The Anatomy of Cool by The Cool Hunter

“The headline implies that there is a “body” whose anatomy you cananalyze. The whole point of cool is that it does not have a bodyavailable for analysis. It’s like a ghost instead of a corpse. That’swhy it is cool.

Just like all comments on cool, our analysis is completely individual and ever-changing. Cool is whatever you like and want. Cool issubjective. It is an opinion. But that does not mean that we — asindividuals, brands, media — are not interested in or influenced byothers’ views of what cool is.

In this sense cool is a bit like fashion. You decide and choose foryourself what you feel is fashionable within your peer group, yourculture, your age group, at your financial level. But someone somewherehas given you the initial clue. Marketers and media have brought outthe type of sneaker, the kind of jeans, the brand of handbag that younow like and want. In addition, someone you admire is most likely alsowearing it. You follow fashion.

But cool is also definitely NOT like fashion. Cool is more about whatthe norm is NOT. Cool is elusive, indefinable, covetable. It isoriginal, desirable, and not accessible to everybody. If everyone hasit, if the brand becomes saturated, it stops being cool.

Occasionally, a brand manages to remain cool and covetable, and becomesa classic. Of the world-wide brands, examples of this include Apple,Absolut and Mini. Many niche brands have also achieved classic statusin their relatively small circle. The defining characteristic of thesecool classics is that they keep innovating constantly.

Visual & instant

Cool is visual and instant. When you see it, you like it instantly. Ifit takes a lot of work to figure out, it is not cool. This does notmean that only simple or simplified things or ideas can be cool. Whatit does mean is that you need to be able to see it.

This is one reason why cool and coolhunting and trend forecastingbecame so important to marketers as soon as the internet gave everyoneinstant access to images. Magazines, TV or advertisers could no longercontrol what cool looked like. Marketers who were used to being theones who decided what the next trend or the next fashion was going tobe, suddenly had to face this uncontrollable deluge of messages,opinions and information that consumers were passing on to each other.Viral marketing, as opposed to just word-of-mouth, emerged, and itscared traditional marketers.

Today’s consumers are sick of mass marketing and the sameness ofbrands. They want to be delighted, surprised and wowed by somethingthat is authentic, different and off the mainstream. One of the reasonswww.thecoolhunter.net has become so popular and influential is that wedo not sell, market or create cool. We just give it an audience.

We process an enormous amount of information and identify what’s hot,exceptional, interesting, covetable. It must have an instantly obviousx-factor. Detecting it is always intuitive. There’s no formula, norules, no parameters. We do find patterns, parallels and trends, but wedo not become stuck in them and start looking for similar things. Theintuitive reaction, the ability to observe the world, and the skill toprocess massive quantities of unrelated information is what we are goodat.”