MyÜberLife

"Some designers these days believe they have to be rock stars. I believe in the product —..."

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 21:34:14 -0500

“Some designers these days believe they have to be rock stars. I believe in the product — that’s what the client buys. The issue is to endure and to do everything to stay alive as a business. It’s really all about dedication to your work.”
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“Take the time to learn the craft — and it takes time. To make it in fashion, you have to be strong, and not envious. You have to offer something unique that you can’t find from another brand.”

- The quotes above, from fashion designer Sophie Theallet, stress the importance of two critical components of a successful business:

Quality Assurance & Quality Control (QA & QC) in the Product Development Process - “I believe in the product […] Take the time to learn the craft.” Sophie’s product-focused philosophy, much like many traditional notions of luxury, places great importance on the mastery of the craft; thereby, allowing the designer to produce a superior product.

A Sound Value / Unique Selling Proposition - “You have to offer something unique that you can’t find from another brand.” Sophie knows that for your best chance at survival in a crowded market (i.e fashion) you must offer your target audience something that they need or want, but are not necessarily getting from your competitors.

Sophie’s words ring loud and clear in today’s increasingly austere society where ‘price vs. quality’ analysis is given more weight before any significant purchase.

posted by Kwasi Gyasi of MyUberLife

Rebecca Minkoff’s Family Fashion Business We recently...

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 13:26:27 -0500

Rebecca Minkoff’s Family Fashion Business

We recently came across this inspiring video above from Wall Street Journal depicting aspiring handbag designer Rebecca Minkoff and her brother Uri Minkoff. The video gives a glimpse into how Rebecca and her brother turned their small family-owned fashion brand into a growing fashion empire - maximizing every dollar spent along the way. Today, the up-start brand is projected to do $35 million in sales this year.

Here are some additional highlights from the video:

Rebecca Minkoff’s Brand Inspiration - Travel and vintage.
Rebecca MInkoff’s Target Audience - Female’s between the ages of 20 - 30 years of age.
Rebecca MInkoff’s Brand Promise - To provide their target audience with product that tied into, or was related, to the momentous occasions that occurred in their lives between the ages of 20 and 30.

Enjoy the video and feel free to share your thoughts. Happy watching!

posted by Kwasi Gyasi of MyUberLife

Made's New Mobile App | A Sweet Sound For Fashion Week Attendees

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 16:48:19 -0500

Made's New Mobile App | A Sweet Sound For Fashion Week Attendees:

We recently came across this article describing a new technology set to streamline the fashion market - just in time for New York’s Fashion Week Fall/Winter 2012. Made Fashion Week, one of two major fashion week venues, and a favorite of ours, has developed a new mobile phone app compatible with iPhones, iPads, and Android phones.

The App

”[…] designed to listen for specific sound waves that will be played over the speakers during runway shows throughout the week. These sound waves, inaudible to the human ear, are synched to the shows themselves and tell the app which outfit is on display at any time. The app will then automatically pull up a photograph of the outfit — taken by a photographer on the scene — as well as the designer’s name, biography and contact information. Users can share the photographs through various forms of social media and save looks to their phones. The app also works for people watching Webcasts of the shows.

Target Audience

Editors
Buyers
Bloggers
The greater fashion community

Why Is It Important?

“[Because it could potentially bring more order to the] frantic note-taking that editors, [bloggers], and buyers engage in as they shoot through various shows and presentations within Milk Studios.”

The technology behind the app also has more far-reaching implications than just fashion week. Many marketers are already developing different ways to incorporate the app into the everyday shopping experience; essentially, leveraging the technology to create new iterations of real-time ‘near field’ advertising. While the full scale adoption and integration of this type of technology is still a ways out, I think it’s safe to say this week’s fashion goers will be thankful for the runway assist.

posted by Kwasi Gyasi of MyUberLife

This morning we were delighted to discover the Spring Summer...

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 15:32:00 -0500

This morning we were delighted to discover the Spring Summer 2012 Lanvin of Paris Ad Campaign. This campaign, under the creative direction of House and Holmes and camera work by the [genius] Steven Mesiel, made for compelling viewing. Lanvin’s head designer Alber Elbaz spring collection was the focus, a masterpiece within its own right, with the creative ‘toolage’ of H & H x Mesiel plus leathery snakes and the “Cookieman” musical [genius] of Pharrell Williams and his artist Maxine Ashley all summed up video-freshness for us. It worked!

The goal of every great designer is to construct quality clothes, and the goal of every creative team is to showcase said clothes visually and sonically; when all the creative components intersect correctly, it can make for a powerful marketing effort.

Please enjoy and feel free to share your thoughts. Posted by Jey Van-Sharp of MyUberLife

JC Penney Re-Branding | A Move To Masstige

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 00:44:00 -0500

JC Penney Re-Branding | A Move To Masstige

On Wednesday January 25th, J.C. Penney (JCP) announced what is to be one of the most exciting retail transformations of this year, and maybe even this decade. The 110 year old department store brand, with the help of new CEO, Ron Johnson, and President, Mike Francis, revealed a forward-thinking business strategy that could not only reclaim ‘top-of-mind’ presence with American shoppers, but also make the department store shopping experience fun again - an activity which has lost much of its luster since the rise of fast-fashion stores like H&M and Zara.

But with this announcement also comes a stir in the market; bringing with it a cacophony of opinions from business writers and bloggers, many of whom, in addition to praise, are raising doubts on the potential of JCP’s bold new strategy.

Many business critics are asserting that the strategy might be too bold, citing JCP’s new “fair and square” pricing structure as one of the main causes for concern. Rafi Mohammed, a pricing strategy consultant and author of the 1% Windfall: How Successful Companies Use Price to Profit and Grow, for example, states that “J.C. Penney lacks the differentiation to make this pricing strategy successful. J.C. Penney’s products are fairly homogeneous. When selling a relatively undifferentiated product, the only lever to generate higher sales is discounts.” While this point has merit, it still seems like Rafi and many other JCP critics are missing the overall strategic point: Masstige.

Masstige & The Intangibles

To me, it appears JCP, through a masstige strategy, is attempting to alter the perception of its brand, which, in some cases, can defy conventional business wisdom - as in the case of the hotly-contested pricing structure. JCP seems more focused on their market sentiment, zeroing in on the ‘intangibles,’ the off-core psychological benefits, or emotions, that people derive from buying things they don’t necessarily need, but, rather, want. To me, the change in pricing seems more like an image-focused tactic, as appose to a cash-conscious one; a way to change the perception of the JCP brand by reinforcing the ‘less-confusing-easier-to-understand’ sentiment the brand is currently touting.

Of course, this is not to say JCP’s ‘bottomline’ has not received attention. I’m sure increasing sales is part of JCP’s overall strategy [how could it not?], but these goals seem more long-term at this point. I believe if, and when, JCP reaches their sales objectives, in the long run, the revenue JCP will derive from those sales will be more sustainable - having took the time to focus on increasing their brand equity and loyalty now. Because as we know, brand equity and loyalty are two factors that can insulate your brand from pricing wars and ensure pricing stability. And insulation against pricing wars is no more important than in a market where deep discounting is the norm; a market where JCP currently resides.

This is why I think JCP, like many other brands today, are using a masstige strategy to regain market share. The masstige strategy places more emphasis on the “intangibles” that influence the irrational part of a consumer’s purchasing decision.

To better understand JCP’s masstige approach, it helps, first, to understand what masstige is:

Masstige: is a semantic blending of the words mass and prestige. The word is a concept meant to describe a business strategy or approach which makes use of certain business principles, or marketing and branding techniques, typically associated with luxury products, all in an effort to increase the appeal of specific mass market goods.

With the democratization and reinterpretation of “luxury” today (read Luxury_(RE) Defined), brands like Target, Kmart, and even Duane Reade, once thought of as utilitarian in nature, selling mostly comodified products, have used this new definition in luxury to revamp the way they sell their products and alter their overall perception in the market - becoming some of the first pioneers of masstige. These brands, among many others, have used the masstige strategy to modernize their businesses and reclaim market relevance.

But with the preliminary details of JCP’s plan revealed, how is JCP demonstrating their masstige strategy? What are some of the specific “intangibles” that JCP is focusing on in an effort to change their market sentiment?

New Pricing Structure

As I mentioned earlier, JCP’s new pricing structure has been the focus of much debate. Instead of the deep-discounting of the past, JCP will employ the following:

• Every Day Pricing - which is a flat daily discount at, or below, the previous sale price of the product. Reportedly, this discount will average out to be around 40% across the board.

• Month-long Value - are month-long, themed, sales events that will occur 12 times a year.

• Best Price Fridays - which is a bi-monthly clearance sale on the first and third Friday of each month. JCP hopes this sale calendar will coincide with the payment schedule of their customers.

• Prices ending in “0” instead of “99” - a forward-thinking, more transparent, move to acknowledge the smarter, more knowledgeable, customer of today - doing away with an old tactic which was thought to subliminally trick a customer into thinking the price of a product was actually cheaper than it really was. Plus, it is widely held that prices ending in “0,” or an even number, connote value. This concept is similar to the “0” ending price tags sometimes seen in high-end clothing boutiques - places where the emphasis on price is played down. Whereas, the “99” at the end of a price implies discount - evoking images of the “99” cent store or infomercials splashing “Just $19.99 now!” across a television screen.

• Removal of the “previously sold” price tag - JCP price tags will only list one price, as appose to showing multiple prices on one tag. Previously, the tactic was used to show the drastic difference in price; all with the hopes of making the customer feel like they were getting a tremendous amount of value. But this type of value is short-term, unsustainable, and does not lead to loyalty, as its pegged largely on the ability to substantially lower prices (i.e. price wars). Besides, with their new masstige approach, JCP seems to be betting that their customers will find value in their products, not just for the inherent discount, but also for the positive psychological benefit the customer may derive from JCP’s more ‘intangible-focused’ strategy.

