Mark Penn's Microtrends Interview - ABC Nightline
ABC News - September 5, 2007

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Kinney Zalesne on The Tucker Carlson Show
AOL.com - January 17, 2008
Watch Kinney Zalesne discuss Microtrends on The Tucker Carlson Show.
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How to find the next big thing
Youth Markets Alert - December 4, 2007
Everybody wants to know what is going to be the next big thing, but it’s the smaller forces that shape today’s and tomorrow’s big >changes, according to the book, Microtrends: The Small Forces Behind Tomorrow’s Big Changes. “A trend can start off small and get big and reach the tipping point, or it can stay small, but both can be really powerful,” says Kinney Zalesne.
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Microtrends: A book of small things
Business Today - December 4, 2007
Analysing data from various sources within and outside the US, Mark Penn, CEO of PR firm Burson Marsteller and also the President of a polling firm, points out 75 microtrends around the world that could, sometime soon, effect big changes.
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The Emotional Trap
Forbes - November 27, 2007
Interestingly, some folk are finally beginning to weigh in on the more rational approach to selling. Mark Penn, in a new book called Microtrends, makes the point that "the rational side of people is far more powerful in many areas of life than the purely emotional side." He should know, as he is widely regarded as the most perceptive pollster in American politics. He is also the worldwide CEO of Burson-Marsteller, a very large PR firm.
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Turkey Tune-Out Time
The New York Times - November 22, 2007
Mark Penn, the political guru advising Hillary Clinton, writes in his book “Microtrends” that Americans now work ‘substantially more than most workers around the world.’ He asks: “What’s a vacation to us these days without our BlackBerry?” And he notes that in 2006, 23 percent of Americans ‘checked our work e-mail and voice mail while away — up from 16 percent in 2005.’
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The Strategist of Small Things
Washington Monthly - November 12, 2007
At its best, Microtrends helps debunk outdated stereotypes of how Americans live which are often the foundation for outdated political judgments.
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The Surviving Dads of Ads
Brandweek - November 12, 2007
Mark Penn's book Microtrends, a survey of emerging demographic and psychographic groups, includes a chapter on "Neglected Dads." Penn charts the course of McDonald's, which figured out early on that marketing directly to kids could increase the bottom line (not to mention those kids' bottoms).
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Tiny Trends with Big Impacts
Florida Sun Sentinel - November 5, 2007
Mark Penn, chief adviser to Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, has identified more than 70 microtrends, which he describes as ‘small, under-the-radar forces that can involve as little as 1 percent of the population, but which are powerfully shaping our society.
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Big Changes Come in Small Sizes
Irish Times - November 5, 2007
Microtrends by Mark Penn takes an innovative and different approach to change in business and society. He is highly qualified to write on such matters as a chief executive and president of two public relations and consumer research companies.
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Business Week Bestseller List
Business Week - November 5, 2007
Breezy profiles of niche groups, from Pro-Semites to Pet Parents.
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Home Office Politics
The New York Times - November 4, 2007
In his new book, “Microtrends,” the Democratic pollster Mark Penn notes that 4.2 million Americans now work exclusively from home (a nearly 100 percent increase from 1990), while some 20 million do it part time. Some of these workers are employees who telecommute to traditional offices, but most represent a kind of modern, untethered American work force.
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ProSemites Who Love You
The Jewish Chronicle - November 2, 2007
US presidential adviser Mark Penn has identified a new trend — the non-Jews who really, really like Jews… Penn, the president of the influential polling firm Penn, Schoen and Berland Associates and former political adviser to President Bill Clinton, writes: ‘Today in America, Jew-loving is a bit of a craze. Jews are in demand everywhere. Whatever in the past seemed to trigger envy or rejection of Jews now seems to be triggering admiration and attraction.
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The Most Influential US Liberals
UK Telegraph - November 2, 2007
In his recent book “Microtrends: the small forces behind tomorrow’s big changes”, Penn, who identified “Soccer Moms” as a key voting bloc in 1996, explains how he identifies small patterns of behaviour that have a potentially decisive effect in elections.
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Trendspotting
Irish Independent - November 2, 2007
An advisor to Hillary Clinton and Bill Gates, Penn has put his finger on the zeitgeist in his latest book, Microtrends: The Small Forces Behind Tomorrow's Big Changes, branding all sorts of sub-groups hovering beneath society's radar.
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Get in the GameShop
The Street - October 25, 2007
Cramer said Mark Penn's book, Microtrends: The Small Forces Behind Tomorrow's Big Changes, has "a gold mine of ideas" that can be used for investment purposes.
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Veg Out With Hain Celestial
CNBC - October 24, 2007
According to Mark Penn’s Microtrends, Cramer’s favorite new book about addressable markets you’ve probably never heard of, there are 1.5 million Americans between the ages of 8 and 18 that are now vegetarians. That’s up from practically zero in that age group fifty years ago. It is a huge growth market and Cramer would be remiss if he didn’t address it.
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Shaw Stock Redemption
The Street - October 23, 2007
The microtrends mentioned by author Mark Penn his book, Microtrends: The Small Forces Behind Tomorrow's Big Changes, are really mega-trends and can help people make a lot of money, Cramer told viewers.
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Hudson Booksellers Announces the Best Books of 2007
Hudson Group - October, 23, 2007
“Hudson Booksellers, a brand unit of travel retailer Hudson Group, has announced its list of the Best Books published in 2007. Hudson operates 66 full-service bookstores and sells books in over 400 Hudson News newsstands in airports and transportation terminals throughout North America.”
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An Ear for Profits
Mad Cap: The Official Mad Money Daily Recap - October 16, 2007
“Cramer’s been reading Mark Penn’s new book, Microtrends, which highlights all the undercurrents the pollster discovered while working for the Clintons. Turns out there’s a chapter called “Hard of Hearers,” which focuses on the 30 million people in the U.S. with hearing loss. That’s what you call a gigantic addressable market, and Cramer thinks he has the stock to play it.”
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Taking a Chance on Love
New York Post - October 15, 2007
“In his new book, "Microtrends: The Small Forces Behind Tomorrow's Big Changes," he predicts a relaxing of attitudes about workplace love.

