Now, some of the more observant among you may have noticed that the title of my blog is taken from the iconic 1967 movie ‘Cool Hand Luke’. Not only is it one of my favourite films, but when I saw it as an impressionable teenager it had a profound effect on me. The central character, Luke, played by the brilliant Paul Newman, is a war hero who is sentenced to 2 years on the chain gang in the Deep South for cutting the heads off parking meters. Essentially, Newman plays a character that stands up to authority (in this case, the prison system and the prisoners’ ‘rules’). He is an archetypical rebel and he is cool.
But the film is more complex than that. It also questions whether the establishment is vulnerable to rebellion at all. It is a pessimistic film about the possibility of justice, reform, and individualism. In the end Luke dies for his sins (perhaps perpetrated during the war) and to an outside observer, his reification as a folk legend among a small band of convicts seems like a hollow victory at best. The parallel to the founding of Christianity is a fascinating aspect of the story (though don’t get me wrong, this is not a religious film).
This is reinforced in one scene where, to settle a dispute, Luke boxes a fellow prisoner, Dragline (he later in the film becomes Luke’s biggest fan and worshipper). Dragline beats him to a pulp, but despite the entreaties of the other prisoners and ultimately Dragline himself, Luke refuses to stay down. Finally Dragline is too disgusted to continue. He walks away, leaving the ring to the battered and stumbling Luke. This is the turning point of the movie, and ostensibly demonstrates its main theme, that spirit can overcome material adversity.
As I’ll be mainly writing about marketing and brand stuff in this blog, I thought a good starting point for my blog would be to examine the essence of ‘cool’ or what makes a person, something or a brand ‘cool’.
In a way, Luke is cool because he steadfastly refuses to change, irrespective of what others do to him or say to him. It’s a bit like Muhammad Ali’s stance on the Vietnam War. Non-conformity seems to be a key aspect of being ‘cool’, but not always. A bunch of 60 year olds turning up at a Ministry of Sound club wearing tie-die are not conforming, but you’d wish they would.
Some see ‘cool’ as ‘trendy’ – those that are sitting at the tip of the adoption curve. It is said that this ‘community’ can identify cool before the conservative mainstream. So if cool means trendy then making something cool just means getting the endorsement of ‘opinion leaders’.
But in this sped-up world, the time between inception, adoption and disposal is crunched rendering opinion leaders foresight as utterly redundant. So if ‘trendy’ doesn’t mean ‘trendy’, then 'cool' definitely can’t.
So back to Cool Hand Luke. Perhaps providing a reference point around which like-minded people can gravitate is it. ‘Cool’ has something to do with believing and standing for something, it is sustained, it has permanence. Brands and bands who believe in something tend to endure.
But it’s more than that. Energy and vitality is crucial, especially for Brands – to present what you stand for in fresh and innovative ways. And for brands, it also means standards. Keeping standards high is the secret of Apple and Adidas. These brands deliver consistency. Take Coca-Cola, as Andy Warhol eloquently put it, “A Coke is a Coke and no amount of money can get you better Coke than the one the bum on the corner is drinking…Liz Taylor knows it, the President knows it, the bum knows it and you know it.”
So forget trends (especially fads that masquerade as trends) and non-conforming, the 3 things that help make a brand cool are: a firm sustained belief in something, energy and high standards.
And, lest we forget, cool does not try. Cool is.
I’m not saying all brands need to try to be cool. Look at the Number 1 car manufacturer in the world. Nobody would accuse Toyota of being cool. But the car brand that goes down the path of Apple, Adidas, Coca-Cola or Nike…now, wouldn’t that be cool?
But the film is more complex than that. It also questions whether the establishment is vulnerable to rebellion at all. It is a pessimistic film about the possibility of justice, reform, and individualism. In the end Luke dies for his sins (perhaps perpetrated during the war) and to an outside observer, his reification as a folk legend among a small band of convicts seems like a hollow victory at best. The parallel to the founding of Christianity is a fascinating aspect of the story (though don’t get me wrong, this is not a religious film).
This is reinforced in one scene where, to settle a dispute, Luke boxes a fellow prisoner, Dragline (he later in the film becomes Luke’s biggest fan and worshipper). Dragline beats him to a pulp, but despite the entreaties of the other prisoners and ultimately Dragline himself, Luke refuses to stay down. Finally Dragline is too disgusted to continue. He walks away, leaving the ring to the battered and stumbling Luke. This is the turning point of the movie, and ostensibly demonstrates its main theme, that spirit can overcome material adversity.
As I’ll be mainly writing about marketing and brand stuff in this blog, I thought a good starting point for my blog would be to examine the essence of ‘cool’ or what makes a person, something or a brand ‘cool’.
In a way, Luke is cool because he steadfastly refuses to change, irrespective of what others do to him or say to him. It’s a bit like Muhammad Ali’s stance on the Vietnam War. Non-conformity seems to be a key aspect of being ‘cool’, but not always. A bunch of 60 year olds turning up at a Ministry of Sound club wearing tie-die are not conforming, but you’d wish they would.
Some see ‘cool’ as ‘trendy’ – those that are sitting at the tip of the adoption curve. It is said that this ‘community’ can identify cool before the conservative mainstream. So if cool means trendy then making something cool just means getting the endorsement of ‘opinion leaders’.
But in this sped-up world, the time between inception, adoption and disposal is crunched rendering opinion leaders foresight as utterly redundant. So if ‘trendy’ doesn’t mean ‘trendy’, then 'cool' definitely can’t.
So back to Cool Hand Luke. Perhaps providing a reference point around which like-minded people can gravitate is it. ‘Cool’ has something to do with believing and standing for something, it is sustained, it has permanence. Brands and bands who believe in something tend to endure.
But it’s more than that. Energy and vitality is crucial, especially for Brands – to present what you stand for in fresh and innovative ways. And for brands, it also means standards. Keeping standards high is the secret of Apple and Adidas. These brands deliver consistency. Take Coca-Cola, as Andy Warhol eloquently put it, “A Coke is a Coke and no amount of money can get you better Coke than the one the bum on the corner is drinking…Liz Taylor knows it, the President knows it, the bum knows it and you know it.”
So forget trends (especially fads that masquerade as trends) and non-conforming, the 3 things that help make a brand cool are: a firm sustained belief in something, energy and high standards.
And, lest we forget, cool does not try. Cool is.
I’m not saying all brands need to try to be cool. Look at the Number 1 car manufacturer in the world. Nobody would accuse Toyota of being cool. But the car brand that goes down the path of Apple, Adidas, Coca-Cola or Nike…now, wouldn’t that be cool?
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