Chasing Cool: Standing Out in Today's Cluttered Marketplace [Bargain Price] [Hardcover]

Noah Kerner (Author), Gene Pressman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 2007

The former creative director and co-CEO of Barneys joins forces with a celebrated twenty-eight-year-old marketing maverick to teach readers how to break through the clutter and achieve a relevant point of difference in this entertaining and imminently readable book.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Noah Kerner began his music career as a DJ and music consultant at fourteen and has since performed with Jennifer Lopez and A Tribe Called Quest. He is now the president of Noise, a marketing firm featured on 60 Minutes. He is a graduate of Cornell University. Gene Pressman was co-CEO and creative director for Barneys New York, where he directed the merchandising and marketing effort for twenty-seven years. In 1999, he started Gene Pressman LLC, a creative consulting firm serving corporations and personalities with brand development. He is a contributing editor-at-large for Vanity Fair, Gotham, and Style.com. Johnny Heller has won two prestigious Audie Awards and has earned numerous Audie nominations. He has been praised for his adult, personal development, history, comedy, and children's book narrations. Named a Best Voice of 2008 and 2009, as well as one of the Top 50 Narrators of the Twentieth Century by AudioFile magazine, Johnny has earned almost twenty Golden Earphones Awards . Two of Johnny's audiobooks have been picked by AudioFile as Best Audiobook the Year, and he has won two Publishers Weekly Listen-Up Awards.

--This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Chapter One: The iPod of My Industry: Whatever They Did, I Want That

A killer application is a powerful thing, which is why people are always looking for one.

In the age when more and more people believe there is a shortcut to cool, however, companies are increasingly frantic in their chase for one of those killer apps. And as a result, they're more likely than ever to be looking in someone else's backyard.

Of course, companies have always looked longingly into other company's yards. "In the '50s you wanted to be the General Motors of something," adman and Adweek columnist Tom Messner told us. "In the early '60s you wanted to be the Xerox of something, then it became the IBM of something, then the Nike of something, and the list goes on and on. At one point people even wanted to be the Japan of something. My friend Bill McGowan, CEO of MCI from 1968 to 1987, said this to me: there's always something that somebody wants to be the something of."

Today, the paradigm has shifted to another popular brand, and everyone wants a piece of it. What used to be about being like IBM or Japan has been replaced by something white, plastic, and highly portable. Today, everyone wants to be the...iPod of their industry!

How many times have you heard someone utter that phrase or a phrase just like it? And how many times have you thought to yourself, Like, who doesn't, dude?

Of course people want to be the iPod of their industry. Who doesn't want to be behind an amazing, original idea that single-handedly revolutionizes a business model?

(Exactly how revolutionary? Here's one eye-opening stat: according to the New York City Police Department, after years of falling numbers, subway crime recently went up 18 percent. The cause? iPod theft.)

But as Martin Puris, an advertising legend responsible for such campaigns as BMW's "Ultimate Driving Machine," told us, this Peeping Tom approach is usually the first step to not being the iPod of your industry. "Looking in another person's backyard is usually a replacement to thinking for yourself -- and unless you can execute better than your neighbor it's a surefire way to be second-best."

The next time someone says they want to be the iPod of their industry, ask them this: before he came up with the iPod, did Steve Jobs walk around telling people he wanted to be the Sony Walkman of his industry?

Think different is what should define every company, not Me-Too. The question is, How do you operate according to that philosophy? Do you give consumers what they want, what they're already expecting? Or do you give consumers what they don't yet know they want?

We believe that you give consumers what they don't yet know they want -- just when they're ready for it. In order to do that, it's necessary to go to market with a perfectly timed disruptive idea that breaks from the norm and fulfills an unmet need.

Fortunately, there are different ways to get there. Sometimes creating what feels as original as an iPod is a manicured illusion. Sometimes it has to do with change in the face of popular wisdom. Sometimes it's about being first to market; sometimes it's about being second. At times, it's both, or neither. And other times, as they used to say in the Rocky Horror Picture Show, it's just a step to the right. The trick is seeing the difference between that surefooted side step and the flatfooted chase for consequence.

AN ACQUIRED TASTE

There is nothing quite like the story of Grey Goose vodka to illustrate the complexities of creating a killer app. Consider for a moment the plight of the clear spirits industry. Modern vodka brands suffer from the same dilemma that plagues all digital audio players that aren't iPods. Not only are they peddling an often indistinct product that has very little color, taste, or character, but they must also compete with the iPod of their industry: Grey Goose.