"Many more people of both sexes are at work now, and there are many more office romances happening," says Penn, who calls the office "the 21st-century singles bar."
In recognition of this, Penn suggests, companies are going to need to do more than turn a blind eye, or forbid intermingling.

"They have to recognize the fact that there are much more likely to be real relationships among people at the office, and adopt more detailed policies," he says - addressing, say, whether a romance needs to be disclosed, and how to best handle a breakup.”
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Fashion for All
The Guardian - October 9, 2007
“In his book Microtrends, Mark Penn, Hillary Clinton's chief adviser, has identified trends that while small - linking, say, 1% of the population - can become extremely powerful in our internet era, in which like-minded people can find each other and join forces.”
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Clintons' Strategist Advises Brown To Delay Election
The Guardian - October 6, 2007
“Mr. Penn helped Bill Clinton win re-election in 1996 by identifying an independently minded social group that had emerged under the radar of the traditional party machine - the "soccer moms". And the proliferation of such groups in the post-industrial age is the subject of his new book, Microtrends - The Small Forces Behind Today's Big Changes.
The book picks out "75 groups who, by virtue of their daily decisions, are forging the shape of America and the world both today and tomorrow". It is a quirky array, from Office Romancers and Cougars (women who date younger men) to Extreme Commuters and Video Game Grown-Ups.”
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Authors@Google: Mark Penn
YouTube.com - October 05, 2007
Watch Mark Penn discuss the theories and motivations behind Microtrends.
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Not just Js in Jdate
Washington Jewish Week - October 3, 2007
Eric Fingerhut
"A new book, Microtrends: The Small Forces Behind Tomorrow's Big Changes, by Mark Penn with Kinney Zalesne, who both live in the District, states "nearly 11 percent" of JDate's members are non-Jewish.... In an interview, Penn said his research into "pro-Semites" was sparked by a poll he came across in which Jews were the "most admired religion" in America. That led to a survey conducted by Penn's firm in September 2006 that found that nearly four in 10 non-Jews said they would be "very" or "somewhat" interested in dating or marrying a person who is Jewish."
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Rise of the Office Romancers
New York Post - September 30, 2007
“Penn defines a microtrend as “an intense identity group [that] has needs and wants unmet by the current crop of companies, marketers, policymakers and others who would influence society’s behavior.” Most of Penn’s book consists of short descriptions of groups he considers particularly significant and unappreciated.

