What's cool?
What creates space in your mind is usually what is novel and unusual. It brings a differentiating 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 customers and stakeholders to stay “cool.”
But what exactly is “cool?” Marketing hotshot Noah Kerner and fashion visionary Gene Pressman, authors of the book Chasing Cool, 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, wondering how they can be made cool, or how a product or a gadget 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.
• You are cool if people are in love with you. The analogy of being the iPod 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; 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 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. Indeed, you hurry and search for the images your way of life beguiles you with every day.
• The concept of cool is enormously functional in business. Apple, for example, takes coolness to the bank every day. Facebook, Twitter, Nike, Coke, Havaianas, Lady Gaga, Budoy and Coco Martin, among others, are cool because of the effortless way they bring themselves closer to people’s hearts. If you’re visibly 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.
The authors 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 young people 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.
Everyone interviewed in the book exemplifies certain elements of coolness. Each one brought in a key idea conveyed through stories and anecdotes. 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 Vice Ganda is to his. Some may not fully understand why they resonate, but the fact is, There is no objective and definitive meaning of cool. As the authors insist, “Never was. 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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