Issue 10, vol. 3 - November 2007

It is indeed very hard to keep track of the many friends, family members, clients, partners and media contacts in our circle who request our ongoing opinion on “cool”.

Aside from us jokingly noting, “it’s right here in front of you” the answers we give tend to be much more contextually rich than the simple few sentences many wish for in response. The notation of cool is an unbelievably important issue for the marketing and communication industry and as most important issues tend to be, is one that is complex, ever changing and in general need of being customized to match your objectives.

That said, we believe that the most efficient way to begin to deal with the issue of “cool” is to take cues from our ongoing study of values and consumer self perception, and move from there.

Here are a few key trends to consider on the topic…

In short, young Canadians, in general, continue to put a lot more aspirational emphasis on notions associated with:

On the consumer front, style is still very important but, interestingly not nearly as important as, say, the pragmatism associated with finances, researching items and getting value for money.

Today young Canadians still don’t want to appear traditional with respect to what they buy nor do they want to admit they follow trends or are influenced by advertising or even their friends.

Translation: A “cool” consumer is a smart, informed and generally individualistic consumer.

Marketers who take steps to make consumers feel enabled, informed, smart and individual will find some pretty solid aspirational connections to build a campaign or initiative upon.

Further, on the overall values front we thought it would be equally interesting to show readers, how the same kind of comparisons hold up. For instance, being really famous or being popular are far less important to young Canadians then, being street smart, expressing your individuality or never taking B.S. from anybody.

Please keep in mind that responses to these value criteria are certainly not a direct indication of actual behaviour but they most assuredly DO stand as potent indicators of how young Canadians wish to portray themselves. Interesting to say the least.

These are some of the new dimensionalizations of what is considered “cool” with today’s young Canadians. Definitely, notions of what are important attributes of being “cool” have morphed over the years.

Of course, the same adage that Lou Reed mentioned many decades ago still applies; you are simply not cool if you talk about being cool. Our readers are reminded that “cool” tends to be an ever-antiquated notion and phrase that older generations use to contextualize younger generations – has been that way since the earth was, ahem, cooling.