What does it mean to be “cool” how do things become a “cool toy’ and how do you get “cool toys approved”? It starts with Cool People.
Are you Cool?
Cool is a funny word, we use it a lot to mean things are good or acceptable. But at CoolToys we have a slightly different view. We don’t think you can “buy cool” but there are cool things you can buy.
Sometimes the person makes something cool, and that is what every marketer dreams of. Some celebrity making their thing “cool”. Marketers paid big bucks early in the social marketing game for celebrities to mention fast food. This is where they learned the limits of social media and celebrity. You can never make an old guard fast food company “cool” no matter who mentions it in a text or back then a “tweet” Do we still call posts on “X” tweets?
Being truly cool, means that you know who you are and where you are going. We are both in awe of and intimidated by these people. They don’t get caught up in trends or keeping up with their friends. Sometimes they blend right in sometimes and sometimes they really stand out.
Because they have truly internalized who they are they can were Van’s or Brunelli shoes and you probably won’t even notice. When you ask a question, they have an answer that doesn’t change with the wind. When they are wrong they admit it and move on. Being truly cool is a lot harder than it looks.
Can You Buy Cool?
A Cool person doesn’t rush out and buy the same shoes as their friends, they don’t have to live in a certain zip code, but over time they usually end up there because other cool people are there and like minds attract. Go people watching at a high end mall and you can see who is there with purpose and who is there to show off the store bag they are carrying.
Cool people never show off, but when they show up they take over. This intimidates us. We all want to be cool, but as long as you are trying to be cool you never can be. There is a book about a famous fighter pilot called “Boyd”. Boyd liked to say “Do you homework”, and “You can do something or you can be somebody, but you can’t do both.” AI doing your homework doesn’t count
The coolest people I know are people that are doing something of have done something. Over time cool on the outside things where out or go out of style. In order to keep you you have to keep shopping. That is the system we built for the american consumer. The problem is it isn’t sustainable.
A Nation Lacking Cool
Most people in the US aren’t truly Cool people as we see it. We are a nation of superficiality and it is destroying what made the US the “go to” country for Cool. 30 years ago, wearing Levi’s meant you were american and cool. Today it means you wear boring jeans. When I travel outside of the US and even in some ways Southern California I find it a lot easier to find people with an internal cool They aren’t out for themselves, they don’t worry about what you think about them. The funny thing is that people who are very superficially cool and have a shield around what is inside them at home will open up over seas. I have seen a river cruise in Europe change people. It is a bazaar metamorphosis to watch.
One thing about cool is that you have to earn it. If you buy it for your kids they didn’t earn it and you are setting them up to become quite un cool. The story of Jack Sparrow and the magic compass is about internal cool. On the outside Jack was a scalawag pirate, on the inside his compass was pointed the right direction. Where is your compass pointing? At CoolToys, ours points at Cool.
