Today saw Costa Coffee grabbing headlines in the media for its research into the coolest things on the planet. Its findings produced the news that iPhone is ‘the ultimate in cool’ for this generation of consumers.
However, over recent weeks Apple has seen its stock fall, both on the stock market and also through negative press coverage for its latest models faults. So why then do consumers still see this as the coolest thing in the world? Furthermore, and maybe more importantly from a brands point of view, does this mean the battle for consumer sales should be fought on the cool or quality front?
Let’s investigate.
We know the above example well, it has been documented that the iPhone 4 has big failings, yet everyone is still clamouring to get hold of one. But why? Well it is not for the quality of the product (other devices have longer battery life and better coverage, amongst other things), so it must be for the street cred or ‘coolness’ the owner feels the product possesses. So then, can coolness keep a brand ahead of its competitors or will quality win through in the end?
To understand the future in the quality vs. cool battle let’s first look to the past, and more specifically to the early ‘noughties’, when Pepsi and Coca Cola were having another big marketing battle. Coca Cola had owned the major share of the UK market place but their rival, Pepsi, was about to launch into a huge drive to secure young, cool, trendy and cutting edge cola drinkers.
Cue millions of pounds spent on the very best in brand ambassadors, think Beckham, Beyonce, Jay Z and countless others. Think sponsorship of high profile music events, underground ‘trend setting events’ and quirky PR stunts. Indeed Pepsi seemed to have in the space of little over a year become relevant to its target audience and most importantly cool. Pepsi’s market share increased as Coca Cola lost ground and some industry individuals even thought this could be the toppling of the world’s most well known brand (in the UK market place at least), and maybe it would have been, but for one thing, and that thing? Quality.
For all Pepsi’s efforts to become cool, trendy, relevant and most importantly, take a financial bite out of its arch rivals, it came unstuck. Pepsi positioned its product perfectly, as the drink of the very coolest celebs and influencers, however it fell down on the product itself. Consumers bought in to the wave of marketing and PR but didn’t stick with the brand in the long term – marketing levels fell and with it the consumer sales returned to their previous levels.
Coca Cola lost the initial ‘cool war’ but overcame it with the quality of their product.
Similar things have happened over recent months and years with other brands (T-Mobile, Puma and Virgin Media), so it seems that whilst brands can reposition themselves as cool and trendy there still needs to be the vital element of quality for longevity.
So the lesson then. Coolness will come and go with brands as it always and inevitably does, but quality sets brands apart from their competitions. Whilst there will be times when brands have to sit back and watch others take the limelight, they should relax in the knowledge that quality will always win at the end of the day.
