Coolhunting
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Coolhunting is a term coined in the early 1990s referring to a new breed of marketing professionals, called coolhunters. It is their job to make observations and predictions in changes of new or existing cultural trends.
In this they resemble the intuitive fashion magazine editors of the 1960s such as Nancy White (Harper's Bazaar 1958-1971). Coolhunters operate most notably in the world of street fashion and design, but their work also blurs into that of futurists such as Faith Popcorn. Many webloggers now serve as online coolhunters, in a variety of cultural and technological areas.
Pattern Recognition, a 2003 novel by William Gibson, features a coolhunter as its main character.
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[edit] Areas of Research
For coolhunters, there are numerous interest areas but they focus on trends predominantly geared towards the young consumer demographic of 12 to 24-year-olds, also called the preteen and teen demographics.
The most common areas of research for coolhunters are:
- Fashion, most importantly street fashion
- Music, especially youth-oriented genres like pop and hip-hop
- Films, especially youth-oriented franchises like Scary Movie or Scream
- Television
- Youth culture and lifestyle
- Computer gaming
- Mobile technology such as cellphones and MP3 players
- Virtually anything relating to pop culture
[edit] Coolhunting as a Business
Coolhunters are found in many different places. The most popular are:
[edit] Coolhunting Firms
A coolhunting firm is a marketing agency whose exclusive purpose is to conduct research of the youth demographic in the areas listed above. They then compile their data and produce reports detailing emerging and declining trends in youth culture as well as predictions for future trends. These reports are then sold to various companies whose products target the youth demographic. They also offer consulting services. Coolhunting firms often provide services for some of the largest corporations in the world. An example of a leading coolhunting firm is Look Look.
[edit] In-House Coolhunting
Rather than outsourcing their market research, some companies opt for in-house youth culture marketing divisions. These divisions act in much the same way as a coolhunting firm but the reports and data collected remain within the company and are used solely to promote its products. A company will often prefer this form of coolhunting as a way to gain an advantage in the valuable youth market since the research conducted by coolhunting firms is available to anyone willing to pay for it. A prime example of a company that employs in-house coolhunting is Viacom's MTV television network.
[edit] Open-Source Coolhunting
Coolhunting turned into a global online project when trendguide.com was launched in December 1998 to be the first open-source lifestyle trend database with rankings based on users' votes, uploads and comments. The global project was started by a Swiss research team led by Michael Hänni, creating a global virtual network of coolhunters. The concept of trendguide.com (democratization of trends: give free access to trends reports and base trend reports on inputs from all around the world) changed the former trend business field where reports, which are created by few individuals, are sold at high prices.
[edit] Coolhunting Methods and Practices
Coolhunting is much more than simple market research because of the nature of the subjects. The teen and preteen market is often referred to as a "stubborn" demographic in that they do not respond well to blatant advertising and marketing campaigns targeted at them. Coolhunters therefore must be more stealthy in their methods of gathering information and data.
[edit] Focus Groups
Focus groups, though quite obvious in their attempts at gathering information, are very popular among coolhunters as they provide direct insight into the thoughts and feelings of their target demographic. Think of focus groups much in the same way as lab rats being observed by scientists. Coolhunters will typically gather a group of randomly selected individuals from their target demographic and sit them down in a boardroom or hotel room. While one or more market researchers interacts with the group, they are often being monitored and recorded by a non-visible group, because not only do coolhunters want to hear what their subjects have to say, they also want to observe their simple manerisms.
Depending on the nature of the study, the methods of the information gathering during a focus group interview may be extremely broad, with questions relating to lifestyle and youth culture, or more specific, like comparing certain brands and determining which brands the group is most responsive to.
Participants in focus groups are usually rewarded for their participation, whether it be a cash amount, free products, or other rewards.
[edit] Undercover Coolhunters
Coolhunters will often seek out individuals from within their target demographic who are regarded as leaders or trendsetters. They will then hire these individuals to be undercover coolhunters, who gather information secretly among their peers and report their findings back to their employers. This is a popular method of coolhunting as it provides insight into their target demographic in their "natural habitat".
[edit] Online Coolhunting
There are a wide variety of methods for conducting market research online. Popular examples are online surveys where upon completion, the participant will usually receive a prize or monetary compensation. Other times coolhunters will enter chatrooms and webgroups posing as an individual within the target demographic and gather information.
[edit] Uncoolhunting
Uncoolhunting is an activity performed by the uncoolhunters. It was born in Buenos Aires from the investigations of the website/magazine The Uncoolhunter. The uncoolhunting refers to the search, cataloging, referring and then publication of the circuits that are not related to the fashion and to the massive cultural industry at the precise moment. This activity researches the social margins, rescuing the trash, the bizarre, the kitsch, the pretentiously cheap, the expensive sold at a lower price, the freak, the badly designed, the surreal, the hyper real, the incoherent, the sub-professional, the sub-scientific and the underdeveloped.
Although the uncoolhunting is based on the coolhunting, the first does not research the emergent but the submerged, a look from left to right which is totally different to the unidirectional look offered by the coolhunting.
[edit] Further Reading & Viewing
[edit] Print & Video
- "On the prowl for fashion" MercatorNet, May 13, 2006.
- Malcolm Gladwell, "The Coolhunt" (1997).
- PBS Frontline series, The Merchants of Cool.
- Scott Westerfeld, So Yesterday
