Marco Pedroni Against coolhunting

Marco Pedroni

AGAIN(ST)

COOLHUNTINGAGAIN(ST)

COOLHUNTING

ModaCult | Università Cattolica di Milanoabout.me/marcopedroni

Marco Pedroni Again(st) CoolhuntingCTWF 2013 2

AGAIN

AGAINSTThe «eternal recurrence» of coolhunting(also known as trendwatching, trendspotting, cult searching and so on)

Does it exist as a profession?Is it useful?

Does it have dangerous consequences?

Marco Pedroni Again(st) CoolhuntingCTWF 2013

Definition

3

The term «coolhunting» indicates a research

approach that reached its height during the 1990s.

It broke traditional marketing schemes in its attempt to better understand the world of consumption through the researcher’s immersion in daily occurrences. Observations were marked with particular

frequency in certain parts of the population (mostly youth) with techniques in line with

anthropology and qualitative sociology, in which the quantitative approach of market

studies leaves in place an ethnographic observation driven by the researcher’s

‘intuition’.


That is, a shift occurred from the trickle-down model (from the social élite to the consumer masses) towards the other end, trickle-up, where youth, subcultures, and effervescent areas would produce, from the basics, style innovation that spread through to the highest social classes.

The coolhunter’s professional activity - researching emerging trends

through observation while out and about - was interpreted as signalling

the changing rules of how style and fashion is diseminated.

Definition/2


http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/cool/view/

A critical approach









Stereotypes of coolhunters

Hagiographic accountCoolhunter as young globetrotter with digital camera and «innate» curiosity

Apocalyptic accountCoolhunter as «legal stalker of youth culture» (N. Klein)

vs.


Aim of the research activity («hunt»): finding

But are trends and coolness

the same thing?

trends

coolness

Trends and coolness


direction of a curve(statistics)

performance over timeof a phenomenon

(economics)

general «feeling»(common sense)

BANK MORTGAGE

Trends

trend


IN FASHION

Line/cut/design

Shape

Colour

ENDOGENOUS TRENDS

trend

Trends


Miranda Priestly. Where are the belts for this dre- Why is no one ready? Lucia. Here. It's a tough call. They're so different. Hmm.

Miranda Priestly. Something funny? Andy Sachs. No. No, no. Nothing's- You know, it's just that both those belts look exactly the same to

me. Miranda Priestly. You know, I'm still learning about this stuff and, uh- "This... stuff"?

You think this has nothing to do with you. You go to your closet and you select. I don't know- that lumpy blue sweater, for instance because you're trying to tell the world that you take yourself

too seriously to care about what you put on your back. But what you don't know is that that sweater is not just blue.

It's not turquoise. It's not lapis. It's actually cerulean.

And you're also blithely unaware of the fact that in 2002, Oscar de la Renta did a collection of cerulean gowns.

And then I think it was Yves Saint Laurent wasn't it- who showed cerulean military jackets?

I think we need a jacket here. And then cerulean quickly showed up in the collections of eight different

designers. And then it, uh, filtered down through the department stores and then

trickled on down into some tragic Casual Corner and then trickled on down into some tragic Casual Corner where you, no doubt, fished it

out of some clearance bin. However, that blue represents millions of dollars and countless jobs and

it's sort of comical how you think that you've made a choice that exempts you from the fashion industry when, in fact you're wearing a sweater that was selected for you by the people in this room from a

pile of stuff. So then I said, "No, I couldn't see the difference between the two

absolutely identical belts" and you should have seen the look she gave me!


trend

Process of changeForecast of

something that is coming to light

Observable phenomenon

Trends: 3 main features


Mega trendsCultural, economical, political changes with effects on the whole society. Slow; lasting influence

E.g. Increasing power of women; environmentalism

FadsSuperficial changes in tastes without effects on the whole society (nor relation with it).Quick, ephemeralE.g. dominant colourof the season

Cool mentalitiesRecognisable through an analysis of non-superficial social behaviours

Intensity and duration of a trend

trend


Vejlgaard 2008

SIMPLICITY DECORATION

How fashion trends have changes over the XX century

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How trends spread

14


Coolnesswhat does it mean?

http://www.gladwell.com/1997/1997_03_17_a_cool.htm








The three rules of coolness

«The quicker the chase, the quicker the flight. The act of discovering what's cool is

what causes cool to move on, which explains the triumphant circularity of coolhunting»



«A company can intervene in the cool cycle. It can put its shoes on really cool celebrities and on fashion runways and on MTV. It can

accelerate the transition from the innovator to the early adopter and on to the early

majority. But it can't just manufacture cool out of thin air».



