Chasing Cool Standing Out in Today’s Cluttered Marketplace

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Cool isnt just a state of mind, a celebrity fad, or an American obsessionits a business. In boardrooms across America, product managers are examining vodka bottles and candy bars, tissue boxes and hamburgers, wondering how do we make this thing cool? How do we make this gadget into the iPod of our industry? How do we do what Nike did? How do we get what Target got? How do we infuse this product with that very desirable, nearly unattainable it factor?In this wide-ranging exploration the authors Noah Kerner, a celebrated marketing maverick, and Gene Pressman, legendary creative visionary and former co-CEO of Barneys New York, have uncovered surprising and universal patterns and trends. They systematically parse the successes and failures of the last few decadesin music and fashion, magazines and food, spirits and hip-hop culture. Their discoveries are pulled together in this definitive book on the commerce of cool.Nike and Target endure as relevant brands not because of a shortsighted and gimmicky campaign. A dash of bling and a viral website dont amass long-term value. Brands are effectively developed when companies take substantial riskand face the possibility of real failurein order to open up the opportunity for real success. Chasing Cool includes interviews with more than seventy of todays most respected innovators from Tom Ford and Russell Simmons to Ian Schrager and Christina Aguilera. And through this accomplished assemblage, Pressman and Kerner dig beneath the surface and reveal how emphasizing long-lasting relevance trumps a fleeting preoccupation with whats hot and whats not. In a multidimensional, entertaining, and eminently readable book that redefines how to appeal to todays savvy consumer, Kerner and Pressman explore the lessons to be learned by Americas ongoing search for the ever-changing concept of cool. Readers will learn how to apply these lessons to their own businesses and creative projects in order to stand out in todays cluttered marketplace.

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