By any objective standard, in less than seven years since it hit the market, Grey Goose has drowned the competition. Walk into any nightclub in New York City and you'll see the "it" vodka on about 80 percent of the tables. Goose can be found at all the high-end fashion events. Meanwhile, its urban cred is massive: rappers namecheck it while guzzling it down in videos. After rap duo 8Ball & MJG's Almost Famous came out in November 2001, sales of Grey Goose went up 600 percent. Goose is "super-premium." Sometimes, it gets upgraded to "ultrapremium." Just the feel of the brand name slipping past your lips -- "Goose, rocks, two limes, please" -- is considered prestigious.

Yes, there's no doubt that Grey Goose has succeeded in becoming the iPod of its industry. The fascinating part is how it got there.

A Matter of Taste

Is Grey Goose really the world's best tasting vodka? Is the iPod the best functioning portable music device? It doesn't matter. As the infamous expression goes, print the legend.

But let's seriously consider the question for a minute. Or, better yet, let's respond with another question: what, exactly, makes a vodka taste great?

The fact is that the appeal of a premium vodka is more about the absence of taste, the lack of any notable distinction: the less a vodka tastes like "liquor," the more likely one will be to guzzle it down. It was this very reason why the flavored-vodka market soared: all those peach and vanilla vodkas happened to taste even less like straight vodka. Vodka, for most consumers, is about mixing. The so-called "highly sophisticated" vodka drinker will scoff at that notion. But as Mr. T used to say, "Who the fool?" For is there really such a thing as a sophisticated vodka drinker (as opposed to, say, a sophisticated Bordeaux drinker), or is this a personal branding device?

Does anybody "taste" vodka when they're drinking it with cranberry, orange, tonic, or the ever-so-delicious Red Bull?

The factors that make vodka palatable are highly subjective. You can hang the prestige of your brand on taste, but there will always be yet another taste test, with a brand-new champ -- as the following well-documented New York Times study makes clear. If you're one of those lucky people who can actually discern the putative superiority of Grey Goose, the winner of this study may surprise you:

It was not exactly a victory for the underdog, but chalk it up as a triumph of the unexpected. The idea for the Dining section's tasting panel was to sample a range of the new high-end unflavored vodkas that have come on the market in the last few years in their beautifully designed bottles and to compare them with a selection of established super-premium brands. To broaden the comparison, or possibly as a bit of mischief, our tasting coordinator, Bernard Kirsch, added to our blind tasting a bottle of Smirnoff, the single best-selling unflavored vodka in the United States, but a definite step down in status, marketing and bottle design. After the 21 vodkas were sipped and the results compiled, the Smirnoff was our hands-down favorite.

Wait? Smirnoff? The best-tasting vodka? As the Times wrote, "Shocking." They concluded by adding, "[by] the end of our tasting it was Smirnoff at the top of our list, ahead of many other names that are no doubt of higher status in stylish bars and lounges. Some of those names did not even make our Top 10. Grey Goose, from France, one of the most popular vodkas, was felt to lack balance and seemed to have more than a touch of sweetness" (italics ours). Clearly, there's a critical lesson to be learned here: in a category that is based almost exclusively on a bland product -- a commodity like, say, vodka, tissues, water, whatever -- to truly break through, your point of difference often needs to be engineered. The late Sidney Frank, the man who built Grey Goose, crafted his great idea with a simple plan based on gut instinct, personal vision, and the notion that perception is an incredibly powerful elixir. He used a frosted bottle. He shipped Goose in wood crates, as wine bottles are, so it appeared more valuable. He produced his vodka in the "great vodka region of France," an association that certainly doesn't hurt when you're trying to communicate prestige. He priced his product at thirty dollars, which was two times the price of a bottle of Absolut -- the most expensive vodka at the time and another former iPod of its industry. Frank gave away Grey Goose to any charity or society event that wanted vodka poured -- a shrewd way to reach the exact target audience he was pursuing. And he named his vodka Grey Goose, a moniker that certainly didn't carry much perceived cachet at the time.

Frank went out of his way to indoctrinate distributors and bartenders, which meant of course that bartenders would in turn indoctrinate consumers.

