Cool brands are put simply, just like cool people. It’s not so hard to believe when we consider that brands (well known ones) have personalities. Brands have values, share ideas and represent something.
Brands are just like people, the personification of things or services.
So what makes a cool brand? The same stuff that makes a cool person.
Cool people:
· Cut new ground
· Dress how they want
· Don’t care about being popular, which is why they ‘become’ popular
· Do stuff they like, not what others like
· Have strong opinions and values, don’t care what others think
· Don’t try and impress – so they do
· Are confident and relaxed
· Aren’t selfish, mean or vindictive
· Are often compassionate and kind
· Are easy to get along with (easy to use?)
· Take a while to be understood
· Get discovered eventually as being – thought leaders
· Cool in a crisis
Hey, there’s plenty more personifications where these came from – so be
like Arthur Fonzerelli and add them to the comments.
Oh and cool brands and/or cool people are trend setters too…they DARE to be different….
Of course, not all cool icons can maintain their status either. Even the Fonz started to look a bit out of place hanging with the high school kids long after Richie, Pots and Ralph had moved onto adulthood.
Being cool sometimes also means adapting and reinventing (think Madonna, Kylie, U2). or alternatively, it means being so out of step with current trends that folks just love who you are (Johnny Cash, Jack Nicholson, KD Lang?).
Good point Dr.Dre…it’s interesting that artists like Madonna and U2 still survive to this day. I guess it goes for business too…learning to be adaptive and creative as the times change….