That being said, as I mentioned earlier in my analysis, many critics, like Mr. Mohammed, still believe the aforementioned tactics are premature since JCP has yet to effectively differentiate its fairly “comodified” product lines; thereby, opening the brand up to potential pricing attacks from competitors such as Walmart, Kohls, Sears, and Kmart, even though Kmart has begun moving toward a more masstige approach as well (read Kmart Conceirge | Kmart’s attempt at masstige during NYFW SS12). While this could prove to be an obstacle for JCP, I believe the real purpose of these new pricing tactics is, in fact, to create differentiation and distinction. If JCP competitors were to engage in pricing and discount wars, what better way to differentiate the brand than by taking the proverbial ‘high road’ and staying out of the ‘low road’ skirmish. By taking an honest and transparent approach to pricing, embodied in their “fair and square” tag line, JCP is subtly reinforcing its “less-confusing-easier-to-understand” brand ideal and communicating that its core value no longer lies in deep discounting - a message that is further buttressed by the overwhelming focus on the “intangibles” in the overall in-store shopping experience. JCP understands pricing is still important to their core customers. But much like a luxury business, JCP is focusing on the intangible experiential details that can often enhance the perceived value of a brand’s product(s). JCP is addressing the difference between bargain cheap and value; and in doing so, it seems the brand hopes to increase the perceived value of their products against the products’ new, less discounted, but “less-confusing-easier-to-understand,” costs. Again, this is in comparison to the previous deep-discounting strategy JCP was locked into, where the cheapest price would be offered in an attempt to win-over a bargain-hunting consumer. As mentioned earlier, I believe focusing on brand loyalty is the best way to insulate a brand against pricing wars; JCP’s new value-focused strategy is the best approach to do this - as appose to their old strategy which resulted in “bargain-hunting” customers, typically not loyal to any particular brand.

Name

Opting to promote the acronym JCP over J.C. Penney was a smart move. The “Penney” in the brand’s name bares a close similarity to the word “Penny,” which could evoke counter-strategy thoughts of ‘thriftiness’ or ‘bargain-hunting’ for the brand. Much like the Kentucky Fried Chicken to KFC conversion, the more “lean” moniker of KFC removed the unhealthy psychological implication of the word “Fried,” which evoked an unhealthy connotation during a time when healthy food choices were beginning to emerge as a dominant trend.

Ad Campaign

The JCP campaigns moved from core benefit, more utility-focused, ads of the past, to ones rich in emotions and off-core benefits. The campaigns, through a theatrical display of comedy, further underpin the “less-confusing-easier-to-understand” off-core psychological benefit JCP customers could potentially receive by shopping at JCP stores. To compare the old campaigns against the new, see the respective links below.

• Old Campaign - to watch click here

• New Campaign - to watch click here

New Logo Design

The new JCP logo draws from the spirit of America, baring a striking similarity to the elements of the American flag. Like a luxury brand that draws inspiration from its rich heritage, JCP’s new logo evokes 3 visual elements that reinforce the traditional idea of the consummate American retailer:

1. The red, white and blue color story - colors of the American flag.

2. The specific layout of the colors and the JCP name - mirrors the layout of the American flag.

3. The square shape - the square shape of the logo reinforces JCP’s new pricing mantra, “fair and square,” an American idiom which implies fairness and honesty.

In-store Shopping Experience

Like the new logo design, JCP’s new in-store shopping experience also draws from a traditional American shopping heritage. Instead of endless rows of racks filled with clothes, often haphazardly displayed, JCP will divide each store into individual brand boutiques called Main Street. This “Main Street” moniker is meant to draw from the traditional “main street Americana’ shopping experience where small towns would have a main road that would provide familiar stores and hangouts people could shop at and congregate around. This boutique tactic also evokes a more niche or curated shopping experience, ideals of which are consistent with a more luxurious or prestigious brand. Also, at the center of this boutique experience, JCP will have a service center entitled Town Square, whose specific services are still under-wraps. In addition to these drastic in-store changes, JCP is employing a few smaller visual adjustment such as the following:

• Wider aisles with less fixtures - evoking a more minimalist ‘gallery-esq’ space that showcases product.

• Changing theme & color story - each month JCP’s “value and savings” in-store themes will change. At the beginning of each month the JCP savings theme and color scheme will be revamped, providing a fresh aesthetic and a type of ‘cleansing’ from month to month.

These adjustments demonstrate JCP’s attention to sensory detail, which is undoubtedly a core tenet of a luxurious shopping experience.

Return Policy

Like many luxury brands, JCP is also putting enhanced customer service at the heart of their strategy; again, reinforcing their “less-confusing-easier-to-understand” brand ideal. With their new return policy, similar to Nordstrom and other competitors like Kohls, JCP will use what is being called a “happy return” policy. This new policy has no restrictions; it essentially removes the previous 90-day return clause that was once in effect. Instead, JCP now has an open and unlimited policy that disregards time limits or the need for receipts in a customer return. As David Woods, manager of J.C. Penney’s of Bradly Square Mall in Cleveland Ohio, states, “We’ll take back any item, anytime, anywhere […] [customers] can have the merchandise two or three years and they can bring it back with a receipt or without a receipt. If they don’t have a receipt, they’ll get it at the lowest price we sold it for in the last 30 days. If they have a receipt, they’ll get the price they paid for it.”

Hiring Masstige Gurus

When JCP hired retail veterans, Ron Johnson of Apple and Mark Francis of Target, to lead the JCP brand into the future, it was a clear sign that JCP was ready for drastic change. Johnson, former Chief of Stores for Apple, and Francis, former Chief of Marketing for Target, are well acquainted with the masstige approach, having been some of the first retail executives to bring elements of luxury to mass market business. Johnson, with the help of Steve Jobs’ vision, arguably re-invented the mass market consumer electronic shopping experience - putting minimalist design and customer service at the helm of the Apple in-store strategy. And in Francis’ case, he helped to popularize the trend in diffusion lines with high profile luxury brand collaborations. Much like when Gap hired fashion designer Patrick Robinson, of Armani and Anne Klein fame, to signify a change in aesthetic standards and design, I believe JCP, in addition to their experience and expertise, also hired Johnson and Francis, gurus of the masstige approach, to signfiy that a drastic shift was slated to come - albeit, a shift to masstige. While the Robinson and Gap connection didn’t pan out, it seemed like the initial announcement of the partnership began to alter the perception of Gap, and re-ignite some market interest in the flailing brand. Hopefully the placement of JCP’s new leaders will fare better in the brand’s long term strategy. With Johnson and Francis’ impressive track records, it would seem like JCP’s chances of success are better than average - but alas, only time will tell.

With all that said, the question still remains whether the successful articulation of all these “intangibles” will guarantee JCP’s overall success? In my opinion the answer to that question depends on two success factors:

1. How JCP defines success - my guess is it will still boil down to the “bottom line” sales, but as I mentioned earlier, I don’t believe they are expecting drastic results immediately. I think JCP is hoping that the new value-focused strategy will increase brand loyalty and equity over time, which, in turn, will increase, or stabilize, sales and revenue in the long run.

2. Customer Adoption - will JCP’s existing, and target, customer base buy into JCP’s re-branding efforts and reward the brand with the aforementioned increase in brand loyalty and equity over time? I believe the answer to this question also depends on how well customers understand JCP’s new masstige approach and whether those customers feel the new JCP shopping experience successfully addresses the off-core psychological needs they derive from shopping.

Whether JCP is successful or not, I think if they articulate even half of their masstige approach over the next 3 years, the results of their efforts should create some type of measurable effect on JCP’s overall market perception. However, whether the “effect” is positive or negative still depends on those two previous “success factors.”

posted by Kwasi Gyasi of MyUberLife

"Fashion is not frivolous. I am a businesswoman, a very serious person.”-Donatella..."

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 22:07:21 -0500

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Fashion is not frivolous. I am a businesswoman, a very serious person.”-Donatella Versace

“Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.”-Mark Twain

“Carelessness in dressing is moral suicide.”-Honoré de Balzac

“Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy, / But not express’d in fancy; rich, not gaudy; / For the apparel oft proclaims the (wo)man.”-William Shakespeare

“One should either be a work of art, or wear a work of art.”-Oscar Wilde

“Clothes can suggest, persuade, connote, insinuate, or indeed lie, and apply subtle pressure while their wearer is speaking frankly and straightforwardly of other matters.”-Anne Hollander

“I am a very serious person.-Tom Ford

”

- Don’t you see that fashion is a very serious business? Posted by Jey Van-Sharp of MyUberLife

The Socio-Economics of Cool

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 17:14:00 -0500

The Socio-Economics of Cool

Today I was awaken by a thought. My subconscious mind had brought me back from a place; a place where the judgments of people, my sense of self and the excitement of acceptance all collided within the confines of a five-floored building: My High School. Once again, being brought back to adult life from dream state, I, for a moment, had the ability to traverse my ego and access my memories of my ‘not-so-far-but-far-former’ teenage self. As I walked to the shower, recalling the details of said travel, and in an attempt to unravel the deeper meaning of my dream, I began to analyze what the underlying significance could be. What I extracted was a reoccurring and revolving theme that haunted my psyche and self esteem; since my [teenaged] years, this thematic state has been my prime subconscious concern: The Holding On To My Ephemeral State of ‘Coolness.’ The state of ‘cool’ has dominated my intuitive rational since my mid-90’s adolescence and since then I have sat in divine reverence to the Godly ‘cool.’ Today, I have decided to investigate my obsession: What is ‘cool,’ how is ‘cool’ relatively defined and exemplified in America and Europe, currently and historically? Why is ‘cool’ so revered? And what makes ‘cool’ such a valued socioeconomic cultural asset? I have decided to approach ‘cool’ from its metaphorical roots to its hyper-cool frost-bit branches.