But most important, Frank very shrewdly coopted the tagline "The World's Best Tasting Vodka" after it was awarded that distinction by the Beverage Tasting Institute, and it developed an entire advertising campaign revolving around the phrase. That "World's Best Tasting Vodka" positioning statement subsequently led to Goose being officially enshrined as the best by tastemakers and followers alike.

We had planned to talk to Mr. Frank for this book but he passed away shortly before our interview. So his publicist, Sarah Zeiler, shared Frank's thoughts on the matter with us: "Sidney believed that France was the perfect place from which to import a vodka because he loved the country and so many other luxury items that came from it. He felt that the best food, wine, champagne, and fashion came from France and so should the world's best vodka."

All of this seems perfectly logical in retrospect but it was totally radical in the mid-'80s. After all, who ever heard of a vodka-making region of France? Shipping vodka in wooden crates was considered perverse. Who would have imagined that consumers would suddenly pay double, and how... --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Atria; 1st Atria Books Hardcover Ed edition (May 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ASIN: B000Y51OBU
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (36 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #629,757 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Chasing Insight, Not Catching Much, July 1, 2009

By 

O. Kagan "lifeinoleg" (North Hollywood, CA, U.S.) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Chasing Cool: Standing Out in Today's Cluttered Marketplace (Hardcover)

In a "Cluttered Marketplace" like marketing books, "Chasing Cool" does not stand out. In an effort to isolate the intangible "cool," (which they admit is impossible) the authors cite interviews with artists and business people (mostly from the music and fashion industries) that they believe to be influential as well as relying on their own experiences. Instead of teaching laypeople and marketers what to do, they mostly tip us on what not to do. This would be great if this wasn't the tactic of countless other books. Vague advice like be the first to do something new (or be second, or just be the best), be authentic, take risks etc. is not groundbreaking -- for anyone who has read anything about marketing, or has followed a few top marketing blogs for at least a week, it's downright stale.

While the personal experiences developing the Barney's brand, and being a respected DJ are the high points of the book, they are also rather isolated viewpoints. The interviews vary the experiences, but not by much. Companies who don't make designer products probably wouldn't benefit. Ditto for companies that don't cater to hipsters; most of the examples (Apple, Grey Goose, Starbucks, Quiksilver, nightclubs, hotels) fit a certain type. This is not a problem unless your work is completely different, then you are left with irrelevant examples and meaningless statements like "In the final analysis, cool is really about achieving relevance--to a particular group, small or large" (226). Gee whiz, what insight!

Moving away from the content, the book is written in a straightforward manner that makes it easy to scan and a quick read. The design also aids in this with clear headings and readable text. Speaking of design, what's up with the completely random pictures throughout the book; not bad, just strange.

After all, would I recommend this book? For a first book about marketing, why not. For people who are interested in edgy branding, perhaps. For experienced marketers, forget it. If you've read any other marketing books, skim it. If you enjoy case studies, sure. Just don't expect anything cutting-edge.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very interesting read, April 26, 2010

By 

R. Parthasarathy "If only everyone wrote reviews" (Santa Clara, CA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Chasing Cool: Standing Out in Today's Cluttered Marketplace (Hardcover)

This is a very good beginners book on advertising, marketing and how to chase what's "cool". To illustrate the right way of doing it, the authors take up multiple case studies of winning and failing branding campaigns ranging from Grey Goose vodka to Tommy Hilfiger. There are mantras along the way for the reader on what to do and what not to do.
The case studies are not very deep which, depending on the kind of reader you are, works well or sucks. I am just getting into the domain and loved the skimming look on various strategies that have worked over the years. Obviously successful strategies have been copied over the years and are specific to the product it was used for. But some of them also teach valuable lessons on how to uniquely differentiate one's product from a crowd.
Recommended read.

8 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Melting Mishmash, August 17, 2007

By 

Michael P. Maslanka (dallas, texas United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Chasing Cool: Standing Out in Today's Cluttered Marketplace (Hardcover)

The book contains some standard advice, albeit advice worth repeating: you can't buy cool or a brand, don't look for it on the outside, be authentic. But there are better books that tell you as much and more. One of the authors was a honcho at Barneys, and he talks about its rise(it decided to take the road less traveled, went to Europe to get designer stuff, made the stores more works of art than just retail space) and fall(being ahead of the curve is cool in New York and LA but falls flat in Dallas and Cleveland). Lots of irritating photos that have nothing to do with the text. If you have the time, not a bad read;if you don't move on.