Ultimately, I sometimes think that “cool,” “cute,” and “fun” are the greatest motivators.
If I feel “cool” working, I will want to work, and if I feel “cool” living, I will try to improve my life. If an action itself feels “cool,” “cute,” and “fun,” it has staying power and the desire to improve.
This story is not limited to marketing. It can also be said for monotonous and mechanical tasks that must be done every day. When we thought about improving the operations of one of our clients, we realized that we were doing work that was too tedious. However, the work was both necessary and indispensable. I asked him, out of curiosity, why he could do such a monotonous and simple task on a daily basis. I asked. My guess is that I would get comments like, “Because it’s work,” “It can’t be helped,” or “This is how work is supposed to be done.” I expected to hear a resigned comment like, “It’s just work,” or “It can’t be helped,” or “It’s just the way work is.
He said it was simply because he felt the job was somehow “cool. Of course, he understands the importance of the job, but although he was aware of the importance of the job in the beginning, the feeling gradually faded away, and the reason he continues to do this job today is because he thinks it is “cool. I can’t tell you exactly what he does, but it seems to be one of the “cool” jobs in the company.
I was speechless at the surprise, but then I recalled that I had done something like that before: when I was a teenager, it was cool to open my mac at Starbucks and work on something, and it was cool to walk around in style without any purpose. In reality, I was just surfing the web on my mac and reading trivial articles, but it was cool and I was comfortable with the fact that I would be seen as such. I was reminded of that when I heard that my client’s monotonous work was cool.
Of course, this is not the same as showing it off to someone else. I think it is simply important that I think it is cool. It is not the same kind of thing as trying to get someone else to approve of the act. The act itself must resonate with the coolness within oneself, and be enjoyable regardless of what anyone else says. That is very important. You could say that we are obsessed with it.
But humans are creatures who want to be cool to begin with, and I think being honest about that feeling should make life meaningful. After all, human beings are animals that are meant to reproduce, and they prefer any action that leads to reproduction. Women prefer men who can work because they have a better chance of producing offspring, and men want to get ahead in their jobs in order to produce better offspring. Indirectly. In a sense, acting cool is an instinctive, normal, and natural human behavior.
It is my personal opinion that people who have forgotten how to act cool seem unmotivated in everything they do and seem to work without commitment. Furthermore, in my completely personal opinion, I believe that the reason why people who do not play it cool are no longer motivated to work and make efforts is that they no longer try to embody the “coolness” within themselves.
The act of being cool is something that all young people do. Young people are full of energy and zest for life. On the other hand, there are not many middle-aged people who play it cool, and those who don’t play it cool almost always don’t feel energetic about their work. (I am totally biased.) I think people can and should be more cool.
Here’s the thing about marketing. In considering a client’s marketing strategy, you may make suggestions about how to make the customer feel and act. You may make suggestions on how to make the customer feel and act. However, many marketers tend to limit themselves to simply appealing to the benefits of buying and the affordability of the product. However, they somehow understand that such appeals do not produce significant results.
I believe that one of the most important tasks of marketing is to make customers think how cool it is. No matter how right you appeal to the customer, how important it is, and what benefits it offers, if they don’t feel that the action is cool, they will not move or continue to do it. If you want to encourage people to do something, you have to talk about how cool the action is, or you have to add coolness to the action.
This is why marketers must fully understand the values and coolness of their customers. What do customers think is cool? Without pursuing this question, the job of marketing cannot be performed.