Are Cool Brands Really Cool?

The results are in, and according to CoolBrands this year’s coolest brands are….

These results throw up a number of interesting questions, not least about the use of the word “cool”.

It would be interesting to ask students to name their 20 “coolest” brands and see how many appear on both lists!

The first thing that worries me about these results is the apparent lack of understanding of the word “brand”. The iPhone tops the list - but surely that’s a product, not a brand. Whilst there might be an argument for the iPod (in 4th place) being a brand, since it relates to a group of products, the appearance Apple in 3rd place really brings into question in my mind how reliable the data is - has there been some double-counting going on?

The second concern is who are the people who have come up with this list? The CoolBrands website states that the information has been gathered from both consumers and an expert council. But questions have to be asked about an organisation that calls itself “cool” when we all know what most teenagers today think of that word! So does this mean that the list has been compiled by asking older consumers?

Still, from a teaching point of view it’s useful for thinking about the reliability of market research, as well as “what makes a good brand?”. In addition, CoolBrands have produced a useful insight into some of the brands that appear on the list. It can be found here.