In my attempt to explore the ‘cool,’ I began exploring its definition.

Etymology of Cool: According to the English Oxford Dictionary ‘cool’ is defined as calmness; composure, the quality of being fashionably attractive or impressive. In the American Merriam-Webster Dictionary cool is defined as a steady dispassionate calmness and self-control; marked by deliberate effrontery or lack of due respect or discretion. From the globally crowd-sourced Wikipedia, their English language interpretation of ‘cool’ is described as an admired aesthetic of attitude, behavior, comportment, appearance and style, influenced by and a product of the Zeitgeist. The word Itutu, which translates as ‘mystic coolness,’ is one of three pillars of a religious philosophy created in the 15th century by Yoruba and Igbo civilizations of West Africa. ‘Cool’, or Itutu, contained meanings of conciliation and gentleness of character, of generosity and grace, and the ability to defuse fights and disputes. Itutu also was associated with physical beauty. In a Time Asia article “The Birth of Cool” authored by Hannah Beech, describes ‘cool’ in Asia as “a revolution in taste led by style gurus who are redefining Chinese craftsmanship in everything from architecture and film to clothing and cuisine” and as a modern aesthetic inspired both by a Ming-era minimalism and a strenuous attention to detail. The word cool from the Gola people of Liberia, defined it as the ability to be mentally calm or detached in an other-worldly Godly fashion from one’s circumstances; to be nonchalant in situations where emotionalism or eagerness would be natural and expected. Synthesising these global definitions, one can determine cool is in the range of calculated calmness to a contrived nonchalance.

This summation brought clarity to the present definition, but in order to understand the ‘cool,’ I had to analyze cool’s relative historical interpretations. My analysis focused on the American and European [Western] historical point of view(s).

The Early Modern Period Cool (15th century -17th century): During this period, the word sprezzatura, loosely interpreted as ‘Aristocratic cool,’ had existed in all of Europe in the 1400’s, particularly when relating to amorality, love or indulged illicit behind [closed] doors pleasures. Sprezzatura, was coined by Count Baldassare Castiglione, an Italian courtier, who described it as “a certain nonchalance, so as to conceal all art and make whatever one does or says appear to be without effort and almost without any thought about it.” Sprezzatura applied to both virtuous and vice-like activities. At the time, an ideal courtier had to keep the good favor of his King and Queen. In doing so, the courtier was to be skilled in various aggressive activities to the likes of weaponry and athleticism and while equally skilled in more graceful activities such as music and dancing. A master courtier had to display these graces with mastery, while making a conscious effort to hide the effort and time that went into learning them. A courtier’s sprezzatura made him seem to be fully at ease in court and be liken to someone who was “the total master of self, society’s rules, and even physical laws, and his sprezzatura created the affect that he was unable to err.” An example of sprezzatura is Leonardo da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa.” The sprezzatura of the Mona Lisa is seen in both her smile and the positioning of her hands and are intended to convey her grandeur, self-confidence and societal position. Through out the ages Mona’s ‘cool’ sprezzatura has not ‘thawed.’ Sprezzatura was synonymous with being cultured and being cool.

Modern Period Cool (18th century – Early 20th century): The modern period was significant in the evolution of the ‘cool.’ From the [Early Modern] period through the Victorian era and the end of the Gilded age (1901), the ‘cool’ was solely licensed to the aristocracy, nobility and bourgeoisie. The Gilded age introduced to a new class of people the opportunity to be ‘cool.’ The Gilded age was fueled by rapid American industrialization, and was the mother of the Second Industrial Revolution (1850), which brought with it the tools for shifting the existing aristocratic paradigm of the ‘cool.’ The Industrial revolution created a new segmentation in the class structure of both America and Europe. Rapid industrialization, enhanced by Laissez-faire capitalism, opportunities for upward social mobility, education, wealth creation, and a new [middle] class structure, developed a new definition to the ‘cool.’ The Industrial revolution met more of society’s physiological and survival needs, through [new] wealth creation; which, in-turn, allowed for a new class of people, newly educated, newly economically stable, to reexamine their self esteem in relation to society. Now that a formerly disenfranchised portion of society had their basic needs met, their was more time to contemplate and aspire to climb the social ladder to high society. The lower classes did not have had a use [or access] for the ‘cool’ prior to the Modern Period due to lack of capital. According to Abraham Maslow’s Theory of Human Motivation and Hierarchy of Human Needs; human beings who are economically disenfranchised are likely to be more concerned with physiological and survival needs. As these basic needs are met, they begin to concern themselves with the psychological needs and esteem of belonging to certain social group(s) and the validation from said societal groups. This social class reexamination demystified the aristocratic ruling class and their concepts of social power; the cool had begun to mutate, away from sprezzatura. A new class of people outside of aristocracy and the bourgeoisie had arrived.

The Modern period established a new paradigm of ‘cool’ that was forced and forged by these new classes of people; one such type was the avant-garde artist. The avant-gurade artists achieved prominence in the aftermath of the First World War, most notably the Dadaists. Dadasists such as Arthur Cravan and Marcel Duchamp, and similar groups of the time, approach to the ‘cool,’ was often self-consciously revolutionary. This self-consciousness often led to experiments with form, work and thought which birthed narratives of the rejection of tradition. Dadasists had “a determination to scandalize the bourgeoisie by mocking their culture, sexuality and political moderation.” Marsden Hartley, fellow Dadaists, included in his essay on “The Importance of Being ‘Dada’’:

“Dada smells of nothing, nothing, nothing.

It is like your hopes: nothing.

Like your paradise: nothing.

Like your idols: nothing.

Like your politicians: nothing.

Like your heroes: nothing.

Like your artists: nothing.

Like your religions: nothing.”

In the beginning of the 20th century, the term “avant-garde” became the label of the Dadaist movement (until the word “modernism” became favorable). Modernism [avant-garde] rejected the lingering certainty of Enlightenment Age thinking and the existence of a compassionate, all-powerful Creator God in favor of the abstract, unconventional, largely uncertain ethic brought on by modernity, initiated around the turn of century by rapidly changing technology and the horrific consequences of World War I. The avant-garde was societal challenge, a direct ‘yang’ to the ying of all the periods predating, attempting to rebuke and refute all pre-existing norms. The avant-garde psyche became the philosophy of those who embraced the ‘cool.’ Mr. Hartley and his ‘cool’ contemporaries proclaimed, “If I announce on this bright morning that I am a ‘Dada-ist’ it is not because I find the slightest need for, or importance in, a doctrine of any sort, it is only for the convenience of myself and a few others that I take up the issue of adherence. […] Art is then a matter of how one is to take life now, and not by any means a matter of how the Greeks or the Egyptians or any other race has shown it to be for their own needs and satisfaction. If art was necessary to them, it is unnecessary to us now, therefore it is free to express itself as it will.” These bohemian rebels against the then current normality and majority, tested the definition and the very personification of what the basis of ‘cool’ was by refuting and challenging establishment. For the first time, a class outside the bourgeoisie was viewed as powerful. Prior to this era, power was defined by the very same bourgeoisie, and their display of said power was the ‘cool.’ Now after this era, to be avant-garde in thinking was now ‘cool.’

During ‘The Great Depression’ (1929- early1940s), there was also a catalyst of a new term: The Lost Generation. The term Lost Generation was used to refer to the generation that came of age during World War I. The term was popularized by Ernest Hemingway who credited the phrase to Gertrude Stein. Stein, in telling Hemingway a story on this Lost Generation stated,”[Lost] is what you are. That’s what you all are…All of you young people who served in the war. You are a lost generation.” This generation included distinguished avant-garde artists such as F. Scott Fitzgerald, T. S. Eliot, John Dos Passos, Waldo Peirce, Alan Seeger, and Erich Maria Remarque. These artist propagated the messages of ‘cool’ through their various mediums which reached the eyes of millions of young people.

The writer Saint Simonian Olinde Rodrigues in his essay, “L’artiste, le savant et l’industriel,” (The artist, the scientist and the industrialist, 1825) contained the first recorded use of ‘avant-garde’ in its now-customary sense. Rodrigues called on artists to “serve as [the people’s] avant-garde.” This captivating Lost Generation of leftist-avant-guarde heroes became increasingly glorified; through the new forms of media (radio/TV), while at the same time, their personas were vilified by the right-traditional ruling classes. The vilification by these ruling classes, fueled the power of these ‘misfits’ because the very act of being ridiculed by the ruler, signaled the importance and the arrival of the movement. This ridicule was in itself the rallying call of the avant-garde movement. The avant-guarde became a new psychological device; a powerful mechanism to reexamine, if not overthrow, the existing status-quo. This seductive power, gravitas in its nature, was alluring to all the newly developing classes. The avant-garde became heroes and their newly founded power became the modern ‘cool.’

