious, some outright ridiculous, some that must be taken with a pinch of salt and the others are quite informative.
Here are some of them that I can remember:

Single Women by Choice: Straight women in our time outnumber straight men. This means that many women, unable to find Mr. right decide to be single by choice. Some even choose adopt children.

Online Dating: We all know this one, and can brainstorm a deluge of unmet needs for this segment.


Commuter Marriages: Many couples out of necessity or choice choose to live apart from each other but still can stay close to each other thanks to advances in technology. Many of their needs can be met by building for them support groups, virtual communites and so on. The author cities the Clintons as an example for this segment.

Left Handers: According to the author, the number of left handers are growing. The author makes a claim that this means more talents and creativity citing most recent Presidents, Alexamder, Napolean, Einstein, Connors and McEnroe as examples. Some of these micortrends must be taken with a pinch of salt

Amazons: Penn Claims that more women choose jobs that involve manual labor, previously reserved for their male counterparts.


Wordy Women: More women than ever before are choosing careers as jounalists, lawyers and other careers that involve verbal gymastics

Ultra Commuters: These are people who commute large distances back and forth to work. Penn compares them with speed readers. With such distances to cover, these commuters could learn Spanish in a week, listen to the Da Vinci code in a few days and so on. I know some of these claims are indeed true from personal experience.

Stay at Home workers: Most of us in technology are familiar with this trend.

Clergy Women: There are more women joining the church or going to Divinity school. Unfortunately according to Penn, surveys show that memberships of religious organizations fall when women take on leadership positions.


Pro Semitism: The author argues that jews are more and more accepted and even admired by the rest of America. According to him, that many non-jews visit popular jewish dating sites looking for mates.

Sun Haters: These are people who would like to have less of sunlight on themselves and their loved ones for fear of skin cancer. the future may see a lot of them lobby for legistaltion to force schools to make it compusory for children to wear clothing that protects them from the sun. Such laws already exist in Australia

Tolerance of Ethnic Diversity: This, according to me, seems to be a very obvious microtrend that was bound to happen

Latino Protestants: Mexicans who migrate legally or illegally to the US are mostly Catholic. But a growing number of them are turning Protestant.

Forty Winkers: Most Americans do not get the proverbial eight hours of sleep. While expecting a siesta as in Italy may be too much to wish for, many employers are opening up to the ideas of employees taking mid day naps.


Non-Retirees: With the average life span of Americans increasing in the last few decades, many contnue to work well past their retirement age.

Pet Parents: Almost 60% of households in the US have atleast one pet. Pets are treated far better in such households than humans are in the rest of the world.

Old New Dads: This is another growing trend. Men well past their forties are now having babies. Famous examples include Mick Jagger and Senator Strom Thurman.

Elite and the Regular Voters: Tha author makes a revelation here: he believes that contrary to popular belief, the elite look more for personality in their President while the commoners look more at the issues she stands for.

Swing is King: The 2004 election was determined by swing voters. The author suggests that more people than ever before make their choice of president at the last stages in an election.

Well educated nannies and Mannies: The author suggests that nannies are more educated today. More men are getting into the profession.

Knitting is growing as a hobby today even among the elite.

With video games and the like, becoming a sniper in the army is gaining popularily among today's youth.

Young entrepreneurs: Ebay has enabled the teeneagers of today to become successful entrpreneurs.

Millitant Illegal immigrants as a force to recon with: With 12 million of them in the US, and despite the fact that many of them cant vote, Politicians are beginning to see how they can affect the swing vote.

Black teen idols; There are more educated black youngsters in society today than ever before. They may well be regarded as tomorrow's role models.

Dads and dad's rights: With dads spending more time with their children than ever before, their needs are becoming more of a reality.

Christian Zionists: The support for Isreal in the US comes more from Christian zionists than from the jews in America.

Male CareGivers: This is a trend that is most popular among Asians. More men today take care of their aging parents than ever before.

Do It Yourself Doctors: Web sites like Web MD have made it more popular for people to self diagnose and use their doctors as ATMs that give out presciptions. Many patients have gained more knowledge of their ailments.

Late Out of Closeters and their Families: As we see more politicians and closet homosexuals come out of the closet today, the author sees a growing need for meeting their needs and the needs of their immediate families in handling the situation.

Water and Caffeine: While Americans on one hand are consuming more bottled water like Dasani , there is also a phenomenal rise in the consumption of Red Bull and the like.

Diets and Fast Foods: Paradoxically both are on the rise.The Japanese island of Okinawa bosts of the largest number on centenarians on the planet. Their secret seems to be less calorific intake. This revelation is seen as the fountain of eternity by many. Obesity is a well known groing 'microtrend' today that is forcing automakers, furniture makers and airlines to enlarge their servcie offerings. The needs in these segments is endless.

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