Are you ‘Cool’?

The concept of cool is enormously functional in business. Apple, for example, takes coolness to the bank every day.

What is “cool”?  Is it the color purple, Bluetooth headphones, dressing up for a midnight film premiere, watching more indie films, training for a triathlon, Frozen the musical, the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence or regular people going to the moon?

Marketing hotshot Noah Kerner and fashion visionary and book author Gene Pressman look at cool as more than a state of mind, a celebrity fad, or an obsession — it’s a business. In the corporate world, product managers are examining vodka bottles and candy bars, tissue boxes and hamburgers, shampoos and techie gadgets, wondering how they can be made cool, or how a product or entity can be turned into “the iPod of your industry.” Cool comes out of the dream, the inventiveness and the originality of people with great ideas who stick to their guns.

“Cool” is what businesspeople must aim for. What creates space in your mind is usually what is novel and unusual. It brings a differentiating PR element that gets embedded in your head that is assaulted with all kinds of messages. Al Ries and Jack Trout call it a unique positioning, and to achieve uniqueness you have to be unlike any other; you cannot be a “me too,” second best, or a challenger forever. You have to constantly innovate based on what your conversation or dialogue is with your clients, your clients’ customers and stakeholders to stay “cool.”

• You are cool if people are in love with you. The analogy of being the Google in today’s marketplace is “cool.” There is no denying that no matter how remarkable or innovative your product is, the public will not bite unless its promotional campaign is properly scheduled and managed. Mac timed the release of the iPod perfectly, and because of this excellent “surprise release,” the public fell in love with it; the iPod became one of the most successful musical product launches in recent marketing history.
• Cool is not about being formulaic. Pressman underscores, “Cool is a very organic thing,” and adds, “The essential qualities of cool are akin to the ingredients of a tried-and-true recipe: authenticity, passion, spontaneity, and the willingness to take risks.” “Cool” is the result of a process, not a strategy that can be designed and implemented. If you have been fortunate enough to attain a substantive level of coolness, you have led your life with personal vision, not run after it.
• Cool entails going all-out for the next big thing. It can also be the most up-to-date look or the most notable achievement. They are great things to bring to yourself, but with all these, you should be ready for a life that is overscheduled, overworked, and overspent. You can be dazzled by a long list of possibilities, celebrities and power, brought to bear by the influx of messages made available in an instant as you pursue wealth, standing in society, influence, meaning, or fame.
• The concept of cool is enormously functional in business. Apple, for example, takes coolness to the bank every day. Facebook, Twitter, Google, Nike, Coke, Havaianas, Lady Gaga, Vice Ganda and Coco Martin, among others, are cool because of the effortless way they bring themselves closer to people’s hearts. If it’s apparent that you’re trying too hard to be cool, you’re not cool. And for anything — and anyone — to survive today’s cluttered marketplace, you must be 100-percent real and authentic.
• People should be able to do more than just see what a product or entity is; it must feel it, 100 percent. Kerner and Pressman cite the case of Grey Goose vodka, a liquor brand that has gained worldwide popularity even in the Philippines. It was Sidney Frank who built the Grey Goose brand, and he developed a plan to market it, anchored on a pricing strategy. He priced his product at nearly two times the price of other vodka brands, and packaged his product in frosted bottles and crated containers like those used to ship fine wine. The product vision challenged conventional wisdom, but Grey Goose became a status symbol in clubs across the world. Not bad for a product that, by definition, means “without order and without taste.”
• To reach Millennials and Generation Z you need to pander to them. Young people are driven by aspiration. They don’t want to be spoken to as young people. It may sound ironic, but in order to break through, you often have to whisper.
• Cool people bring in a key idea. Grey Goose founder Sidney Frank had tremendous personal vision; MTV cofounder Bob Pitman created a culture of people who were truly connected to culture; Target’s chief marketing officer Michael Francis understood the importance of creating a quality and aesthetic product; Quiksilver Entertainment cofounder Matt Jacobson had what it takes to build an authentic brand that cares as much about building the action sports industry as it does about its own agendas. And Tom Ford demonstrated his prowess for being a great change agent as he transformed Gucci from your grandma’s “bingo wear” to one of the top lines in fashion.
• At the end of it, cool is achieving relevance to a particular group — small, medium or large. Anne Curtis is the coolest thing ever to her fan base and Twitter followers, as Liza Soberano is to hers. Some may not fully understand why they resonate, but the fact is, there is no objective and definitive meaning of cool — “never was, and never will be.”

Kerner and Pressman explain, “The only way to build a true communion with an audience — to point where they might deem you or your work cool — is to follow a personal vision and stay true to that vision no matter what. And if your completely off-the-wall idea gets old, come up with another one.”

Cool!

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