The Contemporary Period (1945-Present): Many of these glorified heroes participated in the second World War. The Second Great War brought the populations of Britain, Germany and France into direct contact with Americans and American culture. The war brought hundreds of thousands of ‘GIs’ whose relaxed, easy-going manner was seen, through new forms of media, by young people as the embodiment of liberation; and with them came Lucky Strikes cigarettes, nylons, swing and jazz—the American Cool. To be ‘cool’ or hip meant to go even further left of the avant-gardes; to be ‘hanging out,’ pursuing sexual liaisons, displaying the appropriate attitude of narcissistic self-absorption, and expressing a desire to escape the mental straitjacket of all ideological causes developed by the older right-traditional ruling classes. One of these groups further to the left were, Hipsters, described by Jack Kerouac in the 1940s as “rising and roaming America, bumming and hitchhiking everywhere [as] characters of a special spirituality.” In his essay “The White Negro,” Norman Mailer characterized hipsters as American existentialists, living a life surrounded by death — annihilated by atomic war or strangled by social conformity — and electing instead to “divorce [themselves] from society, to exist without roots, to set out on that uncharted journey into the rebellious imperatives of the self.” This ‘cool’ liberated temperament increasingly became mystified through their lack of due respect and their sense of intellectual rebellion. The term Hipster came about during the jazz age, when “hip” emerged as an adjective to describe aficionados of this growing rebellious scene. Although the adjective’s exact origins are disputed, some say it was a derivative of “hop,” a slang term for opium, while others believe it comes from the West African word “hipi,” meaning “to open one’s eyes” and see the injustices of the [bourgeoisie] oppressor. The word “Hip” eventually acquired the common English suffix -ster (as in gangster), and “hipster” entered the language. Jack Kerouac introduced a new phrase “Beat Generation” in 1948, generalizing from his social circle to characterize the underground, anti-conformist, cool ‘hipster’ youth gathering in New York at that time. The phrase came up in conversation with the novelist John Clellon Holmes who published an early ‘Beat Generation’ novel, Go (1952), along with a manifesto in The New York Times Magazine: “This Is the Beat Generation.” The adjective “beat” was introduced to the group by Herbert Huncke, though Kerouac expanded the meaning of the term. “Beat” came from underworld slang—the world of hustlers, drug addicts and petty thieves, where Ginsberg and Kerouac sought inspiration. “Beat” was slang for “beaten down” or down-trodden, but to Kerouac and Clement Greenberg, it also had a spiritual connotation as in ‘beatitude.’ Kerouac felt he had identified (and was the embodiment of) a new trend analogous to the influential ‘cool’ Lost Generation of World War I.

In “Aftermath: The Philosophy of the Beat Generation” Kerouac wrote:

“The Beat Generation, that was a vision that we had, John Clellon Holmes and I, and Allen Ginsberg in an even wilder way, in the late Forties, of a generation of crazy, illuminated hipsters suddenly rising and roaming America, serious, bumming and hitchhiking everywhere, ragged, beatific, beautiful in an ugly graceful new way—a vision gleaned from the way we had heard the word “beat” spoken on street corners on Times Square and in the Village, in other cities in the downtown city night of postwar America—beat, meaning down and out but full of intense conviction. We’d even heard old 1910 ‘Daddy Hipsters’ of the streets speak the word that way, with a melancholy sneer. It never meant juvenile delinquents, it meant characters of a special spirituality who didn’t gang up but were solitary Bartlebies staring out the dead wall window of our civilization[…] “It is because I am Beat, that is, I believe in beatitude and that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son to it… Who knows, but that the universe is not one vast sea of compassion actually, the veritable holy honey, beneath all this show of personality and cruelty?”

From the late 1940s onward, this brand of ‘cool,’ through the adoption of these beatitude philosophies and clothes (The Beat generation and Hipsters all wore suits or black jeans with ankle boots and checkered shirts) became the popular culture that influenced young people all over the world, to the great dismay of the ‘paternalistic elites who still ruled the official culture.’ The French ruling intelligentsia were outraged, the British educated classes displayed a haughty indifference that was a hint of [Sprezzatura] the older aristocratic cool; The Old World temperaments were looked as being ‘square’ and ‘un-cool.’

During the Modernist to the Contemporary periods, the definitive statements from the avant-garde of the early 20th century and the post-World War I ‘Beat-Hispters’ were to become central themes of the vanguard generations to come. The avant-garde had been opposed to ‘high’ culture and the ‘Beat-Hispters’ rejected the artificially synthesized mass ‘mainstream’ culture that had been produced through [ironically] industrialization. In the essay Avant-Garde and Kitsch by New York art critic Clement Greenberg, Greenberg used the German word, kitsch, to describe the antithesis of avant-garde culture; mass culture was indicative of a bogus culture which was constantly being manufactured by a newly emerged culture industry (comprising of commercial publishing houses, the movie industry, the record industry, the electronic media). Greenberg referred to these forms as kitsch to emphasize their attempts to appear ‘cool’ and authentic by stealing ideas from vanguard culture. Greenberg felt each of these mediums were a direct product of Capitalism—substantial industries—and as such, they were driven by the same profit-fixated motives of other sectors of manufacturing, not the ideals of true art and vanguard culture. For instance, during the 1930s, according to Greenberg, the advertising industry took visual mannerisms from [avan-garde] surrealism, which attempted to co-opt the ‘cool’ style of the vanguard but lacked the vanguard substance. One attempt of such a co-option was the Beatnik. The Beatnik was a media stereotype of the 1950s and early 1960s that displayed the more superficial aspects of the Beat Generation. The Beatnik stereo referenced the Beat Generation literary movement of the 1950s with violent film images, along with a cartoonish depiction of the Beat as in Jack Kerouac’s autobiographical fiction. The selling of ‘cool’ became increasingly big business and caused Kerouac to speak out against this detour from his original concept.

Greenberg pointed out that the rise of this pseudo-vanguard industry meant that artistic excellence was displaced by sales figures as a measure of worth. A novel, for example, was judged meritorious solely on whether it was a best-seller, and music succumbed to ratings charts and the blunt commercial logic of the Gold disc. In this way, the autonomous artistic merit, so dear to the vanguardist, was abandoned and sales increasingly became the measure and justification, of everything. Consumer culture now began to challenge the vanguard culture and the battle between authenticity and kitsch co-option of ‘cool’ ensued.

The New York critic, Harold Rosenberg, in the late 1960s, trying to strike a balance between the insights of Renato Poggioli and the claims of Clement Greenberg, suggested that from the mid-1960s onward, progressive [vanguard] culture ceased to fulfill its former adversarial role. Since then, progressive [vanguard] culture has been flanked by what Greenberg called “avant-garde ghosts” to the one side, and a changing mass culture on the other; both of which it interacts with to varying degrees. These varying degrees have seen vanguard culture become, in his words, “a profession one of whose aspects is the pretense of overthrowing it;” in other words, pretense of ‘cool.’

Many social theorist and economist have suggested that this was a sign that ‘cool’ culture has entered a new period, a new post-modern age, when the former modernist ways of thinking and behaving have been rendered redundant. ‘Cool’ had now become the central ideology of consumer capitalism.

The Post-Modern Period Cool (1960’s-Present): In order to understand Post Modern Cool, one must understand Postmodernist ideas. Postmodernist ideas as a philosophy, analyzes the context and relationship of culture, society and power. This analysis drives social consciousness which moves the paradigm and expands the concept of ‘cool.’ Postmodernist ideas—re-evaluated the entire Western value system (love, marriage, the relationship of traditional and avant-garde culture, the shift from industrial to service economy) that took place since the 1950s and 1960s, with a peak in the Social Revolution of 1968. These ideas became a point of departure for works of literature, architecture, and design, as well as the new themes in [marketing] business and the academic interpretation of history, law and culture.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary Post Modernism is defined as: “a style and concept in the arts characterized by distrust of theories and ideologies and by the drawing of attention to conventions.” The American Heritage Dictionary defines it as: “Of or relating to art, architecture, or literature that reacts against earlier modernist principles, as by reintroducing [reappropriating] traditional or classical elements of style or by carrying modernist styles or practices to absurd extremes. Understanding the concepts of post modern thinking is important in understanding many, if not all, aspects of the current day interpretations of ‘cool.’

Postmodernism, as a philosophical movement, evolved in reaction to [avant-garde] modernism and the tendency in contemporary culture to accept only objective truth. Postmodernist thought was an intentional departure from the previously dominant modernist approaches. The term “postmodernism” comes from its critique of the “modernist” scientific mentality of objectivity and the progress associated with the Enlightenment. Postmodernism postulates that many, if not all, apparent realities are only social constructs and are therefore subject to change. It emphasizes the role of language, power relations, and motivations in the formation of ideas and beliefs. In particular, it attacks the use of sharp binary classifications such as male versus female, straight versus gay, white versus black, and imperial versus colonial; it holds realities to be plural and relative, and to be dependent on who the interested parties are and the nature of these interests. Postmodernist claim that there is no absolute [objective] truth and that the way people perceive the world is [subjective]. This applied to the previous periods and their rivalry for cultural dominance. A postmodernist discredits both traditional [bourgeoisie] culture and counter [vanguard] culture. Postmodernism and its complete disregard for any set of rules, irregardless of ‘left vs right rhetoric, has a profound impact on the culture of ‘cool.’

Postmodernism, particularly as an academic movement, can be understood as a reaction to modernism in the Humanities. Modernism and postmodernism are understood as cultural stances or sets of perspectives. Modernism is primarily concerned with principles such as identity, unity, authority, and certainty; whereas, postmodernism is often associated with difference, plurality, textuality, and skepticism. Post modern thinking is skeptical to all truth claims, and rejects not only classic culture, but even aspects of the former ‘cool’ modern and contemporary cultural constructs; the rejection of one narrative, making post-modern cool fragmented.

