Malcolm Gladwell, “The Coolhunt” (HCC Reader, pp. 119-131)

 

  1. What is coolhunting? (p. 119)

 

  1. What is the role of the “world of the street” in coolhunting? (p. 120)

 

  1. Why did coolhunting make the job of sneaker designers and marketers harder rather than easier? (p. 120)

 

  1. Why can’t Malcolm Gladwell write an “encyclopedia of cool”? (p. 121)

 

  1. According to Malcolm Gladwell, how did Tommy Hilfiger become cool? (p. 121)

 

  1. What is diffusion research? What do hybrid seed corn and Hush Puppy shoes have in common? (p. 123-5)

 

  1. Why is cool something that companies and marketers can’t control? (p. 125)

 

  1. What are some of the different ways that cool hunters in the 1990s did research? (pp. 127-8)

 

  1. What are the three rules of cool? (p. 130)

 

  1. Malcolm Gladwell published his essay “The Coolhunt” in 1997. How do you think coolhunting has changed in the last 12 years?