Microtransactions and Beyond
By MARK PENN Published February 20, 2009 If the $800 billion stimulus bill works, Barack Obama will go down as a great president who took bold and decisive action at a time of growing national crisis — and the midterm elections, and even his reelection, will be a breeze. If […]
By MARK PENN with E. KINNEY ZALESNE From The Wall Street Journal Microtrends Column Published February 19, 2009 Presidents and politicians no longer talk about simply creating jobs — now they are creating “green jobs.” Just in the stimulus bill alone, there are said to be four million new green […]
By MARK PENN with E. KINNEY ZALESNE From The Wall Street Journal Microtrends Column Published February 3, 2009 With all the stimulus ready to go into more broadband, bigger tax cuts and infrastructure, some of America’s most expensive societal investments are also on the decline and in need of a […]
The Firm Voice: Post-Inaugural PR: What to Expect in Politics and the PR Agency Business in 2009 Many assumed a “wait and see” stance these past few weeks as uncertainty continued to drive the markets and outlook for the PR firm business and beyond. Yet that holding pattern may shake […]
By MARK PENN with E. KINNEY ZALESNE From The Wall Street Journal Microtrends Column Published January 8, 2009 With so much attention on psychological marketing these days — finding new ways to tap into people’s heads — perhaps the single most neglected trend out there is the move towards more […]
By MARK PENN with E. KINNEY ZALESNE From The Wall Street Journal Microtrends Column Published December 24, 2008 Just as more people in China are working for firms that are privately owned, more workers in America are waking up to find themselves working for companies that are — at least […]
By MARK PENN with E. KINNEY ZALESNE From The Wall Street Journal Microtrends Column Published December 19, 2008 For most of this century, con men and hucksters preyed on the uneducated and the elderly who couldn’t read the fine print. Some still are. But now we learn that the real […]
By MARK PENN with E. KINNEY ZALESNE From The Wall Street Journal Microtrends Column Published December 10, 2008 As the financial crisis swept across the nation these past few months, one of the first microtrend groups to emerge is the New Mattress Stuffers — people who have lost their trust […]
By MARK PENN Published November 11, 2008 Barack Obama promised he would lower taxes for 95 percent of Americans and presumably raise them for the 5 percent who benefited most under President Bush’s tax policies. But, remarkably, the most affluent 5 percent supported Obama and that was perhaps the key […]
By MARK PENN Published November 4, 2008 The presidential campaign, in the end, had no October surprises beyond the worsening economic crisis. No game-changing ads. No candidate slip-ups of any magnitude. And so this election looks pretty straightforward — moderate voters have switched to the Democratic column, and change is […]
Mark Penn is the President and Managing Partner of The Stagwell Group, a private equity fund focused on the marketing services industry.