The Post Modernist philosopher and critic Jean Baudrillard in the book Simulacra and Simulation. In Simulation and Simulacra, Baudrillard introduced the concept that reality or the principle of the “real” is short-circuited by the interchangeability of signs in an era whose communicative and semantic acts are dominated by electronic media and digital technologies. Baudrillard proposed the notion that, in such a state, where subjects are detached from the outcomes of events (political, literary, artistic, personal or otherwise), events no longer hold any particular sway on the subject nor have any identifiable context; they, therefore, have the effect of producing widespread indifference, detachment and passivity in industrialized populations. He claimed that a constant stream of appearances and references without any direct consequences to viewers or readers could eventually render the division between appearance and object indiscernible; resulting, in the “disappearance” of mankind in what is, in effect, a virtual or holographic state, composed only of appearances. This thinking has made ‘cool’ less of a moral issue and more as a mechanism of living. Baudrillard claimed that people often confuse reality with cinema in such cases, for example, as with the sound of gun fire, where the sound of a fired pistol on a screen is interpreted as real versus the sound in real life being interrupted as fire works. Another case of this confusion, or misappropriation, are where people reference cinematic blood as the way blood ‘should look’ irrespective of the ‘real thing.’ Baudrillard refers to this reinterpretation as the Hyper Real.

Baudrillard makes four points on Hyper Real: (1) basic reflection of reality, (2) perversion of reality; (3) pretence of reality (where there is no model); and (4) simulacrum [hyper real], which “bears no relation to any reality whatsoever.”

One present day example is the Mohawk: (1) Mohawk is the most easterly tribe of the Iroquois confederation. (2) Most people believe that the Mohawks, like some indigenous tribes in the Great Lakes region, sometimes wore a hair style in which all their hair was cut off except for a narrow strip down the middle of the scalp from the forehead to the nape, that was approximately three finger widths across. However, this is not correct and the idea that Mohawks had “Mohawk hairstyles” came from Hollywood, and more specifically, “Drums Along the Mohawk” (3) Punk kids wore unconventional spiked [Mohawk] hair styles as a signifier to the world of their allegiance to rebellious (avant-garde movement). This hair style was frowned upon by the modern day bourgeoisie (corporate types). (4) Today [post modern] the Mohawk and its cousin, Fohawk, are adopted by mainstream society in a reductive manner as accepted form of dress, bearing no psychological correlation to the rebellious and counter culture of the 3 stages past.

Another example of [Post Contemporary] nihilism was Andy Warhol’s approach to art. Warhol developed a media-oriented, mechanical strategy that was consistent with the strategy of the system, but the production of his art, through his silk-screening process, enabled him to produce art faster than the system itself. Warhol did not dispute the established system of making art, but pushed his art to the point of absurdity, by overdoing its transparency. Baudrillard stated the problem with the Avant-Garde movement was: “Abstract Expressionism was still a kind of avant-garde. Avant-gardes are subversive, and abstract Expressionism was still a form of gestural subversion of painting and representation. Subversion refers to an attempt to transform the established social order, its structures of power, authority, and hierarchy. After that [period], we’re no longer talking about the avant-garde. It’s still possible to come up with something new, but this is merely ‘posthumous representation.’ It’s beyond the destruction of representation. What’s more, this creates a very confused world, because all forms are possible. In this sense it may be true that beyond the avant-garde you simply have kitsch. Pop is kitsch… In the early days of Pop there was still an ironical, critical dimension.” Andy Warhol redefined this [critique] paradigm of what was considered vanguard culture by going further left than the critical avant-garde and blurring lines of logic to the point of absurdity, taking with him the concept of what it meant to be in the vanguard of [cool] culture. For Andy, examining culture and portraying it to the point of absurdity without any special moral context or explicit critique in any form was ‘cool,’ critically countering culture was not. This approach of absurd transparency became the prime example of Post-Modern nihilistic hyper ‘cool.’

Why is hyper real important to ‘cool’ today?

Some sociologist make reference to this hyper real in context to a new post modern cool; the hyper cool. One such example is the current day ‘hipster phenomenon.’ (1) Hipsters were introduced during the 1940’s during the Contemporary Period (2) Hipsters [Beats] were portrayed through mainstream media as Beatniks. (3) Cool kids of the today’s Post Modern Period start to re-appropriate past periods of vanguard culture and hyper fuse it into a set aesthetic. (4) This reductive set aesthetic, adopts the name Hipster, with no present day correlation to (1). Christian Lorentzen of Time Out New York wrote that “these Hipsters and their aesthetics are assimilated—cannibalized—into a repertoire of meaninglessness, from which the hipster can construct an identity in the manner of a collage, or a shuffled playlist as on an iPod.” He argued that “hipsterism fetishizes the authentic elements of all of the fringe movements of the postwar era—Beat [Contemporary hipsters], hippie, punk, even grunge, and draws on the cultural stores of every un-melted ethnicity and gay style, and then regurgitates it with a winking in authenticity.” The July 2009 Time article states that everything about current day hipsters is exactingly constructed to give off the vibe that they just don’t care.” The critique of ‘hipsterdom’ and its ‘hyper cool,’ is that hipsterdom is 100% desperate, contrived, overly eager, cool which is constructed only on the basis of cool clothes that are viewed as “superior.” The article states that Hipster knowledge compensates for economic immobility in today’s economic environment through the re-adoption of powerful historic symbology as a matter of survival. Norman Mailer explained, within a Social Darwinian context, that “Hip is the sophistication of the wise primitive in a giant jungle.” Mailer was referring to the ability for one to appear as one wished to seem, which was to appear powerful, upwardly mobile despite depressed economic realities. The history of ‘cool’ is so rich with visual symbols; and now, as opposed to before, one has the ability to access, at will, the historical examples of ‘cool’ through new [Internet] media and apply it to ones life within a nihilistic, post modern context, irregardless of the prior period’s visual context. This hyper discovery allows for quick adoption of ‘cool’ as a means to social [economic] survival.

Connection of Hipster Cool to Capital? Why The Obsession With Cool?

Mark Greif, an assistant professor at the New School, puts the term “hipster” into a socioeconomic framework rooted in the petty bourgeois tendencies of a youth generation unsure of their future social status. The cultural trend is indicative of a social structure with heightened economic anxiety and lessened class mobility due to economic contraction. Greif, a founder of n+1 in a New York Times editorial, states that “hipster” is often used by youth from disparate economic backgrounds to jockey for social position and economic survival.

Rob Horning developed a critique of hipsterism in his April 2009 article “The Death of the Hipster” in PopMatters, exploring several possible definitions for the hipster. He declares that a hipster might be the “embodiment of postmodernism as a spent force, revealing what happens when pastiche and irony exhaust themselves as aesthetics,” or might be “a kind of permanent cultural middleman in hyper-mediated late capitalism, selling out alternative sources of social power developed by outsider groups.’ These cultural middleman are identified by marketing companies who use theories like Malcom Gladwell’s Tipping Point as justification to target these proprietors of cool, making a correlation to their ability to influence mass society. It is important to note, that in former periods of the ‘cool,’ the approach to act as brokers of ‘trend-to-mass’ culture was a cool ‘no-no’ as compared to [post modern] today where the opposite is implicitly understood. These proprietors of cool are now hunted, and incentivized with social or fiscal capital by companies who ask select members of the ‘hyper-cool’ to become ambassadors and conduits of branded ideas, products, and services.

The marketing gurus Zeynep Arsel and Craig Thompson argue that in order to segment and co-opt the indie marketplace, mass media and marketers have engaged in commercial “mythmaking” and contributed to the formation of the contemporary discourse about hipsters. Their argument is that the contemporary depiction of hipsters is generated through mass media narratives with different commercial and ideological interests much like the Beatniks of the Beat [Contemporary Period] Generation. In other words, hipster is less of an objective category, and more of a culturally and ideologically-shaped mass-mediated modern mythology that appropriates indie consumption and eventually turns it into a form of stigma. Arsel and Thompson interviewed participants of the indie culture (DJs, designers, writers) to better understand how they feel about being labeled as a Hipster. Arsel and Thompson’s findings demonstrate three strategies for dissociation from the hipster stereotype: Aesthetic discrimination, symbolic demarcation, and proclaiming sovereignty. These strategies, empowered by one’s status in the indie field (or their cultural capital), enable these individuals to defend their field-dependent cultural investments and tastes from devaluing hipster mythology. Arsel and Thompson explain why certain people of the indie field or vanguard culture who ostensibly fit the hipster stereotype profusely deny being one: identifying with hipster mythology devalues their tastes and interests and thus they have to socially distinguish themselves from the cultural Hipster category. To succeed in this hipster denial, while looking, acting, and consuming like one, these vanguard indie-credible-individuals de-mythologize their existing consumption practices by engaging in rhetoric and practices that symbolically differentiate their actions from the hipster stigma.

Corporations and Cool.

In today’s Post Contemporary world, cool is often assigned economic value as a means of displaying a corporation’s cultural relevancy. Corporate cultural relevancy implicitly states to the people (marketplace), that the corporation identifies with the current version of cool. The incentive for corporations to co-opt cool, is to implicitly signal to a desired audience that they identify with the audience’s value system and their particular idea of cool. This type of calculation is typically made because of the realities of age and human mortality; for example in 1960, a Coca Cola drinker who was age 20 would now be 72 and may not be a Coke drinker anymore? This reality of age forces the corporation to refresh and refill their customer base from the older patrons to a younger audience, who each have different versions of cool. Many marketers argue that younger audiences are active consumers. Marketers sell to the younger audience’s specific interpretation of cool in order to gain their attention, years of customer loyalty and ensure, in theory, the economic survival of the marketer’s corporation. There has been a long history of corporations adopting (see Beatnik above), repacking and marketing cool to the mainstream for profit, making it harder to make a genuine distinction between the vanguard and the masses. Many cool purists say the way to distinguish the vanguard cool and everyone else is to determine if their version of cool has been assigned economic value or not.

