NORTHERN PLANNER

Thanks to Russell Davies it seems clear that coolness is hard to define, which is probably what makes it so cool…

But when it comes to the dreaded question, "How can I make this brand cool?", is it something most brands should aim for, since it’s so hard to define and even harder to sustain?

Coolness is fleeting and fickle. By definition, if your ‘in’ , eventually you’ll be ‘out’. Even worse, by the time you get your ‘cool idea’ to market, the they’ve moved on to the next thing . The only thing that you can be sure of is that today’s tastemakers will reject whatever people liked before them (unless it’s retro, but don’t go there). Anyway, original, die hard fans tend to reject you when you go mainstream.

Instead of chasing cool,  I think we should be looking for cultural gaps to fill. Sometimes people have a need nobody is addressing (and in a few cases, they don’t even know they want it yet), then someone comes along and fills that gap. True. there may be a brief surge of newness (cool?),  but as more people discover it they interact, add to it and pass it along; they develop into a movement which is as much theirs as it is yours.

And the root of it all is need, not the latest trends. For example, Ikea is for people who’s taste exceeds their budget, Ebay creates a sense of community in an era where people feel isolated and I suppose Friends was the social group you wished you were a part of.

To evolve organically with your audience, rather than push marketing at them, you have to find ways of involving them. This means being multi-faceted and a bit rough around the edges; relationships deepen over time, thanks to shared experiences, they get more meaningful as people discover more about each other. Not all your relationships are the same either, different people like you for different reasons.  For people to make you into they want you need to be complex with a host of meanings, not just one.

This means eschewing reductionist propositions and rigid brand frameworks in favour of a rich story that will grow and mature over time. It means lots of different ways of telling the story and growing numbers of participants to enhance it and pass it along.

Above all, it means something that feels like it’s come from  real people, imperfect, unfinished and unpolished. Remember Agent Smith talking to Neo about the first Matrix? It was a disaster because it was perfect; no one believed it. No one believes in perfection; it’s our limitations and eccentric flaws that make us who we are, that’s what makes us, and brands, individual, endearing and human.

So I’m not cool hunting, I’m looking for cultural gaps. Since we’re in an ever more sceptical anti-hype world, I’m not looking for polished brand onions, I’m looking for imperfection.