Customer Reviews

The Clustered World : How We Live, What We Buy, and What It All Means About Who We Are

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I never thought I would find this book as fascinating as it turns out to be. I first saw it on a friend's coffee table, and started paging through it. Then I had to borrow it. The next thing I knew, I was buying a copy for myself. Michael Weiss writes about a demographic analysis technique which explains a strange thing I noticed 20 years ago. I had moved from a a neighborhood full of 20-something recent college graduates in entry-level professional jobs into a tiny little used-to-be-the-butler's-apartment in a very ritzy neighborhood in San Francisco. All of a sudden my junk mail changed. Instead of credit card offers and Book-of-the-Month Club shills, I started getting letters that said things like "We know all about you. When you want to get away for the weekend, you shun Paris and go right to Morocco." Right.

This book explains what had happened to me: I had moved from one cluster's neighborhood into another. My address now suggested things about my income, lifestyle and assets that just weren't true.

The maps and prose in this book combine to provide a very interesting analysis of how wealth, values and lifestyle are dispersed in this country (and around the world). Clustering was first developed as a marketing tool, and it's undoubtedly a powerful one, but the book works as social commentary, as well. This book is one of the best case studies I've ever laid eyes on of how to make statistical analysis meaningful to the average reader.

I read Michael Weiss' first book-"The Clustering of America" years ago, so when I read about his latest-I bought it as well. It is a real fun read-not just statistics etc..., but a lot of fun facts about people and their purchasing habits. My town was actually classified in the book as "Executive Suites" which made it even more interesting to read.(Pretty accurate description as well) Michael Weiss also used Berwyn, Ill. as an example of "Big City Blend" and he hit the nail on the head there. ( I have some older relatives who live in Berwyn). I started by flipping back and forth in the book, then just settled down and read it all the way through. I like demographics, and marketing, so that is another reason it held my interest. There were some surprises-ex: Price Club is popular with the "Blue Blood Estates". There is also some mention of foreign countries, and how they use the cluster system in marketing. The descriptions of the clusters are interesting, and take current events into account. It is a good book just to keep around to flip through to try and find communities you are familar with and see if the descriptions hold true, or read it all the way through. Either way-it's entertaining.

This book is great fun. It centers around the idea of the "lifestyle cluster"--that there are people in your community who share your consumption patterns, what you eat, drink, smoke (if you still do!), how you vote, etc. Marketers need to know this stuff in an age of "narrowcasting" so they don't try to sell cruises to folks who can't afford them, conduct NPR pledge drives among people who resist them, hawk magazines to people who won't read them, etc.

Using massive amounts of data the author has come up with 62 of these lifestyle clusters and each of us belongs to one of them, from the richie-rich "Blueblood Estates" (think lifestyles of the rich and famous) all the way down to "Southside City" (so poor even federally subsidized highrises are better off). See where you and your allegedly classless Americans are--and see how many lifestyle options there are for a family living on, say, $40,000 a year. Where you live determines how you live, and vice versa.

There are also chapters devoted to lifestyle clusters in other countries, most notably in Canada. (Note to English Canadians: you don't have to worry about us Yanks imposing our lifestyle clusters on you. You have your own clusters to worry about.)

If you're really interested in this, look up Weiss's 1988 book, THE CLUSTERING OF AMERICA, which is a prequel to this one, and contains 40 lifestyle clusters. (I find 40 clusters easier to get my mind around than 62, frankly.) You can track the USA's progression from a production to an information society, notice which segments are gaining and which are losing strength, where racial harmony has occurred, and so on.

I am sorry that Weiss got rid of the cluster called "Coalburg and Corntown" between the 1988 book and the new one. John Cougar Mellencamp comes from a Coalburg and Corntown (Seymour, Indiana), and I always thought it would make a great title for one of his songs.