Nihilism: Other sociologists make the argument that this proposed and obvious contrived cool, which differs from former interpretations of the demurred historical periods of cool, is a form of nihilism and not only a powerful device, but a necessary one for innovation and economic survival today. Some say this form of obvious deconstruction will take us away from the confines of history and approach completely, although seemingly insane, out-the-box approaches to discovery and that these antics are just a momentary case of generational flux. Jean Baudrillard and others have called postmodernity a nihilistic epoch where the hyper real pulls the subject out of history without the realization that they have engaged in co-opting a part history. In other words, the subject has no incentive to use history within a historical context because the subject’s only concern is to be perceived a certain way by members of their [online and real world] surrounding environments. Currently, nihilistic approaches are ‘cool,’ and if not, are at least being considered cool. One example of nihilism is Rapper Tyler the Creator of OFWGKTA, due to his lyrical style of content, which have garnished both main stream and indie accolades. OFWGKTA [Post Modern Nihilism] approach is to completely ignore, as much as legally possible, any sense of [Pre Modern] ethics which is influencing the current paradigm of ‘cool.’

A Cool Conclusion: Going through a hundred years of culture, I discovered many answers to What makes cool such a valued socioeconomic cultural asset? Going through all the historical references, the underlining theme that emerged is that the ‘coolification’ of a culture always was a rebuttal to the ‘conditions’ of a subjective time, whether to fight an oppressive status quo or to ensure personal economic survival. The cumulative societal view on spirituality, philosophy, sociology, socioecomonics, economics and business in relation to one’s existence shape societies’ definition and representation of ‘cool.’ Cool seemed to be used to create distinction between chaos and order; between those who have figured out life enough to manipulate social and economic outcomes versus those who have not. Cool seemed to be a signifier of power within a civilized world and with it comes influence, admiration, and opportunity; the opportunity to secure valuable social and fiscal positions, making cool a cultural asset. It seems, as long as society has conflict, the cool, subjective in syntax, will always be revered even as the definitions and connotations vary. As we move to the future, the ‘cool’ phenomena and people’s intuitive understanding of it’s benefits, will further be enhanced and fragmented as we further develop technology. With these developments and economic need, comes rapidly increasing complex and competitive social/societal structures, calling for ‘cool’ to be the measure. With all the schools of thought on cool, I conclude that cool will continue to be a symbol of a kind of god-like power; a barometer of order in a world of chaos, granting the beholder and the beholdee the emotional reward of escapism, hope, faith and the comfort of purpose. Economically what is unique to cool, whether in definition or connotation, is that cool will continue to be used as an expression of admiration or approval, measuring clout and power to differentiate and identify these god-like individuals in our complex global society where attention leads to financial and social gaines.

As we see, the ‘cool’ now has both the associations of old world aristocratic composure and self-control, mixed, unevenly, with the necessary youthful anarchism used to deviate from traditional forms and navigate a hyper-real dynamic multi media-ed world to new innovations and economic prosperity. The cool will be our compass. I ponder if the etymology of cool will evolve in definition as the realities of living in a healthy sustainable environment becomes more of an issue? Seems the biggest issues today is human economic preservation along with planetary sustainability? I know for sure being alive is COOL and the ability to do what you love is even cooler.

-fin-

posted by Jey Van-Sharp of MyUberLife and feel free to share your thoughts.

special thanks to Wikipedia, countless magazines, James Boobar, and many long talks with friends on this topic (over & under drinks)… xo

Fashion and Copyright Law: Brilliant...

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 00:26:00 -0500

Fashion and Copyright Law:

Brilliant Ted Talk by Johanna Blakley, deputy director of the Norman Lear Center, on a hot topic at the moment in lieu of SOPA & PIPA PROPOSED PRIVACY BILLS: Copyright law. Ms. Blakley discusses the pros and cons of copyright, trademarks and intellectual property law. She makes a compelling case how fashion benefits in both innovation and sales from copyright infringement. In addition she sites how all creative industries can learn from fashion’s free culture of ‘stealing ideas.’ Quite compelling subject matter.

Do you agree? Please feel free to share your thoughts, posted by Jey Van-Sharp of MyUberLife

"What I do with Hermès menswear is luxury by the old definition […] And that luxury is..."

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 18:25:00 -0500

“What I do with Hermès menswear is luxury by the old definition […] And that luxury is actually about time – which is what is needed to give scope to the attention to detail in an object – and the appreciation of particular values. It’s the companies that are seen to support clear values that people are paying more and more attention to now.”

- God is in the details by Artistic Director of the Hermès Men’s Universe, Véronique Nichanian | posted by Jey Van-Sharp of MyUberLife

"When I can no longer create anything, I’ll be done for.” “I was the one who changed, it..."

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 15:39:00 -0500

“

When I can no longer create anything, I’ll be done for.”

“I was the one who changed, it wasn’t fashion. I was the one who was in fashion.”

“A fashion that does not reach the streets is not a fashion.”

“A style does not go out of style as long as it adapts itself to its period. When there is an incompatibility between the style and a certain state of mind, it is never the style that triumphs.”

“I love luxury. And luxury lies not in richness and innateness but in the absence of vulgarity. Vulgarity is the ugliest word in our language. I stay in the game to fight it.”

“Since everything is in our heads, we had better not lose them.

”

- May these wise words from the 20th century modernist thinker, Ms. Gabrielle Bonheur ”Coco“ Chanel, guide all of us on our creative journeys. Posted by Jey Van-Sharp of MyUberLife

“All our words are but crumbs that fall down from the...

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 14:25:00 -0500

“All our words are but crumbs that fall down from the feast of the mind.”-Khalil Gibran

These images, 73 Letterpress, are from Portland, Oregon-based designer and creative director Ian Coyle. Mr. Coyle in 2009 decided that he would print a daily thought for 73 days straight. Using his 1950’s letterpress, he printed and inked by hand these messages. We discovered these powerful images of encouragement. We dedicate these to you all. 2012 A.D.

Posted By Jey Van-Sharp of MyUberLife

Can Music Shops be saved?

Tue, 03 Jan 2012 15:34:00 -0500

In the past 13 years we have witnessed dynamic changes in all facets of the music industry due to the Internet and various advances in technology. The birth of Napster, iTunes, the shift from CD’s to mp3’s, and the increased volume of online shopping have all personified the music industry’s monumental shift from ‘old’ to ‘new.’ However, from production to retail, the question that still remains to be seen is whether these drastic changes have affected the music industry for better or for worse. The consumer might agree that the advances in music have been for the better, but with record labels scrabbling for new means of generating revenue, its likely labels feel like these “advances” have been for the worse. Regardless of the varying interpretations of the positive or negative effects of the changes to the music industry, I think both consumers and labels would agree that the 2 biggest shifts in the last 13 years were a result of Napster and iTunes. During the Napster Era, which occurred in the late 1990’s - early 2,000’s, there was an explosion in online music that was downloaded for free and shared amongst users at a high frequency. Then, from the early 2,000’s up until now, Apple’s iTune era took over, spurring many consumers to begin purchasing music online as either fragmented or whole bodies of work.

However, after the departure of Napster, a slew of other free music sites began popping up, picking up where the fallen Napster had left off and ultimately proving to music labels that piracy was more resilient than they had expected. It was no surprise that being able to obtain free music of ‘your favorite artist’ seemed wonderful from the perspective of the music consumer. But from the point of view of the major labels and the RIAA, free music meant the demise of their industry, as their revenues, previously in the upper hundreds of millions of dollars, was on the decline at an exceedingly rapid rate. They had to act - and act fast. With that said, the major record labels, the RIAA, and even some artists went on a blitzkrieg campaign to shut down users downloading free music, in addition to the sites that enabled the illegal downloading activities. In the years to follow, numerous litigation battles ensued and the labels and the RIAA were partially successful in shutting down music piracy. It would seem that the inception of Apple’s iTunes was the record labels’ answer, or, at the very least, remedy to online music piracy. Giving the consumer the option to buy various songs or whole albums of an artist seemed to stop the financial ‘bleeding’ caused by the piracy of music. Apple’s virtual ‘tourniquet’ appeared to help the music business get back on track - or at least it appeared that way? As we know, with all major battles, whether won or lost, there is collateral damage.

The free music / music piracy “business” and iTunes has had a trickle-down effect on the music industry as a whole; from the labels to the artist, all the way down to the high and low-end music retailers, all major stakeholders in the industry appeared to be affected. We have seen the large music stores like Virgin Mega Store, Tower Records, and F.Y.E. chains, down to the the smaller ‘mom & pop’ businesses like Daddy Junky Music out of New England, all close up shop in the aftermath of piracy. Even the once-giant record label, EMI, was put on the ‘chopping block’ to be bought. Internet innovations and music technology have changed rapidly, and, as a result, the argument can be made that the music industry didn’t adapt fast enough to remain financially solvent and ahead of the curve. It is widely understood today that people are not going into music stores and buying music like they use to. Why do so when you can go online, click a few buttons, and get your favorite classic-rock album in a few seconds without leaving your couch - why go through the hassle?

If hassle free music consumption is what customers want, is there a place for physical music stores - can they co-exist online amongst the music juggernauts? Can the virtual store and physical store both mutually exist? In the movie Social Network, Sean Parker, founder of Napster, played by Justine Timberlake, says to Mark Zuckerberg and Eduardo Saverin, “I won, I changed the music industry forever […] Let me see you buy a Tower Records.” This statement is a challenge to every music store across the world.