Meet Office Romancers, for example, whose love lives revolve around work and suggest that today’s sexual-harassment laws are outdated. “The office has become the 21st century singles’ bar . . . You are more likely than ever to stumble upon colleagues smooching (or more) on their lunch break,” Penn writes.”
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Business Books
McClatchy Newspapers - September 30, 2007
“Penn, a pollster known for coming up with the term "Soccer Moms," slices, dices, and sees sub-groups and emerging trends in American society.

And there are many groups. Seventy-five, in fact, and he breaks them down by demographics and other characteristics. Many of them are colorfully named; some are self-explanatory and others a bit obscure.”
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The Center Holds
The New York Times - September 25, 2007
“In a series of D.L.C. memos with titles like “The Decisive Center,” Penn has preached that while Republicans can win by appealing only to conservatives, Democrats must appeal to centrists as well as liberals. In his new book, “Microtrends,” he casts a caustic eye on the elites and mega-donors of both parties who are out of touch with average voter concerns.”
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Hillary Clinton camp urged to think small to attract 'hundreds of Americas'
The Times (U.K) - September 24, 2007
“Hillary Clinton glided through no less than five talk-show interviews yesterday with crisp performances that maintained her apparently stately – and centrist – course for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination.  However, her 18-point lead over rivals belies frantic paddling beneath the surface of her chief campaign adviser and polling guru, Mark Penn. His new book, Microtrends, describes how public opinion is now a sea of multiple crosscurrents that are pushing American voters in several different directions at once.”
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Books examine microtrends, the age of speed
The Miami Herald - September 24, 2007
“The world is full of little things we may not see but when added up, may portend greater things. And sometimes, we move so quickly that we are not able to take advantage of the benefits of doing so. Two recent books look at the yin and yang of this phenomenon.
Microtrends: The Small Forces Behind Tomorrow's Big Changes. Mark Penn. 12. 407 Pages.
Penn, a pollster known for coming up with the term ''Soccer Moms,'' slices, dices, and sees sub-groups and emerging trends in American society.”
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Author: America a Nation of Niches
The Star Ledger - September 23, 2007
“Penn's years with his finger on America's wildly quirky pulse inspired this collection of quick-reading essays on 75 "microtrends." He defines a microtrend as anything that can engage a critical mass of 1 percent of the population, roughly 3 million people, and argues small, intensely passionate coalitions of the like-minded can exert an impact on the direction of the country that belies their mere numbers.”
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Sun-haters and Caffeine Crazies: powerbrokers in a small world?
The Times (U.K) - September 21, 2007
“The book, called Microtrends, is a dizzying assemblage of 75 “new” demographic groups plucked from mountains of polling data, arranged by theme and given labels from which sober sociologists might recoil. Meet the Caffeine Crazies (if you dare — a can of their favourite energy drink contains eight times as much caffeine as one of Coke), the Jew-Lovers and the Sun-Haters, the New Luddites and the two million Late-Breaking Gays, who married then came out.

These groups can be called groups only because of the way that new technology has brought them together. But that technology also empowers them: Penn’s central claim is that each microtrend could, by itself, swing an election and change the world — if it hasn’t already.”
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America, Bit By Bit
Forbes - September 21, 2007
“In Microtrends, Penn identifies and quantifies 75 fads that can be defined by national polls, web surveys, personal and business acquaintances and the U.S. census. Most of Penn's microtrends describe less than 1% of the population (the traditional threshold for getting marketers' attention). Chapters on "Newly Released Ex-Cons," "Late-Breaking Gays," and "High School Moguls," examine trends expressed by fewer than 3 million people in the world (.01% of the population).

