The trees not the wood

Just been reading Mark Penn's Micro Trends. There's a related website which you can find here 

Penn is interested in the 1% and makes the good point that 1 percent of the population is 3 million  - a decent tranch of people, at least a niche that can be marketed to.

There's 75 micro trends listed, some are interesting, some a bit more obvious. But those I liked, and made me stop for thought included

1: Extreme Commuters: Those people spending more than 90 minutes commuting a day - and that doesn't include those people, like me, who spend at least 90 minutes a day on average, on a plane. Not 90 mins every day, but on average. There must be some implications from all of this in terms of the marketing opportunities for these people. Digital content? Clothing? Health & Remedies? Communications tools. With the time commuting in Asia only going to go up, Extreme Commuters need thinking about. 

2. Pet Parents: The vast and increasing number of pets who live better than children in underdeveloped countries....

3. Impressionable Elites: Penn neatly debunks the theory that less educated voters only care about personality and superficialities in politics. In fact, its the rich, who are going to pretty much stay rich anyway, who worry about a cut of a candidate's jib and the media reflect this. The poor pay attention to policies and what it means for their bottom line

4. Long Attention Spanners: Even though we are in the age of the soundbyte and even though twitter is replacing blogging, there is a demand for more, and more detailed content. Book reading is supposed to be dead - and yet, I subscribe to The Times Literary Supplement and can't believe all the incredibly esoteric titles that are published each week

5. Christian Zionists: Penn also neatly debunks the theory that US support for Israel is because of the large Jewish population. Firstly there aren't that many Jews in America. Secondly, its the Christian Zionists - believers in The Rapture and all that nonsense. Which I will rant about some other time...

Anyway, the general principle that you SHOULD be seeing the trees, and not the wood, is sound and worth remembering