Upon investigation, I came to a few conclusions: A) Our world is not completely virtual as of yet. Humans like to be out in the physical environment involving themselves in numerous activities, and if this is true, then they should be a place for physical music stores. B) For the physical music stores to exist in this economic climate, the owners must evaluate and restructure their business models to the current times; the model of ‘just selling music’ will not keep their doors open for business. I believe music stores can save themselves by thinking creatively and innovating their business model. Below are a few innovative examples music store owners can apply to their businesses:

1) By creating joint ventures with up-and-coming / local indie artists, and transforming the physical store into ‘part store and part music venue’ for these artists to perform, receive exposure, and distribute their music for their grassroots following. This will transform the once ‘just music store’ into a ‘music gallery’ where music can be heard and seen.

2) Shifting music stores from their old business model to a new niche-market model where consumers / collectors / enthusiasts will purchase physical records based on their perceived value as art pieces. There is a market of people that admire the look, feel, and smell of a physical record as stated in this article (http://www.retrothing.com/2009/01/i-am-ancient-enough-to-remember-the-excitement-of-bringing-home-the-latest-depeche-mode-album-on-vinyl-once-the-disc-was.html). Over time, the records could be considered collector items. Placing a record store in this market may add an additional revenue stream, one that is separate from the regular music sales.

It is clear that the old music store model is just that, “old.” But that doesn’t mean that it cannot be saved. Above are 2 examples of what a record shop can do to add revenue and remain relevant in the digital era. By embracing local musicians and artist communities, a once flailing music store could transform itself into a thriving critical mass node and reclaim its once-important position in the greater cultural economy.

Posted by Winston Peters of MyUberLife

"A New Year: For last year’s words belong to last year’s language And next year’s..."

Fri, 30 Dec 2011 21:05:01 -0500

“A New Year: For last year’s words belong to last year’s language And next year’s words await another voice. And to make an end is to make a beginning. ”

- Happiness to all in 2012 from the T.S. Eliot

As we approach the rounding-out of another year, 2011, and we...

Wed, 28 Dec 2011 01:25:00 -0500

As we approach the rounding-out of another year, 2011, and we reflect on the ’many sights of wonder’ we have encountered this past year, we are filled with inspiration, hope and dedication for the year to come. A new year, 2012, will bring with it opportunity, obstacles and the ‘vesseled’ lessons from the year before; a new year allows us to use all the harnessed creative energies from the year before to aid us on our future creative and business endeavors.

One of the benefits of living in today’s world is the ability to constantly train one’s creative pallet through continuous edification, emotional growth, and an accumulation of multiple creative energies. Today, our world offers diverse mediums, where creativity is constantly shared online and at a ‘magazine subway-strap-hanger glance ‘offline,’ if one looks, one can find an abundance of inspiration all around.

In my attempt to live the words I write, I went through hundreds of editorial ‘tears’ from this past year to document in my scrap book, searching for reminders of 2011 inspirations. In the process, I came across the ‘Wired with Love’ editorial featuring model’s Nina Reijnders and Victoria Lipatova, who take on the role of bondage vixens for photographer Koray Parlak’s most recent work in Marie Claire Turkey. ’Wire with Love’ was outfitted by stylist Hakan Öztürk and makeup by artist Ali Riza Ozdemir, with hair by Ferit Belli. Together, all of the elements, from the leather whips, to lace veils, to photo framing technique and more; all make for a rich composition of sadist-meets-saint editorial narrative.

‘Wire with Love’ thematically exemplifies the notion that creativity, when explored in technique as well in philosophy, can create art. When juxtaposed on each other, the exploration of both light and dark subject matters, allows for beauty to emerge. ‘Wire with Love’ serves as a philosophical metaphor for this past year: no matter what life throws at us, we, if we seek to, can create beauty, even from the darkest of places. As, Marquis de Sade, French philosopher, where the word sadism is derived, once said, “Happiness lies neither in vice nor in virtue; but in the manner we appreciate the one and the other, and the choice we make pursuant to our individual organization.”

In May 2012, my wish for all of you is saintly resurrection in all your creative and business pursuits as well as moments of pleasure in your darkest hours. Posted by Jey Van-Sharp of MyUberLife

The Weekndxo | The ‘Shipping’ Philosophy? December...

Sat, 24 Dec 2011 00:11:00 -0500

The Weekndxo | The ‘Shipping’ Philosophy?

December 21, 2011 marked the third installment in a line of successful mixtape releases by the mysterious crooner, The Weeknd. The video above is from The Weeknd’s newest musical endeavor, Echoes of Silence, the third mixtape in a series of creative compilations that started with the House of Balloons in the first quarter of this year. Since that time, The Weeknd has undergone exponential growth in popularity with each successive musical work, generating tremendous buzz on various social media platforms and creating intensely creative work like the video for The Knowing, shot by director, Mikael Colombu, which sparked interest from the likes of industry titans such as Jay-z.

In today’s ‘noisy’ competitive music market we see that products and services that experience positive hyper growth, usually, are produced in frequent amounts, and within a short period of time. These ‘creative works’ must be produced in a timely fashion, and differentiate themselves from the rest of the competition to truly maximize their cultural and financial impact. And to stay competitive, these ‘creative works’ must also make use of ‘network effects’ by tapping into various distribution points like the Internet and its various social media platforms.

In the context of music, and with The Weeknd’s unique style of R&B and various uses of social media platforms, one could make the argument that he is well in-tune with the aforementioned components of hyper growth. But in addition to his high levels of creativity and his omnipresent distribution, I believe the frequency at which The Weeknd produces ‘creative works’ are also an essential factor to the hyper growth of his artistry. Seth Godin, in his book, Linchipin, describes this frequency in producing ‘creative works’ as ‘shipping.’ Mr. Godin believes this process is a vital part of a successful artist’s career. In other words, an artist needs ample amounts of ‘fuel’ to turn a small spark into a proverbial ‘conflagration’ within the market. With his third mixtape in under a year, it seems The Weeknd is proving to be a prime example of the effectiveness of this ‘shipping’ philosophy.

In addition to The Weeknd, other artist’s such as Lil’ Wayne, Rick Ross, and Rihanna have demonstrated the effectiveness of the ‘shipping’ philosophy in their rise to the top of the music industry. Lil’ Wayne, for instance, released a series of mixtapes and made numerous guest appearances on other artists’ records and albums before releasing his grand opus in 2008 — the Carter III —which garnered him a Grammy award for Best Hip Hop Album and a triple-platinum album status. Rick Ross, following a similar formula, guest appeared on numerous records for other artists, launched a plethora of albums, both collaborative and solo, and has been in association with hundreds of mixtapes featuring his creative work; all this, leading up to the 2010 release of Teflon Don, which appeared at number 2 on the Billboard 200, selling 176,000 copies in the first week of its release, and cementing Ross as one of the most popular hip hop artists of today. Likewise, Rihanna also likes to keep up the pace of ‘shipment,’ going so far as to develop a mobile studio to record and release new songs while she is on tour. Rihanna and her management understand that her 20 million albums sold worldwide, and overall mainstream success is due, in part, to the ability to continuously ‘ship’ new creative work. Rihanna and her manager, Jay Brown, know this concept very well; an ideal that was expressed by Mr. Brown in an article for the BBC (to read the article click here), where he states that, “The music industry routine of releasing a new album every three to four years is no longer viable […] Kids want new material all the time […] you become disposable when you put out an album every three years.”

While we can see that the ‘shipping’ philosophy can positively impact the growth and success of an artist today; specifically, what is it about the act of ‘shipping’ in today’s cultural environment that can help an artist, especially a musician, achieve hyper growth and success in today’s market?

Shipping to Gain & Maintain Mind Share:

In the last decade, the proliferation and growth of the Internet has proved to be a significantly disruptive phenomenon to the entertainment industry, especially in regards to music. Today, markets are cluttered and “noisy,” making it increasingly hard to make purchasing decisions; people are constantly bombarded with new choices in entertainment. As an artist, you must fight to occupy mindshare and maintain ‘top-of-mind’ presence within your target audience, or, in this case, existing and potential fan base. Again, as Rihanna’s manager stated, “you become disposable when you put out an album every three years.” Its seems in the case of the music industry, out of sight is really out of mind.

Shipping as Promotions:

Another disruptive effect of the Internet was the proliferation of ‘pirating’ entertainment content. This pirating of entertainment proved to be a crippling blow to the music industry and was largely responsible for the dramatic loss of the industry’s revenue. This drop in revenue resulted in the cutting of many budgets that were an integral part of the development and promotion of an artist. Budgets for album promotion and A&Rs began to shrink. And with these key elements to an album and artist’s success on the decline, it became essential for the post-pirating and Internet-age artist to ‘ship’ creative works as frequently as possible with the hopes of generating the kind of buzz that strong A&R and marketing support would have garnered them in the past.

Shipping as Development of Craft & Creativity:

The act of ‘shipping,’ in and of itself, can produce a favorable ‘externality’ which may have a positive cyclical effect on an artist achieving hyper growth in a short period of time. By continuously ‘shipping’ creative work, an artist is constantly engaged in their craft; which, through shear number of hours and time spent, could lead to an increase in the quality of the artist’s work. As Malcolm Gladwell states in his book, Outliers, in order to achieve mastery in a particular activity, one must exert at least 10,000 hours of work in that particular discipline.

In today’s culture I think we can agree that it is becoming increasingly hard for artists, as well as other products, services, and experiences to achieve mainstream exposure and success given today’s economic and market constraints. It is always interesting to see products, services, and experiences; or, in this case, artists, push through the ‘noise’ and ‘clutter’ to receive some semblance of mainstream attention. But while this is interesting to see, its even more important to note, that it takes more than just creativity and an Internet-sound distribution strategy to see hyper growth over a specific period time. From Lil Wayne to Rihanna, we see that it also takes continuous “fuel,” or rather, a continuous shipment of creative work to be released into the market.

posted by Kwasi Gyasi of MyUberLife xo

"A creative (wo)man is motivated by the desire to achieve, not by the desire to beat others."