With "The Clustered World," Michael J. Weiss has rendered my degree in mass communications obsolete. Weiss does a great job of outlining the dozens and dozens of demographic groups that make up America and other countries today. I found lots of interesting demographic tidbits -- such as the existence of 400,000 gated communities in the U.S. (And here I had thought mine was an anomaly). I wish only to have read the detailed outline of each segment first to make it easier to keep track of them all. Otherwise, Weiss' book brought me back to my days in the college library, contentedly absorbing "American Demographics."

Weiss gives an entertaining and well-written overview of how geodemographic profiling works. He explains the concept, compares the US profiling to other countries, and talks about its applications in marketing. Finally, he provides a breakdown of the 62 PRIZM clusters that existed at the time that the book was written. It may not be the book to learn about the US (but I don't think it's useless in that regard) but it's definitely the book to learn how marketers see the US.

This book is a must for anyone interesed in demographics research of contemporary America at any level. Easy to use, very visually oriented and it's even entertaining!

Edit of 21 Dec 07 to add links.

When Howard Dean used the shorthand expression "guys with confederate flags on their pick-ups" he was actually talking about what some call "NASCAR dads" and Michael Weiss calls the "Shotguns & Pickups" cluster (number 29 in his first book, number 43 in this advanced and improved edition).

Although others have written about the nine nations of North America (Joel Garreau), various "tribes" across the nation, and demographics in general, Michael Weiss stands head and shoulders above all of them in providing the definitive reference work that is also a form of novel about America.

With this book he also begins the process of extending his ideas to he world, showing how neighborhoods in 19 countries can be classified into 14 common lifestyles, the bottom three being Lower Income Elderly, Hardened Dependency, and Shack & Shanty....billions of people disenfranchised by amoral capitalism, whose desperate circumstances have not quite made themselves felt, yet, in America.

I have only one major criticism of this book, apart from its obsession with understanding people in order to sell to them--it fails to go the extra mile in understanding the future consequences of each group's economic status and consumer preferences. Although the book very specifically addresses the politics of each group (predominant ideology, 1996 presidential vote, key issues), it lacks the transformation analysis that might be helpful in understanding the political economy dynamics of each group, and what might be required to craft a new national progressive consensus that reduces materialism, corruption, waste, and restores democracy, community, and sustainable national security and prosperity.

Regardless of this modest shortfall, this is an extraordinary book, as was the first that I also own (The Clustering of America). Those interested in how these clusters are coalescing into a new progressive movement that is in-front, deep green, against big business, big money in politics, and amoral globalization, might wish to read Paul Ray and Sherry Ruth Anderson The Cultural Creatives: How 50 Million People Are Changing the World, Search for "Cultural Creatives" or visit culturalcreatives.org. America is changing. This book by Michael Weiss is a brilliant snapshot of where we are today.

I want to save America from its craven politically corupt and economically bankrupt systems. This book is a first step in understanding who we are so we can transform ourselves, and our world, to create a prosperous world at peace.

Other books I recommend, with reviews:
A Power Governments Cannot Suppress
Society's Breakthrough!: Releasing Essential Wisdom and Virtue in All the People
The Tao of Democracy: Using Co-Intelligence to Create a World That Works for All
Group Genius: The Creative Power of Collaboration
Five Minds for the Future
THE SMART NATION ACT: Public Intelligence in the Public Interest
One from Many: VISA and the Rise of Chaordic Organization
The World Cafe: Shaping Our Futures Through Conversations That Matter

I expected something a little more from this book. It breaks down groups of people/markets into clusters and gives descriptions of the clusters one by one. There is not a lot threading it together. Granted, I gave it a quick look and put it on the coffee table for a couple of months. But, I was underwhelmed. I suspect it may be useful for a pure marketing type instead of an armchair sociologist like myself.

An excellent book on demographics and why things are they way they are in certain parts of America. Explores racial divisions, income, and even store purchases and interests of different regions.

Michael J. Weiss is a first class writer with an off-beat sense of humour. Not only is his book enjoyable but the information contained is a must for anyone involved with marketing and sales. Our company has used this information for target marketing with enourmous benefits. It is a mandatory read for our staff. Thank you Mr. Weiss!