Still, these are the little things that folks will wish they'd noticed--because Penn argues every microtrend he's found is growing. Penn claims his microtrends can save or improve businesses, help entrepreneurs create new markets and swing elections.”
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The Trend in Trends
Opinion Journal - September 21, 2007
“Now we have Mark Penn's big small new idea: Microtrends have, once and for all, replaced macrotrends. He proclaims "the niching of America"--we are not a melting pot but a nation of niches. Accordingly, he serves up 75 microtrends, out of thousands he says he could have chosen. They include black teenagers going to church; older men coming out as gay; people getting tattooed, meeting their spouses on the Internet, getting fatter and loving their pets; children becoming vegans, taking up knitting and being homeschooled; the decline of baseball and football at the expense of archery, soccer and skateboarding.”
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Land of the Small
The Economist - September 20, 2007
“Meet a microtrend, one of a multitude of fast-growing, below-the-radar forces that, Mark Penn argues, are changing America. The land of the big (and home of the megatrend) turns out in important and often unexpected ways to be the land of the small. Microtrends can move markets as well as turn elections.”
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Hillary's Guru Has Some Tips For Gordon
Spectator U.K. - September 19, 2007
“But it is to discuss Penn’s own book, Microtrends: the Small Forces Behind Today’s Big Changes (Allen Lane, £20), that we are talking over a forest of Diet Cokes today. The book advances the central thesis that the age of thunderous ‘macro-trends’ plotted by writers such as Alvin Toffler (Future Shock) and John Naisbitt (Megatrends) is emphatically at an end.”
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Microtrends: Polling Data
The Telegraph (U.K.) - September 19, 2007
“Mark Penn argues that the world is increasingly made up of “societal atoms”. These are, he says, “small trends that reflect changing habits and choices.” Often, they are counter-intuitive. By analyzing polling data, he has identified 75 “microtrends”, categories of people who might just change the world. Although most of the research in his book is based on American polls, many of the findings are replicated in the UK.”
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Hillary Clinton: Can pollster Mark Penn put her back in the White House?
The Telegraph (U.K.) - September 19, 2007
“Mark Penn, pollster extraordinaire, adviser to Tony Blair in the 2005 election and legendary number-cruncher to Bill Clinton, is now chief strategist to the Democrat frontrunner and, it is widely believed, Hillary’s alter ego, the man she calls at 7am wherever she is in the world.  In her memoirs, she calls him “brilliant and intense” and “shrewd and insightful”. But it is to discuss Penn’s own book, Microtrends: the Small Forces Behind Today’s Big Changes, that we are talking over a forest of Diet Cokes today.”
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Small Trends Add Up
Daytona Beach News Journal - September 17, 2007
“I've been reading Mark Penn's "Microtrends: The Small Forces Behind Tomorrow's Big Changes" with a mixture of delight and horror.  Delight, because he has spotted many small but verifiable shifts in taste and everyday life. Often, things that anybody with a wide acquaintance with what we laughingly call The Real World is likely to have noticed in varying degrees.”
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Name that Demographic
Business Week - September 17, 2007
Mark Penn still revels in the moment 11 years ago when he identified what became known as Soccer Moms. He was working with President Bill Clinton as a pollster at the time and looking for voters who had not yet made up their minds. Busy suburban working mothers may not have been a huge group in terms of raw numbers, but they were affluent and influential-at least in the political arena. Now Penn, currently worldwide CEO of public-relations firm Burson-Marsteller (WPP ) and chief adviser to the Presidential campaign of Senator Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.), has gone in search of other intriguing niche groups. The result is the delightful and fast-paced Microtrends: The Small Forces Behind Tomorrow's Big Changes.
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Why There's Strength in Small Numbers
New York Times - September 16, 2007
Harry Hurt III
Except perhaps for the fictional math genius in "Numb3rs," few people are better at gathering or reading numbers than Mr. Penn. "Microtrends" is a diligently researched tome chock-full of counterintuitive facts and findings that may radically alter the way you see the present, the future, and your places in both. The book's 15 main chapters group microtrends in virtually every area of life, like "Love, Sex, and Relationships," "Politics," "Technology," "Education," "Food, Drink & Diet" and "Looks and Fashion." "Microtrends" is the perfect bible for a game of not-so-trivial pursuits concerning the hidden sociological truths of modern times.
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Talk about Your Strange Bedfellows
Washington Post - September 16, 2007