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 23:59:00 -0500

““A creative (wo)man is motivated by the desire to achieve, not by the desire to beat others.””

- wise words from Russian-American novelist, philosopher, playwright, and screenwriter Ayn Rand. Ms. Rand is best known for her two best-selling novels The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged and for developing a philosophical system she called Objectivism. Posted by Jey Van-Sharp of MyUberLife

Music, Money & Managment

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 14:49:00 -0500

The importance of project management in the music industry to produce an album and the financial impacts.

Amongst many circles, it is widely accepted that humans beings are creatures of habit. Creatures of habit in work and in play. Human beings, everywhere they inhabit, create culture with positive and negative attributes. These positive and negative attributives make themselves known at work and within industry. Often, these negative and positive attributes manifest in the guise of popular accepted-trends regardless of there specific benefit. In cases of positive attributes, benefits such as a free-form-creative habit can add value to a business objective; and in the cases of negative attributes such as procrastination or the lack of urgency, a poor habit can demolish business value.

The music industry provides a frame of reference with examples of both widely accepted positive and negative business habits. The music industry, as a whole, has gone through many changes within the last decade. In the last 10 years we have seen the advent of the Internet, music pirating companies like Napster and devices like the Ipod, change the music industry drastically, adding new business and monetary constraints. These new constraints have exponentially made once widely accepted negative habits become unacceptable. With the introduction of these new constraints, it has never been as important and financially essential, as it is today, to proactively manage business efficiencies. Pro-activeness requires many businesses to bring into account, when managing efficiencies, the traits and habits of the human being within a business context, and consider their negative attributes relative to the business’ ‘bottom line.’Upon investigation of these imposing negative habits within a business context, one discovers that the biggest problem with human beings is that human beings are just human. To be ‘just human’ is to be affected, good and bad, by our biological genetics and cultural memetics; the inheritance of positive and negative attributes through our gene pool and our cultural environment that, within us, creates habitual behavior. In business, the attempt to override, or at least account for, relatively speaking, negative human tendencies is all but crucial. The ability to insert the rational ‘point of view’ is an important instrument in managing efficiencies, particularly in ultra-creative fields like the music industry. In the music industry, the ability to efficiently conceptualize, produce and distribute a creative idea to customers requires both free spirited creativity and a super structured personality. One of the specific causes of inefficiency in the business of music is album delays. Album delays can be attributed to the ‘creative space’ required by the artist to create musical magic; but one must understand that ‘creative space’ has to be payed for with hard currency.

The ‘creative space’ versus ‘structure’ scenario is an area for improvement and scrutiny, specifically, in the scheduling of album releases. In this area of ‘creative space’ without ‘structure’ one can correlate how this scenario can impact and create the infamous album ‘push back.’ We have seen this occur with the recent release of Drake’s album,Take Care, which was ‘pushed back’ approximately 2 - 3 weeks for ‘samples clearance’ of last minute song additions to the album. U2, Leona Lewis and Nicole Scherzinger are a few other ‘heavy weight’ artists that have experienced recent album delays.

So how can a label, through management, mitigate the delay of album releases? The improvement begins with asking obvious questions: Why can’t ‘heavy weight’ artists get there ‘product’ out to market on schedule? It isn’t like they are indie artists who do not have access to human and financial resources? Are we not in the technology age? Technically speaking, does the music label have to physically mail a song to a mastering engineer across the country? Again, to investigate these issues one has to look at the human being, their habitual behavior, their connection to the inefficiencies that create album delays, and the resultant financial implications.

The financial implications when an album is delayed is hard cost. When a budget of X amount is allotted for an 8 months period, and because of mismanagement, is ‘pushed’ to 10 months; the result is an addition of 2 months salary and studio time to the overall budget. When an album’s release date has to be ‘pushed back’ to a new release date, one invites the chance of a competing artist to gain preciously earned market share. Album delays can slow creative and market momentum; thus, it would behoove an artist that is considered ‘hot,’ at a particular moment, to release on schedule and ‘strike while the iron is hot.’ Yet another financial implication as a result of continued album delays is the pushing back of promotional tour dates, which, in turn, can create revenue loss due to venue cancellation. As one can see, the simple notion of ‘pushing back an album’ has financial domino effects. These examples demonstrate that the creative role is not the only asset in music making; an organized working relationship with a ‘structured typed‘ individual is also essential.

One such ‘structured type’ is the Project Manager. The general role of the Project Manager is to be organized and disciplined; to have the foresight to anticipate possible problems and to solve those problems when they occur. The Project Manager helps to produce deliverable(s) in a timely fashion while keeping the product at its maximum achievable quality. Simply put, a Project Manager helps achieve objectives while honoring the preconceived creative and financial constraints. In the music industry, the role of the Project Manager is essential in mitigating inefficiencies such as the album ‘push back.’ An artist, with the assistance of a project manger, can allow ‘themself’ the space to create without fear; knowing, with confidence, the manager will keep them on track. As Scott Belsky stated, Creativity x Organzation = Impact.

Addition:

Recently, we read an article on Young Guru, a music engineer who has worked with many famous artists like Jay-Z. In his Red Bull interview, Young Guru discusses the importance of his role as an engineer /project manager and the significance of ensuring his various projects are completed on schedule. He conveyed that his role is ‘To Solve Problems’ which made us smile, being that the project management role is an unglamorous position that is essential to project completion but is often overlooked by the creative world. At the end of the day, it’s about getting a quality product to consumers on schedule regardless of the complex components in recording, production, marketing or distribution. In an ever-changing and dynamic world, where the management of time can make or break a business or a musical career, one should consider the inclusion of that ‘structured’ personality type in the creative process: The Project Manager.

Posted by Winston Peters and Jey Van-Sharp of MyUberLife

Listen with your eyes! Re-Posted by Jey Van-Sharp of MyUberLife

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 12:11:53 -0500

Listen with your eyes! Re-Posted by Jey Van-Sharp of MyUberLife

BRANDING NONCHALANCE IN BASEL

Sat, 10 Dec 2011 17:48:00 -0500

This Art Basel Miami Beach 2011 (ABMB 11’) marked the 10th anniversary of the internationally renowned art fair. Each year, thousands of artists, gallerists, collectors, celebrities, and art enthusiasts flock to the beaches of Miami to indulge in some of the greatest creative works in the world. Complementary art fairs such as Nada, Scope, and Pulse have also become important fixtures of the 4 day event, providing additional outlets for Basel goers’ to feed their insatiable appetite for art.

Aside from the fairs, part of what has helped the ABMB experience grow into the behemoth that it now is, was a careful and consistent investment from brand sponsorship. Specifically, the kind of sponsorship that was willing to take a back-seat to the arts and buttress artistic efforts instead of overshadowing them with an aggressive marketing push strategy.

This type of brand sponsorship is not only important but impactful, as the ABMB experience has gone beyond just viewing and collecting art and become a kind of escapism for many Basel goers. As John Updike asserts, “what art offers is space - a certain breathing room for the spirit.” This need for “space” and “breathing room” has only intensified with the ever-growing economic uncertainty that looms over the US and Europe. Now more than ever, people seek opportunities to immerse themselves in an environment that is rich in ways to ‘escape,’ and give their spirits “breathing room” from some of the harsh realities of today’s economic climate. And the brands that employed a more nonchalant approach to branding during Basel subtly reinforced this ideal, careful not to destroy, but rather strengthen, the pleasurable ‘escaping’ experience derived from art indulgence.

Smart Car, Toyota, Spotify, and Bing, were among the more notable brands who were seen to have pulled off the branding efforts with casual grace, giving maximum consideration to the arts (you can read more about what these brands did in Miami Art Basel 2011 by clicking here). The brands’ nonchalant approach to branding in ABMB 11’ served to enhance the experience of Basel rather than detract from it. And like Smart Car, Spotify, and Bing, there were also a number of beverage brands that helped to strengthen and reinforce the sense of escapism during this year’s Basel festivities; brands who provided a subtle increase in the pleasure of taking in the art as well as ‘heal’ the effects of week long ‘stimulation.’ Some of those brands were Remy Martin, Kanon Vodka, Perrier, Belvedere Vodka, Macallans Single Malt, 1800 Coleccion Tequila, Cafe Bustelo, Zico, and Bombay Sapphire.

But why is reinforcing this sense of escapism so important and impactful for branding in ABMB? Part of the branding process is about consistently providing a source of pleasure or fulfillment; or, at the very least, aligning yourself with an experience that is perceived as being pleasurable by your target audience. You, as a brand, do not want to stand in the way of your audiences’ attempts at achieving their ideal of pleasure. A traditional push strategy of branding could be perceived as distracting in ABMB - especially if its not aligned with art. If the perception of pleasure in ABMB is escapism through art indulgence, then as a brand, you must reinforce or promote more of this escapism within the context of your brand’s core ethos.

ABMB 11’ was like any other touchpoint for a brand; the successful brands seemed to give careful consideration to the DNA of ABMB before interacting with their target audience. And as we know, consistent and pleasurable brand interactions can lead to an increase in brand equity and subsequently sales.

posted by Kwasi Gyasi of MyUberLife

"I’ve always been interested in the mix between creativity and business, and I think, at the end of..."

Wed, 07 Dec 2011 12:52:00 -0500

“I’ve always been interested in the mix between creativity and business, and I think, at the end of the day, you have to be convinced with what you are saying in your collections but you also have to meet the needs of your customers”

- Jonathan Saunders reiterating why creativity & business go hand-in-hand. Posted by Jey Van-Sharp of MyUberLife