You have to be cool to know and recognize coolness. «Cool can only be observed by

those who are themselves cool»


coolness

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fresh(temperature)

calmcontrolled

excellentsuperla3ve

funin the know

cool music (jazz)

> coolness is a property of the people (not a feature of the

objects)

young subcultures

Coolness


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5z0Ia5jDt4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w70NOF5O3UQ&list=PLBFF9CD893BB8FB44

Coolness

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5z0Ia5jDt4


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w70NOF5O3UQ&list=PLBFF9CD893BB8FB44











Cool: Attractive and inspiringwith a future growth potential

(C. Rohde - Science of the Time)

Coolness


• The need of analyzing trends emerges in the 60s with the birth of the «prêt-à-porter»; industrial production of apparel begins to develop his own products, giving up the imitation of haure couture

• Paris loses his leadership in the fashion system: also Milan, London, New York, Tokyo etc. become relevant centres in the process of trends creation > MULTI-CENTERED FASHION SYSTEM

Historical overview/1



• The baby-boom generation and the role of young people and subcultures as protagonists of the style change the rule of trends circulation: from top-down to bottom-up

• Higher competition in the fashion industry: more competitors, expert consumers > To be more competitive, fashion producers need to know in advance the emergent trends > FASHION FORECASTING

• Diffusion of cahiers de tendances / trendbooks as source of inspiration for designers


• Coolhunting is an evolution of the fashion forecasting

• The focus is on SOCIO-CULTURAL TRENDS (exogenous trends)

• Keywords are not shape, cut, colours etc., but LIFESTYLE and MINDSTYLE > search for expressions of a cool mentality / cool way of life

• Focus: all the production and consumpion fields, not only fashion



Professional activity of observation and analysis of any expressive signal (noticeable in consumers’ behaviour) with the purpose of creating reports for commercial buyers who are looking for new ideas (in order to develop

new communication strategies or new products)

Brief ObservationData collection

Data analysis Report

BUYER+

RESEARCH AGENCY(OR COOLHUNTER

FREE-LANCE)

LOCAL OBSERVERS(COOLHUNTERS)

TREND ANALYSTS(RESEARCH AGENCY)

BUYER

The coolhunting process


Many examples of coolnees(picture+description+interpretation)

Mentality trend(empirically based tale

about an emerging mindstyle)

Value(how to use this information

for communication/product/retail strategies?)

Thousands pictures of bikes and cyclist in the urban environment

Urban tribes of cyclists

Which kind of products/stores better satisfy what these consumers need?


Fashion systemBureau de style, Trendbook editors, Designers, Stylists

Buyers etc.

Marke3ng research agenciesCoolhuntersCult searchersTrend analysts

Free-‐lancesAll the professionals whose work is

about observing: architects, sociologists, anthropologists, journalists, designers etc.

Who do the hunt?

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Science of the Time is a virtual network of market and trend researchers worldwide. We

distinguish ourselves in five ways:1. We are more academic than the rest. We have

solid links with several universities worldwide and therefore read all the relevant books. Or we

let PHD students research them for us.2. We are more empirical than the rest. Of

course, we surf the Net as all trend watchers, cool hunters and researchers do – and we love

it. But we cherish the REAL relationships we have with the best of our trend watchers and cool

hunters. We speak with them, train and educate them in our trends and methodologies..