In "Microtrends," super-pollster and Hillary Clinton adviser Mark Penn carves society into niches we never knew existed.
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Socities under the magnifying glass
Financial TImes - September 16, 2007
Edward Luce
Margaret Mead, the anthropologist, once said: "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." It is a truism of modern politics that one person who feels strongly about something has far greater influence on what happens than the 10 people who mildly disagree. In Microtrends, Mark Penn, one of the US's foremost political consultants and architect of Hillary Clinton's presidential bid, takes this axiom to imaginative new levels.
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Clinton Pollster sees future filled with snipers, teen knitters
Bloomberg - September 13, 2007
Jeffrey Burke
Trends are Penn's forte. The chief executive officer of public-relations firm Burson-Marsteller, he has been a pollster for 30 years and has advised clients as different as Bill Gates and Tony Blair, who both supplied dust-jacket praise. Penn gave Bill Clinton the word on Soccer Moms as swing voters and helped the former first lady reach the Senate. "Microtrends" examines 75 groups involving "as little as 1 percent of the population" that supposedly highlight how America is moving in "hundreds of small directions," not "a couple of big directions" (pace John Naisbitt's "Megatrends").
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Microtrends will not outgrow likeability
Telegraph - September 11, 2007
Rachel Sylvester
Mark Penn, Hillary Clinton's chief strategist who was described recently by The Economist as a "polling genius", thinks they could. His new book, Microtrends - out in Britain next month but already the talk of Westminster following its publication in the United States - argues that barely noticed niche groups are now the driving force in politics and business.
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Microtrends on the Morning Zoo
The New York Observer - September 10, 2007
Azi Paybarah
The new book by Hillary Clinton's adviser, Mark Penn, got some airplay on Z100 this morning, when the jockeys discussed parts of Microtrends that deal with the increasing number of single women.
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Battling HiPPOs
The Boston Globe - September 10, 2007
Maura Welch
A new book called Microtrends, by pollster Mark Penn, focuses on "under the radar" shifts that are "reshaping American society - from one based on group identity and forces of circumstance . . . to one based on personal choice."
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Review: Tome tracks our trends, from tattoes to snipers
USA Today - September 9, 2007
Michelle Archer
In a world where even the ring of a phone is individualized, it makes sense that the megatrends movement sparked by a best seller 25 years ago has now been sliced and diced into microtrends. One man behind this shift to the niche is pollster Mark Penn, CEO of the PR firm Burson Marsteller and a chief adviser for Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign.
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Get Small
Fast Company - September 7, 2007
The Clintons' polling guru, coiner of "soccer mom," and CEO of PR giant Burson-Marsteller identifies 75 emerging groups just waiting to be exploited by a savvy company or politician. And each one gets handled in five pages or less.
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New books consider how money is made, invested, and spent
Bamm.com - September 7, 2007
Ron Wynn
Microtrends is a book you'll return to often over the next few years to track the accuracy and validity of its predictions.
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Penn, like Rove, wants intellectual cred
Politico - September 6, 2007
John F. Harris
In "Microtrends," Penn's main argument is that the era of understanding voter or marketplace behavior by placing it in rigid demographic categories - such as geographic region, race or affiliation with organized labor - is obsolete.
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Clintonistas gather at the Corcoran for the Strategist's book party
Washingtonian - September 6, 2007
Benjamin Coffey Clark
Penn-who coined the term "soccer moms" to explain a small but significant voting segment while working for Clinton's 1996 reelection campaign-talked about some of the 70 micro electorate groups he has identified for the 2008 cycle and explained that America isn't a melting pot but a highly diverse, segmented population.
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Small, offbeat trends can change the world
Reuters - September 6, 2007
Sinead Carew
College-educated nannies, home-schooled children, spouses who are together only at weekends and home-buyers with bad credit all have the potential to change society, according to "Microtrends: The Small Forces Behind Tomorrow's Big Changes"
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Finding big meaning in small trends
Marketplace - September 5, 2007
We do business here, mostly. Not politics. But sometimes, the line that divides them is pretty thin. Back in the '96 presidential campaign, a Clinton pollster named Mark Penn highlighted what he thought was an important Democratic constituency: soccer Moms. One key to the Clinton win that year. With another election looming, Mark Penn is out with his first book, along sort of the same lines. It's called "Microtrends."
