NPR: To Be, Or Not To Be ... Cool

To Be, Or Not To Be ... Cool

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Listen to Alison's conversation with Noah Kerner and Gene Pressman about their book "Chasing Cool."

Sofia Coppola, Russell Simmons, John Demsey -- the president of MAC cosmetics -- Talib Kweli and Tony Hawk are just some of the people interviewed in the new book Chasing Cool: Standing Out In Today's Cluttered Marketplace. It's not a how-to manual for those in need of a personality makeover. It's more of an exploration into the changing concepts about what is or isn't cool. The book follows the success of those companies that found a way to produce something authentic and the failures of those who faked it.

I talk with authors Noah Kerner and Gene Pressman. Have a listen on the streaming audio link above or download our podcast.

Alison Stewart

12:26 PM ET | 05-24-2007 | permalink

Comments (Send a comment)

Ha! "Great advertising makes a bad product fail faster." Funny.

I'm wondering more about the book after the interview though. Would've liked to hear more about it.

Continuing on the path of 'viral marketing,' I'd love to see a story on the 'blog oligarchs,' as I like to call them. Denton, Max, Calacanis, LG15 ... people that have managed to stand out from the hundreds of thousands of blogs to create their own cults of personality. And I hardly think it was by accident.

Solid piece though, if a little self-serving. heh.

Sent by Shawn Shahani | 3:38 AM ET | 05-25-2007

I particularly like the discussion on not having the usual touchstones of the Web 2.0 experience (flickr, myspace, digg, etc) just because one feels they should.

Use just the technologies that you need. Word of mouth _does_ flow, but it won't simply by putting out a 'ooo! Lookit our facebook shot of Luke's desk!'

On a related note, you folks do have a highly-traditional way of getting information out at your disposal...the radio. When the time comes that the Beep comes out of the Rough Cuts sandbox, there's probably going to need to be a fair amount of publicity for it via NPR shows, alerting the listeners that it exists. Hell, get some of the better news-based segments - I'd suggest serious and topical stuff - on Morning Edition or ATC and pied-piper your demographic away. If it's quality, you'll get converts. If not, well, what Shawn said at the top of his comment.

A nice discussion of the topic, though. My ideas on cool-hunting are still informed from Frontline's 'Merchants of Cool' and Klein's "No Logo", so it was nice to hear an update.

Sent by Drew | 10:07 AM ET | 05-25-2007

Noah Kerner and Gene Pressman are right; don't target me as a brand new member of the 25-44 demographic (today is when I enter it!).

However, I expect you to continue public radio's great tradition of thoughtful and thorough reporting. I like longer reports (several minutes), but I'm not a big fan of the talk shows that spend half a show on one topic. Also, please find interesting story angles or ones that I can better relate to when fleshing out stories (ie my suggestions for the Make Me Care segment about soccer).

Sent by Steve Petersen | 10:25 AM ET | 05-25-2007

talking "at" young people is the single greatest mistake that marketers make when trying to be cool. great point. the story should have discussed the book itself more though.

Sent by rich davis | 5:04 PM ET | 05-25-2007

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