Case histories

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http://www.scienceofthetime.com

http://www.scienceofthetime.com


Future Concept Lab Future Concept Lab is a research Institute that stands out on the international landscape as one of the most advanced research centres specialized in

marketing issues and trends in consumption. With extensive research activities in Europe, North America,

South America and Asia, Future Concept lab was born as a global project. It is headquartered in Milan, and in January

2011 opened a new office in São Paulo (Brazil). Future Concept Lab has correspondents in twenty-five countries

around the world, a reality present on a virtual platform: the Genius Loci Lab.

The goal of Future Concept Lab is to develop and share new concepts regarding products, communication and

distribution in order to enable clients to effectively deal with both the advanced and emerging markets, working in

terms of the key words of the future.The Institute carries out integrated research projects

based on specific methodologies that lead to the definition of sector-related scenarios, offers consultancy and training

services, publishes works that represent the Institute’s main activities, internationally and internally, like for

instance the most recent book Consum-Authors.

Case histories

29


http://trendwatching.com/tips/




Internet

Blogs

Social networks

Newspapers

Books and articlesMagazines

Databases

Define your keywords and explore:

Desk analysis


4P

People Places

Projects Thoughts(pensieri)

Social innovatorsTrendse0ers: young people, designers,ar3sts, riches, homosexuals, celebri3es, style-‐conscious subcultures (Vejlgaard 2008)Members of the crea6ve class (Florida 2002) with high level of cultural, social and economic capital

Where trendseRers meet each otherEvents, crea3ve areas, mul3ethnic

metropolis«Street»

Bars, restaurants, pubs, shops, storesMuseums, concerts, cultural and ar3s3c

events

Cultural signals in art, cinema, books, fashion, design etc.Cultural products and their field of diffusion

What happens where people produce ideas: universi3es, research centres, centres of crea3on and diffusion of art and culture

Areas or ci3es involved in projects of urban regenera3on

(Future Concept Lab 2007)

Field analysis

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What it Is: The Adidas Exclusive store I spotted in Stockholm, sells gear they sell nowhere else in the world. Exclusive Adidas exclusive for you. Also on show here the collection they designed together with Diesel. Including 10 ways to waste your time. When you buy these exclusive

shoes you’ll get an Adidas cd with it. And a hip lady will help you to get into your exclusive Adidas.

Why it's cool: So many trends cleverly combined together. Exclusivity for you. Exclusivity in the here and now. Brands joining their strength to give you an extra

intense experience. That’s how Adidas and Diesel do this.Science of the Time’s Interpretation: Here the cool

mentality trend ‘We Want it more Special’ meets cool mentality trend ‘The inevitable Rise of Experience

Economy’ (brand coalitions!) meets ‘Secrecy, please’ in that sense that only the Stockholm incrowd knows.

(Science of the Time)

descrip3on

why it’s interes3ng

interpreta3on

image

Writing a report

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Pedroni M. (2012), From Fashion Forecasting to Coolhunting: Prevision Models in Fashion and in Cultural Production, in Fashion Capital: Style Economies, Sites and Cultures, edited by J. Berry, IdNet, Oxford, pp. 112-129 (English)

Pedroni M. (2010), Coolhunting. Genesi di una pratica professionale eretica, F. Angeli, Milano (Italian)

http://marcopedroni.wordpress.com/coolhunting

Reading list/1




Future Concept Lab (2007) (a cura di), Real Fashion Trends. Il manuale del cool hunter, Scheiwiller, Milano.

Gibson W. (2004), L’accademia dei sogni, Milano, Mondadori; ed. orig. Pattern Recognition, Berkeley Publishing Group, New York 2003

Gladwell M. (1997), The Coolhunt, in «The New Yorker», March 17, www.gladwell.com/1997/1997_03_17_a_cool.htm

Vejlgaard H. (2008), Trend. Capire oggi ciò che farà tendenza domani, Etas, Milano; ed. orig. Anatomy of a Trend, McGraw-Hill, New York 2008.

Reading list/2






THANKS FOR YOUR ATTENTION

@marcopedroni

marco.pedroni @ unicatt.it

marcopedroni.wordpress.com

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

Marco Pedroni Against coolhunting

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