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The Strategist Meet Numbers Junkie
ABC News - September 5, 2007
The 1 percent difference is at the heart of Penn's new book, "Microtrends," in which he identifies 75 micro groups inside the United States.
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Meet Clinton's Numbers Junkie
ABC News - September 5, 2007
The 1 percent difference is at the heart of Penn's new book, "Microtrends," in which he identifies 75 micro groups inside the United States.
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The Advisor: Questions for Mark Penn
New York Times - September 4, 2007
Deborah Solomon
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Seeing America and the World through Mark Penn's Eyes
American Politics Journal - September 3, 2007
Jeff Koopersmith
Many of you have no idea who Mark Penn is, or what he has accomplished during his lifetime, yet I can tell you candidly that he is one of America's most accomplished thinkers, businessmen, societal geomancers, and both a political and corporate guru unmatched in our country or in any other. He advised and advises no fewer than 25 world leaders and scores of the world's most powerful CEOs - and was the true architect of the best of the Clinton presidency despite what another might tell you. This month he finally brings us "Microtrends," his new book unveiling a fresh way with which to look at ourselves and the world we live in.
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Lone Woman Seeks Bald Man
Economist.com - August 29, 2007
"Microtrends" is "based on the idea that the most powerful forces in our society are the emerging, counterintuitive trends that are shaping tomorrow right before us," says Mr Penn. As a result, the "skill of microtargeting-identifying small, intense subgroups and communicating with them about their individual needs and wants-has never been more critical in marketing...The one-size-fits-all approach to the world is dead."
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Microtrendies are Taking Over the World
The Sunday Times - August 28, 2007
Sarah Baxter
ARE you a geek, obsessed with the latest gadgets, yet consider yourself cool and have hundreds of friends? An extreme commuter, whose long journey is turbocharging the caffeine industry? A single woman, who is surprised to be on the shelf but has lots of gay friends? Or a Lat, part of a couple who "live apart together" in separate households? If so you are part of a microtrend with the power to shape society, according to the polling guru Mark Penn.
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Hillary Pollster's Pro-Lefty Theory
New York - August 27, 2007
Geoffrey Gray
Mark Penn serves as the chief strategist to Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, runs global PR megafirm Burson-Marsteller, and is recognized as a high priest of that Washington religion, the poll. So he wasn't going to let the publisher of his upcoming book, Microtrends, slap an image of a snowball on the cover just because they liked the way it looked.
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After the chavs come the No Lifes...
Telegraph - August 27, 2007
Jim White
In a new book called Microtrends, he suggests that the smart politician or corporation needs to spot and target social movements as they develop and grow, ready to exploit them when they become widespread.
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How mighty is the Penn?
The Economist - August 27, 2007
In a new book called Microtrends, he suggests that the smart politician or corporation needs to spot and target social movements as they develop and grow, ready to exploit them when they become widespread.
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Political Book Watch: Mark Penn's Microtrends
The Atlantic - August 20, 2007
Marc Ambinder
Some of the trends he notices, based on a decade's worth of survey research and demographic data crunching, are often illuminating and even fascinating.
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Penn's Microtrends
Taegan Goddard's Political Wire - August 20, 2007
In his new book, Penn identifies "new microtrends sweeping the world" that could find their way into Clinton's campaign strategy:
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Survey Says: Geek are Cool
CIO - August 10, 2007
Elana Varon
"Mark Penn, the CEO of PR heavyweight Burson-Marsteller, proposes that - are you ready? - geeks are not antisocial losers. According to his polling about social trends, which he relates in Microtrends: The Small Forces Behind Tomorrow's Big Changes, the most enthusiastic technology users also love a good party and enjoy talking to other people.
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Rumpled Mark Penn, Clinton Pollster, Goes Back to Battle
The New York Observer - August 1, 2007
Jason Horowitz
IN MICROTRENDS: THE SMALL FORCES Behind Tomorrow's Big Changes, Mr. Penn-the author of the term "soccer moms"-offers more than 400 pages of observational evidence and hard data on groupings with names like "Ardent Amazons," "Pro Semites" and "Vegan Children."
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Microtrendies are taking over world
The Sunday Times - August 26, 2007
Sarah Baxter

Small but potent social groups are creating a new order, reports Sarah Baxter ARE you a geek, obsessed with the latest gadgets, yet consider yourself cool and have hundreds of friends? An extreme commuter, whose long journey is turbocharging the caffeine industry? A single woman, who is surprised to be on the shelf but has lots of gay friends? Or a Lat, part of a couple who "live apart together" in separate households?

If so you are part of a microtrend with the power to shape society, according to the polling guru Mark Penn. The Economist magazine describes Penn as a "polling genius". He is known in America as the chief strategist for Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential candidate, but he also played a crucial, below-the- radar role guiding Tony Blair to his third election victory in 2005. A decade earlier he identified the "soccer mom" as a key voting bloc with the power to swing the electorate behind Bill Clinton.

He doubles as chief executive of Burson-Marsteller, the public relations firm, advising Microsoft and Ford. Yet somehow he has managed to carve out time on the side to co-author Microtrends, a book about to come out in America and which will be published by Allen Lane in Britain this October. It has enthusiastic endorsements from both Bill Clinton and Bill Gates. Talking in his office near the White House, Penn has the slightly tousled air of a "thirty-winker", the growing microtrend of sleep-averse night owls and early risers.

Baroness Thatcher and Madonna started the sleep starvation trend among overachievers, but as he points out, those who get by on 30 winks now include the new generation of internet addicts. The sheer joy of number-crunching keeps Penn awake and there is, he says, a "continual cross-pollination" between his work in politics and consumer affairs.

His book is itself part of a microtrend that has included Stephen Levitt's bestselling Freakonomics and Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point. It is about the small shifts in tastes and behaviour that can have huge knock-on effects. New niche markets have sprung up through globalisation and the internet, and people have become more sophisticated about the choices they can make. "By the time a trend hits 1%, it is ready to spawn a hit movie, bestselling book or new political movement," Penn believes. It used to be that individual choices were largely hidden from the rest of the "herd" and could not coalesce into a microtrend. Marketeers manipulated choice and created short-lived vogues.

Now, however, "in today's mass societies, it takes only 1% of people making a dedicated choice - contrary to the mainstream's choice - to create a movement that can change the world". Half the fun in spotting microtrends lies in being counterintuitive. "People get so wedded to conventional wisdom that they don't see the changes happening right in front of them," Penn says. One day, he predicts, businessmen will finally realise there is a demand for a chain of hygienic, upmarket tattoo parlours. "Why can't they be more like Starbucks?" he wonders, given their increasingly middle-class clientele. In a flight of fancy, he imagines Angelina Jolie and David Beckham being hired to advertise body art on television. And why not? "This is a potential billion dollar marketplace," he says.

Given the ripe age of baby-boomers, he believes it is time the views of the elderly were courted. "I don't think anything has ever been so youth-oriented at a time when so many people are older." But there are also some huge misconceptions about young people that Penn is determined to clear up.

First is the myth of the lonely, spotty techno-geek. "A funny thing happened on the way to the Star Trek convention," Penn notes. "Technology crossed over to being a thing for extroverts."

The consumers of the new generation of mobile phones, iPods, and music players such as Zune, which connect to other people's headsets, are the super-cool social networkers of their generation. Losers aren't racing to buy the latest gadgets; they are sitting at home waiting for their old landline phones to ring.

Sixty per cent of the most enthusiastic tech users are extroverted, according to a poll cited by Penn; 41% of techies like to "get things going" at parties compared with only 24% of reluctant users. "If the old cliche was that techno-geeks have no friends, now it is the case that techno-geeks have a crazy, impossible number of friends," Penn says.

One of the most popular people on MySpace is Tila Tequila, the scantily clad celebrity, whose site has attracted a quarter of a billion visitors. Asked how much time she spent online, Tequila replied: "I spend about 24 hours a day on there, pretty much."

New technology is having a huge impact in breaking down class barriers. Take the rise in internet marriages. "Previously people would only get married in their closely drawn, religious and social circles," Penn says. Now they can meet across nations, races and classes. And whereas the affair in The Graduate between sophisticated Anne Bancroft and nerdy Dustin Hoffman was once seen as scandalous, older women - whom he calls "cougars" - now regularly date younger men. Think Hollywood actor Geena Davis, 51, married to 35-year-old Reza Jarrahy; or Susan Sarandon, 60, whose boyfriend Tim Robbins is 48.

Behind every trend lies a reason. Increasing divorce rates and longer lifespans mean women are re-entering the dating market beyond their twenties. Fertility treatment helps them to have children in the pre-menopause years. Their rise in the workplace makes them less dependent on a male breadwinner.

As for those single women who are ageing - and perhaps getting less fussy about potential mates - have they ever wondered about the impact of men who are out of the closet? When Penn looked at the data, he found that gay men outnumber lesbians by about 2 to 1.

"Numerically speaking, when the music stops in heterosexual America, there are a lot of women left standing," he says. And when that happens, new trends come to the fore such as the rise of single mothers by choice; and the replacement of children by pets as companions, spawning a huge market in puppy sunscreen, "pawfume", kitty nail polish and luxury kennels.

Men are also becoming husbands and fathers at a later age, launching further trends, such as the "old new dad" - many of whom are "do-over dads" on their second or third marriages. Penn is one himself, having fathered his youngest child at 48.

Marketing companies and politicians should note that the old new dads are likely to pass on a love of wine rather than beer to their children, to prefer safe cars to speed, and to foster a more conservative outlook in their kids.

Penn notes that old dads have already become a political force in Britain - remember Batman from Fathers 4 Justice, who climbed onto the balcony at Buckingham Palace? Penn considers Britain to be in the vanguard of several microtrends, such as extreme commuting, with workers buying homes outside London and other cities in ever-wider circles and shuttling on the Eurostar between London, Paris and Brussels. Britons, Penn believes, are the trendsetters for one of Europe's fastest growing lifestyles: Lats, or unmarried couples living apart together. "Lat is a nice, clear way to say, 'I love you - from over here, in my own castle, where I am king'." One of the best things about Britain, he suggests, is its easygoing attitudes.

"The world is not becoming a melting pot, it's becoming a collage, and it will put a real premium on people becoming tolerant of other people's prejudices."

There is a downside to microtrends. It might be easy to find "a million who want to try your grapefruit diet", but "if Bin Laden could convert just 1% of the world's 1billion Muslims to take up violence, that would be 10m terrorists, a group that could dwarf even the largest armies on earth".

Happily, he concludes, there is no sign of that. He has spotted a trend that shows most terrorists are well educated and, contrary to conventional wisdom, poorer people may be "too smart" to blow themselves up.

... and the trend guru backs Hillary
The Sunday Times - August 26, 2007 Sarah Baxter

ON the wall of his office, Mark Penn has framed The Washington Post's front page with the headline, "Clinton acquitted". It is signed: "Thanks - Bill", writes Sarah Baxter.

The master of polls has since moved seamlessly into the inner sanctum of Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, where he serves as her chief strategist, developing the image and themes that he believes will make her unbeatable.

Penn advised Tony Blair in the 2005 general election but has yet to hear from Gordon Brown. "I'm a little tied up right now," Penn said, "but you never know when people will call. He's doing quite well. He's had an excellent launch of his premiership."

In America, Penn is being compared to Karl Rove, the architect of George W Bush's two election victories. But whereas Rove energised the Republican party base, Penn is a centrist who argues that "swing is still king" in elections: "Pragmatic voters who have little allegiance to any movements determine who occupies the White House and ... in Britain, who sits in No10 Downing Street."

Penn believes America's elites are more interested in personality than issues. "Go to any upscale cocktail party and I guarantee they will start off dissecting the character traits of every candidate," he writes. "There is good reason for this - today's elites are far removed from the mainstream concerns like heathcare, college affordability, job loss and childcare."

But while broadsheet papers are gossiping about Barack Obama's suits or Clinton's hint of cleavage, he claims that "the so-called herd in America is more issue-focused than ever".

According to a recent poll conducted by his firm, people earning more than $100,000 valued character over issues by 45% to 37%. Those earning under $100,000 chose issues over character by 51% to 30%.

Clinton, he argued, "really is a champion for those who need one". Penn oversaw her two election campaigns for the New York Senate and helped her to win over sceptical voters.

"She worked hard for those upstate voters who needed economic help. Many of the chattering classes only came in during the last 10 days. What she did in the six years that followed confirmed that they had made the right choice," he said. "She is winning the Democratic primary and she is beating her Republican opponents in the polls. To those who say, 'She can't win', I say, she is already winning."